Classic Xbox 360 Call of Duty games have seen significant increases in player counts after Activision resolved some matchmaking issues.
As spotted by Call of Duty-focused channel Charlie Intel, server fixes recently went live in Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, and Black Ops II, leading to as many as 100,000 people playing these decade-plus-old games. These games have already been playable on the current Xbox Series X/S consoles via backward compatibility, but server-end changes by Activision were what ultimately led to the surge in players.
That said, there have been reports of input delays when playing on these modern systems, which is especially troublesome in fast-paced shooters like Call of Duty. It’s unclear whether Activision intends to address these issues as well.
In any case, the timing of these fixes is certainly curious, as they come just as Microsoft is in the final stages of closing its acquisition of Call of Duty owner Activision Blizzard. After winning a major U.S. court case last week, the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant only needs to square things out with the U.K., who blocked the deal in April over anti-competition concerns regarding cloud gaming.
It should be noted that July 18th was the original deadline for the deal to close, but given that Microsoft and the U.K. have agreed to renegotiate, it’s expected that the purchasing contract will be extended. It remains to be seen how much more time Microsoft will need to adequately address the U.K.’s concerns and finalize the purchase.
If and when the deal does close, though, Microsoft has already expressed its intent to bring Activision Blizzard titles to Xbox Game Pass. Given that 20 notable Bethesda games came to the service the same month Microsoft completed its acquisition of parent company ZeniMax Media, it’s possible that the aforementioned older Call of Duty games might drop on Game Pass shortly after Microsoft officially takes over Activision Blizzard.
Image credit: Activision
Via: The Verge
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