Microsoft may have acquired Call of Duty publisher Activision more than a year ago, but the Xbox owner vowed to uphold any existing deals that the franchise had with PlayStation owner Sony - and the last of those deals has now officially come to an end.
Yep, as pointed out by CharlieIntel, last year's Modern Warfare 3 had one final PlayStation exclusive DLC deal from when the game launched on November 10th, 2023. That exclusivity window lasted one year - meaning the DLC is free to launch on other platforms from November 9th of this year.
Of course, that date has now passed, meaning PlayStation's timed exclusive content for MW3 is now done and dusted. With this game in particular, we're only talking operator packs and customisation options, but still - they should now be free to appear on Xbox and PC in the coming months.
The Call of Duty franchise once had similar deals in place with Microsoft — from 2009's Modern Warfare 2 right up to 2014's Advanced Warfare — although at the time, those deals were limited to map packs arriving one month early on Xbox. Exclusivity benefits then moved over to PlayStation with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - ranging from timed exclusive map packs to cosmetic DLC drops, and even entire game modes locked to PlayStation platforms for more than a year.
In recent times, Xbox's Phil Spencer has said that the team has made a conscious effort to move away from engaging in "slimy platform things" such as these deals - so we're not expecting any sort of Xbox exclusive Call of Duty DLC to be a thing with Phil at the helm of Microsoft Gaming.
Glad to see this finally be a thing of the past? Comment down below and tell us what you think.
Comments 12
I mostly wonder, what the deal with Nintendo will look like. Or are Team xbox bringing gamepass over?
PlayStation having a mode that Xbox didn't for an entire year really irked me at the time, and still annoys me to this day. I think the mode was called Operator, but it was a co-operative mode that I used to play with my son, and when it was locked for an entire year by the time it came to Xbox it was entirely pointless because we moved on to the next Call of Duty when it released. What really annoyed me about the practice was that we were paying exactly the same price for the game as those on the PlayStation, but were getting less for our money. It was a really scummy practice. Glad it is no longer a thing...
@The-Chosen-one They’ll just launch it on Switch 2 at $70 as any other system, there’s no way in hell Nintendo would allow Game Pass on their platforms, currently the most successful of the three.
It maybe a thing of the Past as far as CoD goes, but it will still exist with other games/IP's.
As for the change in getting Map Packs Early to Sony's Cosmetic, game modes and Bonus XP gains etc that was likely down to the change in Additional Maps. DLC Map packs made Matchmaking and/or value of those maps worse as more and more were added. It split the playerbase between those with and those without and/or would never see them in rotation to play.
@Fiendish-Beaver its the same with Games from Hogwarts Legacy, Assassins Creed 4, Watchdogs etc - exclusive missions/content not available on other Platforms yet the SAME cost - I refused to buy myself rather than 'buy' on Playstation or pay for less on Xbox...
It only took buying ActiBlizz. 😂
@IOI I wonder why they wouldn't allow it though.... because Nintendo doesn't have a real sub service like gamepass...and sonys is barely even a thing tbh(I have a sx and PS5 . Ps plus premium sorta sucks but gamepass ultimate is AWESOME) ...gamepass also has different tiers. You say "no way in hell Nintendo would allow gp on their system) but if you really think of it all it would do is benefit Nintendo fans and make Xbox some more money. The difference between Nintendo games amd Xbox games is HUGE...so having go on switch wouldn't take away from any Nintendo sales whatsoever...in my opinion it would actually drive switch 2 sales even further....to the point I think if Xbox is really coming out with a handheld it would be a bad idea for them to put GP on switch 2....unless xboxs new handheld also has steam and gp than like I said it actually would be a better business choice for Nintendo and it's console sales ..it would benefit Xbox by getting more GP subs probably at a 70/30 split or so on profits and spreading their studios games out there too even more players to see how good Xbox games really are. They're good this gen.
There are pros and cons to gp being on the switch 2 but like I said I do think it would benefit Nintendo...it would benefit Nintendo fans far more though. If Nintendo had a service of their own like GP id say it would be a bad idea for gp to be on switch but they don't so it's a W for both companies and players everywhere...even Xbox players since that money being made with Nintendo will fund more day and date first and third party exclusives for GP and the Xbox store
@Lup that's what good companies are able to do.
You don't think sony built those studios they own...do you? 😂😂 Like Insomniac etc etc? They didn't. They bought them. They couldn't afford something like activision. Also, it wasn't actiBlizz....xbox created that studio by combining the two. They also created new studios for blizzard and ....***** i forget...whatever .. I'm just happy has the most first party games this gen out of all of them. They even have third party games on lock...Sony has timed third party games. I have a PS5 and sx and It sucks my PS5 is so boring this gen. I really thought it would be good but it's just not ..it's got a couple good first party games but I can't have 2 or so last for 4 or 5 years while u do three months timed third party stuff. It doesn't fund sonys next first party games enough... especially with them having 2 of the biggest gaming flops in history...that's just facts. Anyways. Anyone with an sx and gp ultimate is loving gaming this generation. I'm also very happy death Stranding is on Xbox because ds2 will be on Xbox day one. That was a HUGE exclusive for Xbox. They lost all of square enix and now Kojima....it's so crazy they'd lose Kojima and square...those 2 really really helped make PlayStation what it is today...well . All the food parts. Now that's gone...i mean it's not gone but u wont have to buy a PlayStation anymore to play those games.
Quick Resume is LIFE btw... activity cards absolutely do not compete with Quick Resume.
I can have multiple games open at once. Obviously playing one at a time but have several on pause. I can turn my Xbox off..come back later to turn it on and play whatever game I had that was paused right where I left off...and switch back and forth with 2 or 3 seconds. It's amazing...it's PC style shyt. (I wish I had a nice gaming PC)
Sorry guys. I'm stoned. It's my one day off. I'm gonna go play death Stranding.
Good. Nobody wins with console exclusive material. It's such a scummy practice anyway. Thank Phil for putting an end to this.
It's ours now scumstation
It's now officially a full Xbox IP.
Phil doesn't like "slimy platform things" because it costs him 3x more than it costs Sony, the result of failing 2 gens in a row and having 1:3 market share. This wasn't an issue and there was actual incentive to own an Xbox during the 360 era. Phil sure dressing up giving nothing to his customers nicely though
@Krazee5255 They won’t allow it because they sell software (games) as crazy, the Switch has sold 1.3 billion games and they make more money selling software than subscriptions.
Plus it’s now clear Game Pass is not a system seller, the service has been great and yet the Xbox platform has barely grown, GP on Switch will never ever happen, the cons will always outweigh the pros.
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