Several Activision Blizzard titles will reportedly arrive on Xbox Game Pass as soon as Microsoft finalizes the publisher’s acquisition deal.
The Xbox Two podcast co-host and Windows Central Managing Editor Jez Corden took to Twitter to reveal that, as per his sources, a “bunch” of Acitivision Blizzard titles are expected to be available on Xbox Game Pass as soon as Microsoft has finished acquiring the Call of Duty publisher.
This is contrary to what Activision Blizzard has said in an official statement. The publisher stated that, as it does not have plans to add Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Diablo IV to the Xbox Game Pass catalog this year. However, once the deal closes, it expects to start working with Xbox to bring its titles to more players around the world. As such, Activision Blizzard anticipates that it would begin adding games to the Xbox Game Pass catalog sometime in the course of 2024. Based on what Corden said, however, it appears that Microsoft has plans to accelerate the integration of Activision Blizzard titles into Xbox Game Pass once the deal closes.
While its unlikely that games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Diablo IV will make an appearance on Microsoft’s premium subscription service in 2023, there are several other games from the Call of Duty publisher’s lineup that may be added. After all, making Xbox Game Pass more enticing to consumers is among the prime reasons behind this acquisition. Digital media and entertainment software analyst,Michael Pachter, certainly thinks so. He had recently made, in his words, a rather bold prediction regarding Microsoft’s premium game subscription service. He had stated that if Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard King deal closes, Xbox Game Pass will have around 50 million subscribers by the end of the year 2024.
According to him, post acquisition, Xbox Game Pass offers will offer tremendous value for money. He had brought up the Call of Duty franchise as a major catalyst in the potential growth of Xbox Game Pass, further stating that PlayStation owners would be interested in playing the first-person shooter series on Microsoft’s premium subscription service in addition to the other games available there.
