| GNG News COD | Published: July 23, 2023 |
The $69 billion Microsoft acquisition of the massive games publisher Activision Blizzard King was officially announced in January of 2022. It has now been over a year and half since the initial announcement and the deal still has not been completed, but it is now closer than ever to being finalized.
Microsoft's biggest hurdle, the FTC, fought against the deal from the beginning but has since lost its case against the deal in a Federal Court of Law meaning nothing stands in the way of the deal on American soil. In fact, over 40 countries have now given the deal the OK.
The remaining country giving the deal a hard time is the United Kingdom, specifically the CMA. But, since the FTC lost its court case in spectacular fashion, the CMA has opted to back down and re-negotiate a deal to allow the acquisition to go ahead. A result of this is expected in the coming weeks.
At this point it is a safe assumption that the deal will go through as planned for Xbox. So what does that mean for the Call of Duty franchise going forward?
It is reported that every Call of Duty title will be made available on Xbox's growing Game Pass subscription service where players pay a monthly fee and get access to a variety of games to download and play at their pleasure. The service currently offers all Xbox exclusive titles on day one. Games like Halo, Gears of War and Forza can be played as soon as they release for no extra cost other than a monthly sub.
It is unclear if Call of Duty games will release in a similar fashion day one. They could be kept away from the service for the first few months of their life-span in an attempt to boost sales of the game and then Game Pass monthly purchases later down the line. What we do know is that the older Call of Duty titles such as Black Ops II and Modern Warfare 2 will be available to download and play any time for players.
Due to certain delays with this deal and remaining exclusivity deals with PlayStation until 2024, it is unlikely that Xbox players will be able to access these titles until some time in 2025. That being said, it is reported that Microsoft hopes to get them onto the subscription platform before this. Other Activision Blizzard games like Diablo IV and Overwatch could join the service almost immediately after the deal closes.
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