In case you hadn’t heard, the Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard has overcome its final hurdle. That means with the purchase officially complete Microsoft has acquired an extensive catalog of games. The bad news here is those games aren't coming to Game Pass anytime soon.
Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer confirmed this news during the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast — stating that the first Activision Blizzard games likely won’t come to GamePass until sometime in 2024. Evidently it’s all down to the fact the regulatory process took so long.
“The regulatory process took so long... that we weren’t able to get in and work with the Activision Blizzard on that back catalog work.” Spencer said. “Now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work, but there is work.”
Spencer also referred to a tweet made by Activision Blizzard earlier this month, noting that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 won’t be available on Game Pass until some point next year. Just like Spencer, the tweet pins this on the fact the acquisition needed to be complete before any such work could commence.
It’s awesome to see anticipation building for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III. As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass.While we…October 9, 2023
Spencer admits that people will be disappointed by this news, and the fact a bunch of Activision games won’t be landing on Game Pass on day one of the new ownership. There had been rumors that this could happen, which had happened after the acquisition of Bethesda in 2021. Unfortunately that isn’t the case this time round.
There’s a lot to enjoy on Game Pass right now, including Bethesda’s space-epic Starfield — a game that’s done its best to monopolize my time over the past month or so. So it’s not as though there’s any shortage of reasons to subscribe to Game Pass. It’s just that Call of Duty, and other Activision Blizzard games, aren’t going to be among them for a while.
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