We’re all excited about the deal between Xbox and Activision-Blizzard-King, and it’s no wonder. Just imagine games like World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, or Call of Duty on Game Pass – it’s the dream of millions of players. With just one subscription, hundreds of titles at the click of a button.
Well, it’s time to lower our expectations, at least for the moment. There’s no ongoing celebration set to take place in a couple of weeks where all the games will be announced as a surprise addition to Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox head and Microsoft Gaming CEO, Phil Spencer, has confirmed that Activision Blizzard games will not be coming to Xbox Game Pass anytime soon. In the latest official Xbox podcast, Spencer stated that there won’t be a significant influx of Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks, and we won’t see any of them until 2024.
Phil Spencer makes it clear: not until 2024
“The regulatory process took so long… that we couldn’t get in and work with Activision Blizzard on that backlog of work. Now that the deal is closed, we are starting that work, but there is work. I think the Activision Twitter… posted something about 2024, and I think that’s right. I would love there to be some secret celebration in the next couple of weeks, but there isn’t,” explained Phil yesterday.
Activision Blizzard tweeted, before the deal with Microsoft closed, that Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV wouldn’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year. But the status of older Activision Blizzard games was unclear until Phil Spencer clarified it today.
“I know there will be some disappointment around that,” Spencer admits. “This acquisition is definitely a long-term thing, so the fact that we’re not coming day one with a bunch of games landing in Game Pass is a little bit depressing, but I’m really excited about the future. And I just want to be honest with people that’s where we are,” Phil concluded.
Many Xbox fans were hoping that Microsoft would include previous versions of Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass almost immediately.
Part of the anticipation for the additions to Xbox Game Pass was based on how Microsoft included 20 Bethesda games in Game Pass just two days after finalizing their acquisition. Microsoft also went the extra mile by fixing classic Call of Duty titles for Xbox 360 in July, right before the original deadline of the agreement with Activision Blizzard.
Players had been complaining for years about not being able to matchmake in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Microsoft suddenly addressed this during the summer.
