Activision deal lets slip axed Call of Duty Game Pass plans
In the midst of the chaos consumed by the paused Microsoft and Activision Blizzard merger, the United Kingdom's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) have done more than just stifle the plans of the Xbox owners.
Having already leaked Activision's massive Call of Duty 2023 budget and forced the developers into releasing startling figures about their declining player base, the CMA has now let slip more plans between Microsoft and Activision surrounding the Call of Duty series.
According to the CMA's ruling in the Microsoft acquisition investigation, Call of Duty was coming to Xbox Game Pass. That's no real surprise, however, the timeframe makes for some interesting reading.
Call of Duty Wouldn't Come To Game Pass Until 2025
Click to enlargeOne of the most exciting parts of the Microsoft-Activision merger would have been the notion of seeing Call of Duty land on the Game Pass subscription service. This would allow previous titles like 2020's Black Ops: Cold War to be free-to-play for Xbox owners.
However, it now seems that even if the merger was given the green light, Call of Duty titles wouldn't have landed on Game Pass for a considerable few years.
According to the CMA's report, Microsoft wouldn't have been able to put Call of Duty on Game Pass until at least 2025, which not-so-coincidentally was when the current CoD and Sony deal is set to expire.
Can Call of Duty still come to Xbox Game Pass?
There does remain some hope for Xbox fans who want to cop some good Call of Duty deals on Game Pass, as Microsoft has already confirmed that it will be appealing the CMA's ruling, after making some stark comments about the UK Government.
If the appeal is successful, Microsoft would still be on course for adding CoD to Game Pass, although its plans for which games in the series would end up on the subscription service remains unclear.
Planning that the merger does eventually happen, it could be that CoD 2025, or the third title in the Modern Warfare (MW3) series reboot, could be brought out straight onto Xbox's service.
