Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games won’t appear on Xbox Game Pass until next year. Speaking on the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer claimed that players won’t see a significant drop in these games right away due to the long-term regulatory challenges the company faces in its acquisition attempts. With until recently it was uncertain whether the acquisition would be approved by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Xbox was unable to lay the groundwork for adding the catalog to its games subscription service.Before the deal was completed, Activision Blizzard comfirmed On Twitter, it was revealed that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and the new Diablo IV won’t be coming to Game Pass anytime soon, but Spencer’s announcement covers older games as well.
This is in sharp contrast to Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media. Just two days after the acquisition, 20 Bethesda back catalog games (including series of games such as “Distinction”, “DOOM”, “Dishonored”) flooded into Game Pass for members. Play for free. “Now that the deal is done, we get to work on it. But there’s still work,” Spencer said on the show. podcast, proving that Activision Blizzard’s tweet is “accurate” in terms of the 2024 schedule. He further assured that there would be no “secret celebrations” in the coming weeks, while acknowledging that fans had a right to be disappointed. However, this is a long-term acquisition that gives Xbox a lot of time to try to meet the growing needs of ordinary gamers, and to that end, Phil said he’s excited about the future.
The big picture in the room, of course, is “The Last Call.” Spencer reiterated in the same podcast that the series will remain 100% equitable across all platforms, including PlayStation, for 10 years. The acquisition shouldn’t result in other players missing out on exclusive content or opportunities, and the Blue Team took advantage of this, this time granting early access to the multiplayer beta and an exclusive operator called Lockpick. This bundle is only available to those who pre-order Modern Warfare 3 on PS4 and PS5 for one year, until November 9, 2024. Still, Spencer said there could be some changes in performance and resolution depending on the platform. The Xbox port of Baldur’s Gate 3 is an example of this, as developers were unable to add split-screen co-op on the lower-end Xbox Series S due to technical limitations. However, in-game content is expected to remain unchanged (at the time of writing).
“Our goal is not to try to get you to buy an Xbox console with Call of Duty,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think having a platform-exclusive test weekend is helpful to players. The regulatory process for the Activision Blizzard acquisition took more than a year, thanks to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission stepping in to express concerns that Microsoft’s $69 billion (roughly Rs. 57,452.8 crore) deal was anti-competitive and The company plans to make the duties exclusive to Xbox. In those court proceedings, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan also claimed that a group of video game publishers he had spoken to agreed that Xbox Game Pass was “value destructive.”
Svlook
