After Infinity Ward graced us all with the launch date for the next Call of Duty (surprise, it's out this fall), other details began to trickle out about the game and its release. Thanks to the PlayStation store, along with a bit of datamining, we now know that the Sony exclusivity deal continues, at least in some capacity.
The in-game Call of Duty: Vanguard store began to show three editions of Modern Warfare 2 following yesterday's release date reveal. In and amongst those editions were details about bonus content, including early access to an upcoming open beta.
Well, after a bit more datamining on the three editions, it's been found that the open beta launches first on PlayStation platforms, much like the last few years of Call of Duty. Things haven't changed just yet then, even in the wake of the Microsoft & Activision Blizzard deal.
This isn't all that surprising, given what we've heard since the deal went down. Activision still has an agreement in place with Sony for the next three Call of Duty games, including this year's Modern Warfare 2. We don't know the exact details of the agreement, but it's safe to say these early beta periods are a stipulation of the ongoing deal.
What do you make of these continued Sony exclusivity deals? Let us know down in the comments.
Comments 7
So...there goes hope for Game Pass Day One release
@Godot25 Well MS still have no control over Activision until probably 2023, so we likely won't see any changes with Activision releases until then. The deal could technically still fail. No reason for Activision to sign up to things like that while they're still independent.
As Sony's deal was 'expected' to run until 2023's CoD, then as I said in the extremely optimistic article about Game Pass, that MS honour prior deals and no doubt would honour Sony's CoD deal even after acquiring them.
As A/B are being bought, they cannot accept any new deals with Sony for example so its just legacy deals they are honouring but once that's 'complete', Its up to MS where they Publish and release games. Timed 'exclusivity' and/or 'Bonus' content deals are no different to deals made for Deathloop or Ghostwire for example. MS honoured those, so I fully expected MS to honour Sony's deal with A/B over CoD!
@Xeno_Aura Yeah. But there was still a hope that Microsoft could just "pay" for Modern Warfare II on GP even if they are separate companies.
But I guess that Sony still have marketing rights for game and that deal prevents getting game on GP
The deal isn't a done deal yet so any one who expect this game to be on Game Pass is either ignorant or doesn't know how business works.
Was never going to get this year's COD in Game Pass. Next year's possibly, but not this years.
Looking forward to seeing more.
@BAMozzy they have to honour the deals or catch a lawsuit for breaking a contract
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