According to Infinity Ward and Activision, post-launch content for Call of Duty won’t come to PlayStation 4 one month early like in previous years. Instead, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will give out maps and other DLC items to all systems at the same time. There still exists an exclusivity deal between Activision and Sony, but both parties must feel this is what’s best for the community. This post-launch content is already confirmed to be free for all players.
While PS4 won’t receive maps and other items early in Modern Warfare, some enigmatic perks will still come with playing the game on PlayStation.
No more early content for PS4 in Call of Duty
Since the early days of Call of Duty, Activision has signed exclusivity deals with both Microsoft and Sony. Before Black Ops III, Xbox had early access to DLC maps and items. Since then though, PlayStation has received the same treatment, much to the ire of Xbox and PC users.
While Activision does make video games, they are still a business. Signing exclusivity deals gives the company an easy cash grab and is simple to pull off. However, this ends up splitting the community into disgruntled factions, waiting arbitrarily for content to arrive.
The removal of timed exclusivity is obviously a welcome change for Xbox and PC users. One can assume that this change was made in order to support the cross-play coming to Modern Warfare. If PS4 received earlier content than Xbox, cross-play wouldn’t work properly due to PS4 users having extra maps.
PlayStation 4 will still have advantages for Modern Warfare
Of course, the exclusivity deal is still in place, so PS4 will come with an advantage of some kind over Xbox and PC. In a blog post, Activision detailed this advantage vaguely:
But the best is yet to come. For the very first time in our partnership with PlayStation, PS4 players will have an exciting Day 1 advantage. More details on how Call of Duty will continue to support PlayStation as the best place to play Modern Warfare will be rolled out soon.
An “exciting Day 1 advantage” could mean many things. A couple of common guesses are PS4 will start Modern Warfare with Double XP or receive some cosmetic items simply for playing on PS4. It could also be an in-game weapon like the one players will receive for hitting Level 10 in the beta.
Play the Modern Warfare Beta and reach Level 10 before it ends to get an exclusive Hammer Shotgun in game at launch https://t.co/zjxNOdD6Ug pic.twitter.com/IcJAQarFOZ
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) September 17, 2019
We’ll just have to wait and see what Activision has up its sleeve for PS4 users this year. Make sure to stay tuned to Daily Esports for all Modern Warfare coverage.
