Later this week, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority is expected to give its final approval for Microsoft's plan to buy Activision Blizzard for close to $69 billion. If that happens, Microsoft is also expected to close that deal as soon as possible, perhaps as soon as Friday, October 13.
Many people have been wondering when Activision Blizzard games would start becoming available on Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass. Nearly all of Microsoft's first-party games, plus games from its Bethesda Softworks division, are available to play on the service for one low monthly price.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Activision Blizzard offered up some info on when its titles will be added to Xbox Game Pass. Assuming the deal closes, the publisher says that its 2023 games like Diablo IV and the upcoming Call of Duty Modern Warfare III would not be added to the service in 2023.
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.
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) October 9, 2023
While we…
However, it said if the deal closes, Activision Blizzard will start to work with Microsoft to begin the process of adding its titles to Xbox Games Pass, adding that will happen "sometime in the course of next year."
While that's a pretty vague timeline, this post does confirm that we should not expect to see Activision Blizzard titles on Xbox Game Pass in 2023.
As part of its new plan that was submitted to the CMA, Microsoft has pledged to give cloud gaming rights for current and future Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft for the next 15 years. That means subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service, which includes Xbox Cloud Gaming, would not have any Activision Blizzard games for a long time.
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