Activision Blizzard games will not be involving Xbox Game Pass till following year because of hold-ups triggered by the acquisition’s lengthy, freshly concluded regulatory process.
Phil Spencer, Xbox manager and chief executive officer of Microsoft’s video gaming arm, validated as much in the most up to date episode of the authorities Xbox podcast.
“When we finished Bethesda, there was this great moment and we were able to put a bunch of the back catalog games and celebrate their history,” Spencer claims. “The what’s what is, with Activision Blizzard King the governing procedure took as long, and truthfully there was a great deal of unpredictability because procedure till actually a week prior to we shut, when the CMA finally came down to their decision, that we weren’t able to get in and work with, mostly Activision Blizzard in this case, on that back catalog. So now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work. But there is work, and I think the Activision Twitter handle did put out something that talked about 2024. I think that’s accurate.”
The statement Spencer’s seemingly referring to confirmed that Activision does “not have plans to put [Call of Duty] Modern Warfare III or Diablo 4 into Game Pass this year.” However, this statement preceded the actual closure of the deal, and that was all Activision said at the time, only adding that “once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world.” Spencer’s comments have now ruled out any Activision Blizzard games from hitting Game Pass this year.
“I would love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop that’s coming in the next couple of weeks,” Spencer continues. “There’s not. When we think about the new games that are there, I would be straight with people if we were gonna put them in the subscription this year. I know there’ll be some disappointment about that. This acquisition is definitely long-term. The fact we’re not hitting day one with a bunch of games dropping into Game Pass is a little bit of a downer, but I’m very excited about the future.”
Following Xbox deal, embattled Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will stay “through the end of 2023” at Phil Spencer’s request.
Source: gamesradar.com
