The rights to the Call of Duty franchise are controlled by Microsoft, through its ownership of Activision Blizzard, which developed and publishes the series.

Who owns Call of Duty?

  • Microsoft completed a roughly $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the creator and publisher of Call of Duty, in October 2023, giving Microsoft corporate ownership of the franchise and its underlying intellectual property.
  • Activision Publishing (now a Microsoft subsidiary) still operates Call of Duty day to day, handling development, marketing, and licensing under Microsoft’s overall control.

Cloud and platform rights

  • As part of antitrust concessions, long‑term cloud streaming rights for Activision games, including Call of Duty, were licensed to Ubisoft for 15 years outside the European Economic Area, after which those specific cloud rights revert fully to Microsoft’s control.
  • Separate agreements keep Call of Duty available on rival platforms like PlayStation for a set period, but those deals are about distribution, not ownership of the franchise itself.

Latest news and forum chatter

  • Recent coverage and gaming commentary frame the deal as placing Call of Duty “under Xbox,” but this is shorthand; legally, the owner is Microsoft, with Activision Blizzard operating as the internal label behind the games.
  • Forum discussions often mention “Activision owns Call of Duty,” which is still functionally true at the label level, but since Activision Blizzard is now a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary, ultimate ownership and control sit with Microsoft.

Quick SEO notes (for your post)

  • Focus phrase “who owns the rights to Call of Duty” naturally fits in a short answer like: “Call of Duty is owned by Microsoft, via its Activision Blizzard subsidiary, with some temporary cloud streaming rights licensed to Ubisoft.”
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TL;DR: Microsoft owns the Call of Duty franchise through Activision Blizzard, while Ubisoft temporarily controls certain cloud‑streaming rights and platform deals keep the games on multiple systems for now.