Yesterday we had one of the most important moments in the gaming industry in two decades. Obviously, we are talking about the official Xbox podcast where the future of the brand was explained, its business plans and its foray into multiplatform releases.
Yesterday, February 15, 2024, Xbox was brave enough to talk at length about the future of the brand, including the highly anticipated arrival of Activision Blizzard titles to Game Pass, starting with Diablo 4.
In addition to revealing that four unannounced games will be multiplatform and that Xbox is already planning the next generation of consoles, they finally confirmed when fans can expect Activision Blizzard franchises to arrive on the Game Pass subscription service.
When does Diablo IV arrive on Game Pass and who are the subscribers
Starting from March 28th, Diablo 4 will be available for Game Pass users on both PC and Xbox. But there’s a catch, as Game Pass Core members won’t be able to play it.
In statements to The Verge, Kari Perez, Xbox’s communication manager, has confirmed that Game Pass Core users will not be able to play Diablo 4 when it launches on the service.
Game Pass Core was introduced last September as a way to eliminate the obsolete Xbox Live Gold program. It is the cheapest of the four levels offered by Microsoft (console, PC, and Ultimate are the other three) and costs $10 or the equivalent according to the region, in Spain it is €6.99.
Unlike the other levels of Game Pass, the Core level only offers a handful of titles, about 25, much less than the hundreds offered by a regular subscription.
The strange thing about Microsoft’s message is that, during the podcast, Sarah Bond, Xbox president, and Phil Spencer, CEO, announced that Game Pass had reached 34 million subscribers and that all of them could enjoy Diablo 4, which is incorrect, since that figure also includes Game Pass Core members.
This can cause some confusion when users of the basic Game Pass subscription interested in trying Diablo 4 don’t know why they can’t do it, so we’ll have to see if Xbox releases a statement clarifying the availability of this and other Activision Blizzard games in the future.
