The PlayStation's exclusivity of Call of Duty rewards seems to be taking a detour, reaching Xbox and PC users early since the Microsoft-Activision merger has been finalized.
Microsoft has officially become the owner of Activision Blizzard King after long-standing legal issues and plenty of bureaucratic hurdles. Formally sealed on October 13, the sensational $68.7 billion acquisition added copiously to Microsoft’s intellectual property catalog.
The popular franchise, Call of Duty, is now under the umbrella of the creators of Xbox. Naturally, this has sparked many queries among gaming enthusiasts worldwide about the future of the FPS series. Queries vary from whether new entries will be introduced to Game Pass, if PlayStation users will be restricted in the future, and what happens to platform-exclusive content.
Many speculative questions remain, but there is some amount of clarity on the issue of platform-exclusive content. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, insists on doing away with this concept. Interestingly, it seems his words have been turned into action sooner than anyone anticipated.
Former PlayStation exclusive rewards lands on other platforms
The latest release of Modern Warfare 2 (2022) on October 28 last year marked its entry by honoring Activision's prior agreement with Sony. Even as the merger process was still in progress, the publishing titan continued to release platform-exclusive content on Sony hardware to fulfill its prior obligations.
The exclusive package came in the form of the Oni Operator skin, a limited time offer available only for PS4 & PS5 users. Traditionally, once the 12-month window of PlayStation exclusivity is up, these exclusives are made available for other platforms. But this custom seems to have been disrupted recently.
Early access to the Oni skin
Reports from Xbox & PC players suggest that the Oni skin is appearing in their games as early as October 17, nearly a fortnight before the agreed exclusivity expiration date. There is no official statement from Microsoft, Activision, or Sony about the early release, leaving it unclear if it was a deliberate move or just an error.
Content from some Xbox and PC users indicate the PlayStation-exclusive Oni Operator from MWIIand Warzone is showing in their Operator screen following a recent update. The Oni was supposed to remain exclusive to PlayStation until October 27, 2023.
As of now, it's uncertain if the Oni skin will be removed from the availability on Xbox and PC player’s Operator menus before its planned release later this month. But for now, it seems all players, irrespective of their platform, can grab the PlayStation-exclusive reward.
The early release of platform-exclusive content following the Activision-Microsoft merger could be an indication of a larger shift in gaming policy. It remains to be seen how this plays out and how it affects future exclusive content releases.
Whatever the future holds, one thing is for sure, gamers worldwide are watching eagerly, waiting to find out how the Xbox-Activision era will change the face of their favorite games.