Call Of Duty Is Not Going To Make Fans Happy With Announcement
Call of Duty fans have been excited about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (not a merger) because the proposed agreement would bring Call of Duty to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on day one. We don’t like being the bearer of bad news, but the Xbox-loving fans of the Call of Duty franchise will be sorely disappointed. According to ComicBook.com, Call of Duty probably won’t launch day one on the Xbox Game Pass until 2025 due to the prior deal Activision made with Sony.
It’s likely Call of Duty games won’t show up day one on the Xbox Game Pass until 2025.
This means that, even if the Microsoft × Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through, fans of the franchise shouldn’t expect to play any of the Call of Duty games that previously weren’t introduced to the subscription service. Furthermore, the upcoming 2024 entry mostly likely won’t drop to Xbox Game Pass on day one either due to the aforementioned deal Activision has with Sony for the PlayStation platform.
Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard King for nearly $70 billion stands to become the biggest acquisition in the gaming and tech industry…
However, it’s a high probability for all older Call of Duty games to hit Xbox Game Pass when Microsoft closes the deal with ABK, which is very exciting considering the sheer number of games in the franchise. Luckily, the vast majority of those titles can be played on the current Xbox gaming systems, including both the Series X|S and Xbox One, through each system’s backward compatibility.
The exception is the first Call of Duty, which has been excluded from the Xbox backward compatibility program—something that might be subject to change once the acquisition’s made.
After more than a year of legal hurdles, the US FTC lost its battle against Microsoft, after which the UK’s CMA paused its own fight against the acquisition to negotiate a deal.
Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard King for nearly $70 billion stands to become the biggest acquisition in the gaming and tech industry, which would also grant Microsoft ownership rights to Call of Duty, and every bit of intellectual property associated with the franchise.
So, it’s not a surprise why Sony and other competitors were as vocal against the acquisition as they were. However, after more than a year of legal hurdles, the US FTC lost its battle against Microsoft, after which the UK’s CMA paused its own fight against the acquisition to negotiate a deal.
Addressing the competition and the consumers’ concerns, Microsoft promised to keep Call of Duty on competitors’ platforms, including bringing CoD to Nintendo’s handheld—though it’s unclear which one.
With that said, even if the tech giant keeps its promise—and it’s financially incentivized to do so anyway—it will have a massive advantage over its competitors due to the nature of its subscription service and the arrival of first-party titles on day one. So, adding Call of Duty to the Xbox Game Pass will add a ton of value to the subscription service post-2025.
The most interesting thing about the entire acquisition is the fact that Call of Duty is just an added bonus to Microsoft’s original plan to use ABK to gain a bigger foothold in the mobile gaming market. Activision Blizzard King is the third biggest developer in the mobile gaming market, following Tencent and NetEase, so Microsoft stands to gain a significant share of the global gaming market.
