Summary
Now that Microsoft has finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox head Phil Spencer is sharing his thoughts about platform-exclusiveCall of Dutycontent moving forward. Historically,Call of Dutygames would see PlayStation-exclusive skins or even timed exclusivity when it comes to betas, so the community at large is looking to the executive to see what changes are coming now that the iconic shooter franchise has a new home.
As the dust has settled on the massive acquisition, some PlayStation fans worried that Spencer and the Xbox team could turn the tables and makeCall of Dutycontent exclusive to the rival platform, or worse, not release the game on Sony consoles at all moving forward. Luckily,Spencer already confirmedCall of Dutywill remain on PlayStation, and now, it appears that he has more good news for players on other platforms.
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Phil Spencer appeared as a guest on the Official Xbox Podcast and shared his desire to put an end to platform-exclusive content for theCall of Dutyfranchise. The main topic of the podcast centers around the various implications ofMicrosoft officially acquiring Activision Blizzard, with the Xbox head calming the fears of fans on other platforms, stating, “We have no goal of somehow usingCall of Dutyto get you to buy an Xbox console.” Rather, Spencer goes on to state that they have been on the “other side” of various exclusive deals, and he wants players on all platforms to “feel 100% a part of the Call of Duty nation” whether they’re on a Nintendo console, a PlayStation console, or on PC.
As a recent example of platform-exclusive content, the just-concluded open beta forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3– the next release in the series slated for November 10 – was available to PlayStation gamers nearly a week before it made its way to Xbox and PC. Rather than flip the script and give Xbox players early access, Spencer looks to put an end to this sort of thing altogether. So far, it doesn’t appear that Microsoft is being quite as aggressive as PlayStation fans have feared with their new catalog of IP. At this point,Activision Blizzard doesn’t have plans to bringModern Warfare 3to Game Passthis year despite other first-party Xbox games historically launching on day one.
Xbox owns quite an array of iconic franchises after acquiring Activision Blizzard, butCall of Dutyis arguably the biggest new title under its expanding umbrella. The franchise is essentially on an annualized schedule at this point, releasing new games each fall like clockwork. It remains to be seen what exactly this acquisition is going to mean for the series moving forward, but so far, it appears as though Spencer and company are saying all the right things.
