Sony’s current marketing deal ‘restricts’ Call of Duty appearing on Game Pass, Microsoft claims

Sony’s marketing deal for Call of Duty allegedly ‘restricts’ it from appearing in Game Pass.

As reported in Eurogamer, it comes from Xbox’s full response to a filing by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as Microsoft looks to take over Activision Blizzard for $68bn.

“The acquisition of Activision Blizzard provides Microsoft with capabilities and content on mobile, which it currently lacks, while creating new distribution options for game developers outside of mobile app stores. It also adds new content for Game Pass subscribers, encouraging them to engage with the service on the device of their choice,” the Xbox team write in the report.

NOW READ: Modern Warfare can be preloaded right now – here’s how to do it

Xbox cites the Tweet from Xbox Head Phil Spencer, in which he refers to the “intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard.”

However, they then claim that the current agreement places ‘restrictions on the ability of Activision Blizzard to place Call of Duty titles on Game Pass for a number of years’.

If true, this could have implications for the popular shooter series to come to Game Pass – although there is no detail yet on exactly how far-reaching these restrictions are.

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In the response, there are other key arguments presented to the CMA. For example, Xbox highlights Sony’s installed base of 150 million consoles is more than double the size of Xbox.

Additionally, the Xbox team claims that “Even without all of those gamers (a highly improbable outcome from a hypothetical foreclosure strategy), the PlayStation gamer base would remain significantly larger
than Xbox is today.”

Modern Warfare 2 is set to launch on October 28, with campaign early access kicking off on October 21. You can pre-load Modern Warfare 2 right now by following the steps here.