‘Call Of Duty’ Game Pass “secret drop” rumours addressed by Microsoft
Neither Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3 are on their way to Xbox Game Pass this year, Microsoft has confirmed, as there wasn’t enough time to sort out a “secret celebration drop”.
Activision Blizzard stated that there were no intentions for its “upcoming and recently launched games” like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 to be playable through Xbox Game Pass this year.
Yet, rumours swirled that there was something in store. In the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast, Microsoft CEO of gaming Phil Spencer explained that there simply wasn’t enough time to arrange the games’ arrival on Game Pass.
The acquisition of Activision Blizzard was only finalised last week following repeated revisions to the terms of the agreement. One of these was the transfer of streaming rights to Activision Blizzard’s games to Ubisoft due to the Competition And Markets Authority’s (CMA) concerns over exclusivity.
“The regulatory process took so long and frankly there was a lot of uncertainty in that process up until, really, a week before we closed, or really the week of, when the CMA finally came down to their decision,” said Spencer.
“We weren’t able to get in and work with mostly Activision Blizzard in this case on that back catalogue work,” he elaborated. “I would love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop that’s coming in the next couple of weeks – there’s not.”
Spencer also announced the end of exclusive bonuses for PlayStation players of Call Of Duty in the same episode.
“The goal is 100 per cent parity across all platforms as much as we can for launch and content,” he said. “I say ‘as much as we can’ on parity because clearly some platforms have resolution and framerate differences, just based on performance, but there’s nothing else.”
In other gaming news, Diablo 4 has been improved based on fan feedback through a “five-point strategy” at the start of its new season, but Steam players are not finding a lot to like.
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Imogen Donovan
NME
