After much speculation Xbox Head Phil Spencer today has confirmed that games such as Call of Duty will come to Xbox Game Pass. Up until this morning’s announcement, no one was really sure whether or not Activision Blizzard titles would make their way to Xbox’s cloud gaming service. Spencer wants to make it clear though, that the efforts being made over at Microsoft and Xbox are in service to the players.
That means making popular games like Call Of Duty available on Xbox Game Pass so it can reach as many people as possible. Regardless of the platform and device they play on. Call Of Duty isn’t the only Activision Blizzard property coming to the service either.
Diablo and Overwatch will join Call Of Duty on Xbox Game Pass
Two more of Activision Blizzard’s most popular franchises are going to be on Game Pass in the future. Diablo and Overwatch. Spencer doesn’t give specifics. But players can probably count on at least the next title from each franchise to be included.
This would mean Diablo IV, and Overwatch 2. There is also a chance that older Diablo titles could make their way to Game Pass. Since Diablo II: Resurrected and Diablo III both have console versions. While this is all good news for fans of those series’, there’s still no availability dates.
Diablo IV is still a while off, coming sometime in 2023. Overwatch 2 and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II are both launching in October. But there’s no guarantee that either of those will be on Game Pass on day 1. Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard still hasn’t been finalized. And it’s likely the company will want to complete it before introducing any of ABK’s games to Game Pass.
One thing that does seem to be a guarantee is that Call Of Duty will continue to be on PlayStation on the same day as it releases on other platforms. Spencer once again assures players that this is the plan and they intend to stick to it.
Other Activision Blizzard games are coming to Game Pass
The three franchises above are the only ones that Spencer mentions by name. But he also states that Microsoft and the Xbox team “intend to make Activision Blizzard’s much-loved library of games – including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty – available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities.”
This suggests that other franchises outside of Call Of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch will be included at some point. Activision has tons of franchises. But Blizzard really only has a few. And one could make some pretty good guesses as to which ones might be coming. Hearthstone, Heroes Of The Storm, StarCraft, WarCraft, and World Of Warcraft are all seemingly possibilities. WoW of course would be the big one. And it would certainly be interesting to see how it joining Game Pass would change things up.
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