Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 may be exclusive to Battle.net and not come to Steam. The digital distribution service is also home to Destiny 2 for PC as well as Blizzard hits like Overwatch and Diablo 3. And according to a report, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 may be on it too. It seems that publisher Activision is interested in ensuring its future games are on its own platform instead of sharing revenue with Valve, the company that runs popular PC game store, Steam. Along with this Activision also wants to cut down on costs associated with such services.
Sources speaking to Gaming Intel claim that developer Treyarch is focussing on making this the best PC port since Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 "so that people won’t be as angry about the switch from the popular Steam distribution service to Battle.net."
Currently, it seems that the quality assurance team in charge of bugs for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on PC is a dedicated unit "as they want to focus on PC a great deal this year."
What's most interesting though, is the possibility of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 being a cross-play title, similar to current industry darling, Fortnite.
"The push for a separate platform is also, according to this source, to directly respond to pressures placed onto Activision by the rising battle royale juggernaut, Fortnite. From what this source has heard, a greater focus is being pushed onto Battle.net because multiple devs have been testing cross-platform functionality," the report states.
Furthermore, it appears that Battle.net may resemble Epic Games' own PC client and allow users to add those from PS4 and Xbox One. At the moment, there's no clue how far along development for this is and if it is functional at all. If it is a reality, it could tie in with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's rumoured battle royale mode.
Destiny 2 on PC Is Exclusive to Battle.net and That’s Great. Here’s Why.
As is the case with most things Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, we'd urge caution. Although Gaming Intel claims its source was accurate in the past, it's best to take this information with a ton of salt until we hear from Activision and Treyarch during the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 reveal on May 17.
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