Call of Duty blocked on Xbox "for a number years" by Sony PlayStation- claims Microsoft head Phil Spencer; and other latest updates
New updates from Activision Blizzard now include Special Ops and other post-launch content reveal, new insights into the future of Call of Duty, and more. Find out all the latest news on Call of Duty, and Activision Blizzard down below.
When gaming industry giant, Microsoft, announced its plans of acquiring Activision Blizzard earlier this year, it came as a huge shocker to the entire gaming industry. Ever since, the future of its canon product Call of Duty, has been a burning issue for all fans. People have expressed concern over whether CoD will in fact continue to be available on the rival platform PlayStation. New information has now surfaced on that front, giving us an insight into the future of Call of Duty and its availability.
Other than that, the biggest point of discussion is the launch of the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, dropping in another week. We have new updates for you on that as well, and more. Find out more below.
Future of Call of Duty
PlayStation Blocking Rights claim surface
New documents have emerged from the ongoing review of the Microsoft-Activision deal from Brazil’s CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense). The competition regulator has published documents that suggest that Sony has paid for blocking rights of CoD, as per claims of Microsoft. As translated by The Verge, Microsoft claims, “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.” As a result, “Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth”, mentions the records filed on August 9, with the Brazil CADE. Additionally, Xbox boss Phil Spencer too, claims that “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.” This claim becomes more interesting when we note Spencer’s Tweet from earlier in January assuring that “all existing agreements” will be honored “upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard”.
However, to provide you with a different perspective, it is possible that this is just a way of playing around with words, for what can also be termed as “claiming exclusive rights”. Regardless, “blocking rights” is something that both Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation have been known to indulge in in the past. However, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer has assured, Microsoft will reportedly be treating CoD as a multiplatform title, like they have with Minecraft.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Post-Launch Content Revealed
As for the upcoming installment of Call of Duty- Modern Warfare 2, the Special Ops mode has been revealed in an update from October 18th. Special-Ops, the two-player co-op mode is set to return with this game, as post-launch content. Three missions have now been announced- Bad Situation, Vehicle Escape, and Observatory Defense, all to take place in Al Mazrah. There’s more information on other post-launch content for Modern Warfare II on the official website of Call of Duty.
Unique dynamic music coming up in Call of Duty
In other news, Activision has reportedly filed to patent the potential of AI-generating music, customized to the player. It basically suggests that machine learning will have a role to play here, understanding and predicting the kind of music a player will like, based on their game behavior. As a result, music is going to be dynamic, and “unique to individual players”.
