Phil Spencer has explained that Call of Duty won’t just instantly be added to Game Pass after Microsoft finishes acquiring Activision. However, there’s an interesting side to this that gamers may have forgotten.
As reported by IGN, this is what Phil Spencer said when asked about adding Call of Duty to Game Pass:
“I want to make sure people know that there’s work to actually move games to Game Pass. So, for the people who think the deal is going to close and then everything’s available, that’s not true. And it hasn’t been true in other acquisitions that we’ve done.
There’s work for us to go do, just mechanical work for us to go do. So, it’ll take us time, definitely time to get the games in the portfolio.”
So fans definitely need to put on the brakes on this hype train. While Call of Duty coming to Game Pass would be an inevitability, Phil explains that it isn’t just like Microsoft and Activision pressing a button.
And that does make sense. Activision hasn’t dabbled in cloud gaming yet, so Microsoft would need some time to put the work in to make that happen. Aside from that, Microsoft will also have to figure out how to incorporate Activision’s account systems to make that transition seamless. In particular, Call of Duty on Game Pass on PC would be different from Call of Duty games as they work on Steam, and on Activision’s own Battle.net servers.
But it seems like a lot of fans forgot that they were already told about this, in the course of Microsoft garnering regulator approval for the deal in the past two years. In particular, the CMA report revealed that Microsoft would have to wait out the end of Activision’s marketing deal with Sony for Call of Duty.
Now, we do know that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be the last game Activision will make under that deal with Sony. However, the CMA’s final report on their initial decision revealed that the marketing deal itself doesn’t end until at least 2025.
Now, the CMA decision itself is going through some changes, as the regulator has been forced to review their assessment. Microsoft is now going to add Ubisoft to the deal, as the contracted independent third party that will have freedom to license the cloud gaming rights for Call of Duty.
So, about those Call of Duty games on Game Pass? Microsoft will have to work out some deal with Ubisoft before they get that finalized, on top of the ‘mechanical work’ that will be required. It’s not that Xbox owners won’t have Call of Duty, but it will take a while before they’re added as just part of Game Pass.
