Xbox boss wants to pack Call of Duty in the Game Pass

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A British competition authority has doubts that the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would benefit competition in the games market. Xbox boss Phil Spencer responded with a blog post, promising that Call of Duty will end up in Game Pass along with Activision Blizzard’s other big brands.

This is the background:

What happened now? According to “gamesindustry.biz”, the British competition authority CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) classified the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard as anti-competitive in an initial review phase. The report therefore states:

[Der Kauf] is likely to result in a significant reduction in competition in a UK market or markets.

Two arguments bring the competition authorities to their conclusion:

  • The deal could result in Microsoft “withholding or weakening” Activision Blizzard’s content from other consoles or subscription services.
  • Microsoft could leverage its broader ecosystem along with Activision’s catalog to “erect barriers to entry and shut out competitors in cloud gaming services.”

    • In a second phase, further steps are now being examined and Microsoft is given the opportunity to allay the authorities’ concerns.

    We also talked about the deal in the MeinMMO podcast:

    We analyze the biggest purchase in gaming – Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

    How is Microsoft responding? In a statement by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, the manager makes it clear that no protectionist measures are planned. On the contrary. You want to give more gamers access to the players.

    This isn’t just limited to Xbox. We want to allow players to choose how to play and where to play. Whether on the mobile phone, on the PC, on the console – developers would benefit from these possibilities and that is exactly the goal: more innovation through greater availability.

    This should happen in two ways:

  • The subscription option through Game Pass
  • Make more games available on mobile, for example through cloud services

    • Then Spencer says exactly what Sony has been dreading for the past few months:

    Game Pass empowers developers to deliver more games to more players, not fewer. We intend to make Activision Blizzard’s popular library of games—including Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty—available in Game Pass and expand these gaming communities. By bringing even more value to players, we hope to continue to grow Game Pass and expand its appeal to mobile and all connected devices.

    Spencer also promises that Call of Duty will continue to appear on the PlayStation. He even says that CoD will be released on the same day as all other platforms.

    As an example, he cites Minecraft, whose developer Mojang was taken over by Microsoft in 2014. Good experiences have been made with opening the game further for all platforms instead of closing it. This is exactly how you want to do it with the titles from Activision Blizzard in the future.

    Spencer believes that a thorough review will show that the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard enriches the industry and benefits gamers.

    So CoD Day-1 in Game Pass? It remains to be seen how the current announcements about the release of Call of Duty in Game Pass will turn out. There is currently no evidence that the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will land in Game Pass for release.

    However, the old games, the CoDs of recent years, could quickly end up in the passport. Some of them are still actively played, especially the predecessor of the latest CoD – Modern Warfare from 2019.

    It remains to be seen how things will develop further. Will the deal even go through? But with the announcement, a nightmare should come true for Sony, which they absolutely want to prevent. Also with a view to Blizzard’s games:

    Do we ever have to buy Blizzard games again? Diablo And Overwatch 2 Coming To Xbox Game Pass – What About WoW?

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