Sony and Activision Deal Keeps Call of Duty From Releasing on 'Game Pass for a Number of Years' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 October 2022 / 4,773 Views
It appears Call of Duty games won't be available on Xbox Game Pass for several years due to the current deal between Activision Blizzard and Sony.
Microsoft in its response to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK stated the agreement prevents Call of Duty from releasing on Xbox Game Pass for a "number of years."
"The agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony includes restrictions on the ability of Activision Blizzard to place Call of Duty titles on Game Pass for a number of years," reads Microsoft's response.
Microsoft in its response also stated it has no plans to take Call of Duty away from gamers and the majority of them are on PlayStation. Keeping the franchise on PlayStation is important for the Xbox business and the economics of the acquisition.
Sony Interactive Entertainment in its own statement to the CMA said it believes if the deal were to go through it would cause Call of Duty players to switch from PlayStation to Xbox even if the series were to remain multiplatform.
The next entry in the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, will launch for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Battle.net on October 28.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Just further confirmation that Sony is indeed paying what I would imagine to be an insane amount of money to keep games off Game Pass. The thought that CoD was included in this type of deal is mind blowing.
That's low Sony......that's real low
It's not really surprising at all honestly. Also how hard would it even be for Activision to agree to that stipulation in the contract with Sony? COD is the top selling game year after year. They are the #1 type of game that would not want to release on GP because they can make way way more money off of it.
Doesn't MS pay money to bring 3rd party games day one to gamepass? So if MS pays to have deals its good but if Sony pays for its own deals its "Low"?
That's not the same thing. This deal is just about Sony paying to keep games, a major one in this instance, off of Game Pass.
Sony can negotiate and pay to add games to their service and MS can negotiate and pay to add games to their service. But the services can't compete with each other if one of the platform holders is actively paying to sabotage the rival service.
So basically what your saying is Sony is only allowed pay and make deals that plays by the rules and format that MS wants? which is subscription service wars.
Idc how Sony chooses to compete in any part of their gaming business, but outright paying money just to keep games off of a rival service and nothing else, that's textbook anti-competitive actions.
That's basically what this 70bn buy out of Activision is about, to keep blizzard games off/sabotage rivals by paying insane amount of money as you claim.
Only difference is MS is the one doing it this time around.
I wasn't aware that Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 weren't coming to rival platforms. I hate the ActiBlizz deal too like anyone else does. It's caused a chain reaction of consolidation in the industry that truly sucks, but I still don't pretend like Sony is a good guy in any way in their business practices.
Their money hatting of 3rd party games this generation is growing considerably. The upcoming Silent Hill games are the most recent examples.
That's not very far
Why would Diablo 4 and OW 2 be taken away from rival platform right now when MS hasnt acquired Activision Blizzard yet? Where's Starfield for PS5 now that MS has bought Bethesda?
It's not anti-competitive because Microsoft still gets the game on their platforms, just not through their subscription service. It's a simple bidding contest, fair and square. Microsoft offers an x amount to get it on Game Pass, Sony offers an extra amount to keep the game in traditional distribution. The dev decides what seems to be the best thing for them. The real winner is the developer/publisher, because they get extra money from Sony and still get to sell their game on all platforms for full price.
I would completely understand if Sony paid to bring a title exclusively to its streaming service.
Paying money just to keep a title off of someone else's streaming service, that does seem low. So no one gets to stream the game? Thanks a lot, Sony.
Both decisions affect consumers. One depriving them from content, the other one including them in a suscription. Do you really don't see it, right?
"Just further confirmation that Sony is indeed paying what I would imagine to be an insane amount of money to keep games off Game Pass. "
Of course they are. Just like MS is paying for their own exclusivity.
I doubt this is separate from a marketing deal as adding it to gamepass would be a form of marketing for MS. The other game this applied to was RE8 which Sony also had a marketing deal on.
Sony isn't going to spend dozens of millions to buy marketing rights for games MS can then advertise as "new on gamepass"
It would be an own goal lol.
That'd make no sense. Nothing shocking about this, its no different from games MS has marketing rights to not being able to be officially bundled with PS5 like Cyberpunk or AC Valhala.
How is it low? They're protecting their interests and of there customers.
Low? That’s hyperbole and exaggeration. How would you find it reasonable for a company to pay a crap ton of money for marketing rights, just to let a part of it get pissed away by a loophole that gives an advantage to their competitor. This makes very logical sense, and MSFT would have expected the same thing if they were in the same situation.
Regardless, I would all but guarantee that Activision wouldn’t have put CoD on gamepass anyhow. I don’t think there would have been any price even MSFT would’ve been willing to pay for that, as the number would’ve had to be massive to make it worth ABK’s while.
Sony has become so petty lately. -_-
God. Mods? Can you disable comments on news articles?
Honestly, I doubt MS would have even put up much of a fight is Sony tried to buy Activision.
Hence, Sony is just desperate to keep PlayStation strong as it's one of the few notable things they have.
Where's the CMA to protect competition?
I believe Sony is also paying MS to avoid Xbox 1st party titles to be on GP, since we haven't seen any major release for almost a year
Of course it wants to keep it off gamepass.
Why would it want it there. They're not pretending to be your friend while they try and coax publisher's away for ever.
Well at least Activision blizzard will still get massive sales copies thanks to it not being available on gamepass day one haha
