A recent report from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) indicates that Call of Duty wasn’t going to end up on Xbox Game Pass until 2025.
The UK CMA’s final report on the Microsoft deal revealed that Call of Duty wasn’t going to be on Game Pass till at least 2025 pic.twitter.com/Iu3Gsg4wfa
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) May 1, 2023
The CMA made headlines last week by blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the UK, citing cloud gaming as the main reason. This is certainly a major roadblock for Microsoft and could result in the deal falling through altogether.
One of the benefits of Activision becoming a Microsoft-owned company would have been the inclusion of the Call of Duty series on Xbox Game Pass, which gives players access to a wide variety of games for a monthly fee. However, the CMA report notes, “We would expect that the benefits would start to accrue within a reasonable period (although there would, in practice, likely be some delay between completion of the Merger and CoD arriving on Game Pass in 2025).”
Despite this claim, the CMA didn’t cite where this information comes from, so it’s unclear if the 2025 release window is true.
If true, this means that even if the acquisition goes through, it would still be a couple of years before Call of Duty fans would have reaped the benefits on Game Pass. At this point, it’s unclear if the Call of Duty series will ever come to Microsoft’s gaming subscription service.
After the CMA blocked the sale, Microsoft announced it would appeal, though it’s unknown what–if anything–will come of this. Microsoft did confirm that Activision titles would end up on Game Pass, should the merger go through.
GameSpot has reached out to Microsoft and Activision for comment.
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