Xbox has asserted that PlayStation has prevented Call of Duty from being made available on Xbox Game Pass for a long time. The approximately $70 billion acquisition of Activision by Microsoft has been surrounded by a great deal of disarray and controversy.
Recently, the technology giant confirmed that this year aims to acquire the big gaming publisher that would give Xbox full control over games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and much more. Even though several authorities have already given their blessing to the transaction, there are still those that must be persuaded, and Sony has resolved to put up its strongest possible resistance.
At the beginning of this year, Sony expressed its concerns regarding the arrangement and warned that if it is finalized, Call of Duty could become exclusive to Xbox. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, reacted to these worries by stating that the company would handle Call of Duty in the same manner as Minecraft, a series that has continued to receive support on PlayStation.
Microsoft has responded to the numerous and in-depth points that have been made about how its partnership with Activision could be detrimental to the industry because of how it could exploit things like exclusives. The tech giant returned to the familiar topic of blocking rights, which refers to a scenario in which a corporation pays a developer to prevent the game from being distributed on another network or service.
Microsoft is now asserting that PlayStation’s modern marketing deal with Activision for the Call of Duty series prevents the first-person shooter franchise from being added to the Xbox Game Pass. This argument is based on the fact that PlayStation is currently the exclusive distributor of the Call of Duty series.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise given that there hasn’t been a Call of Duty game available on Xbox Game Pass up until now; nonetheless, Microsoft is using this to leverage its argument against Sony’s critiques and difficulties with the arrangement Microsoft has with Activision.
