Call of Duty games are seeing a revival on Xbox 360, following Microsoft’s recent victory over the FTC in federal court.
Well, maybe there’s no real direct connection and this is all a huge coincidence. But starting almost a week ago, Xbox 360 owners found that Activision had reactivated the servers for Call of Duty games on the platform.
On July 13, GameRant reported that Activision reopened matchmaking for these games, citing fans sharing video to demonstrate that it really happened. Neither Microsoft nor Activision has made an official announcement that they did this, but seemingly there were people in either Xbox or Activision that flipped a switch to make it happen.
For the record, those games would be:
- Call of Duty
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty 3
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: World At War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
So, 12 games in total. In fact, that would be the total library of Call of Duty from 2003 until 2016. Take a few minutes to think about how long that is.
There are definitely Fortnite and Minecraft players now who were born in the middle of Call of Duty’s Xbox 360 run, and they may have dads who were playing each other on those games, experiencing online multiplayer and voice chat for the first time.
Of course, if you may remember, those old school players didn’t necessarily have to dust off their actual Xbox 360 consoles. As long as those games were tied to their account, they can revive their games on Xbox One or Xbox Series consoles, whichever one they have.
Today, GameRant reports that fans focused on particular on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from 2009, and Call of Duty: Black Ops from 2010. The experience hasn’t been smooth for them, with various new issues coming up, but it hasn’t stopped Xbox owners from jumping back in to a little bit of violent military shooter nostalgia.
CharlieIntel chimes in that Call of Duty games are now at the top of the Xbox Store’s sales charts. Those games are Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, followed by once again, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops, and then Cross-Gen Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from last year, and finally, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
This certainly indicates an opportunity for both Microsoft and Activision with their pending deal in the wings. Could Microsoft convince Activision to relicense their classic Call of Duty library for Game Pass? The fans seem to indicate they’re up for it.
