Sony's deal with Activision for Call of Duty marketing rights lasts for the next three games, according to rumours.
Xbox fans were hopeful that once Microsoft complete the Activision Blizzard acquisition, popular games like Call of Duty would start dropping into the Xbox Game Pass library, but, it looks like that won't be the case for the foreseeable future.
Years before Microsoft even thought about acquiring Activision, Sony struck a deal with the publisher for the marketing rights for Call of Duty.
The deal means Sony get to promote Call of Duty on their platform, reveal new Call of Duty games at their shows and get some PlayStation exclusive content like the open beta arriving first to their platform and exclusive game modes.
According to insider Tom Henderson, who is a reliable game industry source, Sony's deal with Activision lasts for the next three games.
That includes the upcoming Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty Warzone 2 and the next Call of Duty game which is reportedly developed by Treyarch and won't be coming before 2024.
"Sony's deal lasts for the next 3 games I believe. MWII, Warzone 2, and Treyarch's game," Henderson tweeted. "So if Microsoft obligates Sony's existing deal, which they have said they will, nothing should change until CoD 2025/2026 (depending on when that releases)."
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That would leave Xbox Game Pass subscribers without a Call of Duty game for the next couple of years unless they buy it for the full price.
Though, it's worth mentioning that we do not know for certain what kind of deal Sony have with Activision and whether their partnership prevents Activision from putting Call of Duty on Game Pass.
Such a scenario certainly would not be surprising since Sony do make such deals all the time. Shortly after the release of Resident Evil Village, which is another title that Sony promoted, it's been revealed that due to the deal with Sony, Capcom were unable to put Resident Evil Village on Game Pass for at least a year.
But that is just how the games industry works and both Microsoft and Sony do these deals all the time.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a reboot of the original series
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