Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 May Be Ending Xbox Exclusivity Deal

For a very long time now, Call of Duty has been associated with the Xbox brand, to the point that it is almost considered to be a de facto exclusive. Activision has realized that, and capitalized on it by releasing all DLC for Call of Duty games on Xbox consoles first. However, that may be about to end with this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.

We’ve already had speculation on this before, and the newest round was prompted by Xbox’s own website; you see, they listed multiple games on their page, and when they were exclusive, they were tagged as exclusive. When they were getting exclusive content, they were tagged as such. When they were getting content first, they were tagged as such. But as you can see, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is missing all such tags.

Of course, this could mean several things- it could mean that the tag will be added there after E3, where Microsoft makes the announcement of DLC first official. It could mean that Microsoft has foregone paying Activision money for exclusivity rights this year, since years of brand association probably make it pointless by now, and Microsoft have their own Fall lineup to focus on. It could mean Sony somehow outbid Microsoft, and Call of Duty DLC will be available on PlayStation first.

We will know for sure once E3 comes around and we have more concrete details. Stay tuned.