Sometimes, news comes out of nowhere, and the reveal that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard is just that kind of news. What a lot of fans will be wondering, however, is what that means for Call of Duty. Will Call of Duty be on Xbox Game Pass day one following the acquisiution?
Microsoft Buys Activision
On January 18, Microsoft announced that they're buying Activision Blizzard in a deal reportedly worth $70 billlion, which is comfortably the biggest in gaming history.
The official announcement reads:
"With three billion people actively playing games today and fueled by a new generation steeped in the joys of interactive entertainment, gaming is now the largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a leader in game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse."
For now, we don't know exactly what the acquisition means for Activision's games, but we have a pretty good idea.
Will Call of Duty be on Xbox Game Pass?
While the announcement post doesn't confirm anything, there is a high chance that Call of Duty games come to Xbox Game Pass and Game Pass for PC on day one in the near future.
We don't know if Call of Duty will become exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, but again there's a high chance.
All current Xbox exclusives come to Game Pass on Day One and Microsoft announced that all future Bethesda games will also do so following their own deal.
Therefore, there's a high chance that future Call of Duty titles will be exclusive and free on Game Pass from day one.
The exclusivity side will not be true for the next Call of Duty game, however, which is rumoured to be Modern Warfare 2, since a statement from Bobby Kotick has confirmed that the studio will remain independent until June 2023.
Therefore, any deals made before then will remain and any games that release before then will likely come to all platforms. That also means that the next Call of Duty may not come to Game Pass on day one either.
As soon as we hear more about the deal between Microsoft and Activision, and what it means for Call of Duty, we'll let you know.