‘Call Of Duty’ will drop PlayStation-exclusive bonuses

Microsoft‘s Phil Spencer has shared that special Call Of Duty content or events on Xbox would exclude the rest of the “Call Of Duty nation”, and therefore is not a part of the company’s plans for the series.

On October 13, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft was finalised, passing on properties like Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, Overwatch and World Of Warcraft as well as the immensely popular shooter series to the corporation.

In spite of repeated insistences from Microsoft that it would not exclude players on other platforms from the future of Call Of Duty, there were still some concerns from fans.

Spencer addressed these in the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast, reiterating that exclusive content for Xbox is not in Microsoft’s vision for the series (via Video Games Chronicle).

“For Call of Duty players on PlayStation, and in the future Nintendo, I want you to feel 100 per cent a part of the community,” said the CEO.

“I don’t want you to feel like there’s content you’re missing out, skins you’re missing out, there’s timing that you’re missing out on… that’s not the goal.”

Historically, the series has prioritised those on PlayStation – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 offered players exclusive monthly double experience point events, weapon bonuses when playing in parties with other PlayStation players, and additional loadout slots, to name a few features.

This will not be replicated in future entries on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. “The goal is 100 per cent parity across all platforms as much as we can for launch and content,” pledged Spencer.

“I say ‘as much as we can’ on parity because clearly some platforms have resolution and framerate differences, just based on performance, but there’s nothing else.

“We have no goal of somehow trying to use Call Of Duty to get you to buy an Xbox console. I want the Call Of Duty nation to feel supported across all platforms.

“We’ve been on the other side of some of those skin [deals] and even this [Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3] beta wasn’t on Xbox the first week… I don’t think that helps the community, I don’t think that helps the game.

“So it’s the focus if you’re a PlayStation player, a Nintendo player, a PC player, or an Xbox console player, I want you to feel 100% part of the Call Of Duty nation,” he concluded.

In other gaming news, Paradox Interactive and Harebrained Schemes have announced their split following the “disappointing” performance of historical tactics game The Lamplighters League.