A plethora of classic Call of Duty titles, such as Black Ops 1, Modern Warfare 2, and many more are seeing a huge increase in players after matchmaking for online services was suddenly fixed earlier this week, making the multiplayer modes available once again.

Unfortunately, the matchmaking only appears to be working for the Xbox 360 versions of these classic titles. But the good news is that Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X users can still get it in on the action thanks to Microsoft's Smart Delivery function. Whether you own a copy of a classic Call of Duty title physically or digitally, your Xbox will allow you to play it through backward compatibility.

It appears Activision has fixed matchmaking on older Call of Duty games on Xbox 360 pic.twitter.com/eH1snzx0NI

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) July 12, 2023

As noted by CharlieIntel, Activision hasn't made any sort of announcement as to why servers for these classic titles were suddenly fixed. The news comes shortly after Microsoft won its court case against the FTC, which was attempting to block the company's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, the studio behind Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and many more.

Microsoft still hasn't officially acquired Activision-Blizzard at the time of writing, so although many Call of Duty fans likely believe the return of these classic titles is due to the acquisition, that likely isn't the case. But, as mentioned previously, the exact reason for their return is currently unknown. It is still in the realm of possibility that this is something Microsoft and Activision have discussed in the build-up to the acquisition.

Microsoft still has one more hurdle to overcome before it can make its $69 billion acquisition of Activision official. The UK's Competition and Market Authority still stand in the way of the deal, recently extending their decision to August 29th, although they are expected to make a decision earlier.

The UK CMA cites cloud gaming concerns as to why they wish to block the deal, but given that every other country in the world has now approved the deal, many believe it's only a matter of time before Microsoft and the UK CMA reach some sort of agreement.

Posted: Jul 18, 2023 9:20 pm
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/classic-call-of-duty-games-servers-back-online/