As Microsoft draws closer to shelling out $69 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty publisher has revealed its plans for Xbox Game Pass.
In a statement on social media website X, Activision Blizzard said not to expect titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV to hit Game Pass this year. However, the next year looks a little more fruitful.
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“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,” the publisher said. “While we do not have plans to put Modern Warfare III or Diablo IV into Game Pass this year, once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world. And we anticipate that we would begin adding games into Game Pass sometime in the course of next year.”
During the FTC trial in June, Xbox Vice President Sarah Bond pointed out that the current agreement between Activision Blizzard and PlayStation will keep Call of Duty from hitting Game Pass before January 2025. So, whether or not Call of Duty 2024 will hit Game Pass on release remains to be seen but it could arrive on the subscription platform within a month or so after the release once the agreement expires.
Of course, Call of Duty is only a small piece of the bigger pie (but one of the most cash-rich, mind you), as Activision Blizzard has plenty of other titles to publish on Game Pass that are free from the clutches of a PlayStation agreement. This includes Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Candy Crush Saga.
Microsoft is expected to complete the deal before the October 18 deadline they had agreed upon with Activision following the various legal battles in court.
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Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Mufaddal Fakhruddin has been writing about games and technology for the past 15 years. He has lost count as to how many reviews he has written over the years, but he is sure headphone reviews make up at least 70% of that.
Damn! This is great news. Xbox is more powerful than the PS anyways.