Activision Blizzard is all set to be acquired by Microsoft for an amount of nearly $70 billion, despite facing roadblocks in the form of the UK’s competition and market authority followed by the Federal Trade Commission. The European Union Commission approved the deal while the latter was cleared when Microsoft won its appeal against them in court.
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It is the Federal Trade Commission appeal that is particularly significant since there has been a leak of several unredacted, confidential documents of Microsoft which the FTC says is Microsoft’s fault. These documents have given an insight into the gaming industry the likes of which are very rare, and have also revealed several of Microsoft’s plans regarding the future in several areas. One such area is the Call of Duty franchise.
What is Microsoft’s plan for Call of Duty games?
As per some of the leaked documents, shared by CharlieIntel on X (formerly Twitter), Microsoft wants to put advertisements into Call of Duty games on mobile and PC. CharlieIntel said “Microsoft’s plans for Activision Blizzard says the company wants to expand “advertising” into free-to-play PC and mobile games For now, the list only says Call of Duty: Mobile, but the text says PC & Mobile”.
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This means that advertising could appear in Call of Duty: Mobile as well as Call of Duty: Warzone, if the information given by CharlieIntel is to be believed. The CEO of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has already said that the Call of Duty games won’t be available on the Game Pass for some time yet. This is presumably due to PlayStation holding exclusive marketing rights for the series from 2014 to at least 2023 with Modern Warfare 3, as per a report from Bloomberg.
If and when the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft goes through, it still isn’t clear if the ads will make their way into the games immediately. Fans of the series will no doubt be awaiting further news.
What else was revealed by the leaked documents?
The leaked documents, which are amongst the largest in Microsoft and Xbox history, also revealed that The Elder Scrolls VI, created by developer Bethesda, won’t be released on PlayStation 5, instead being exclusive to Xbox and PC. News of the game has been sporadic since it was announced back in 2018, and we only know that it is in early development for a launch taking place in 2026, potentially.
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During the Federal Trade Commission trial earlier this year, Phil Spencer had said that a decision about The Elder Scroll VI being exclusive hadn’t yet been made since the release of the game was too far into the future.
