World of Warcraft Xbox release date: Will WoW come to Xbox Game Pass?

With Microsoft’s Upcoming Activision Blizzard Acquisition, fans are wondering if a World of Warcraft Xbox release date is in the future. With the popularity of MMOs from the end of this year, WoW on Xbox Game Pass will make sense. This is especially true given how popular Final Fantasy 14 has been since Endwalker was released.

Will World of Warcraft come to Xbox Game Pass and consoles?

Microsoft has not explicitly stated any of its plans regarding Activision Blizzard. We can assume that there will be a number of changes, and giving WoW a console release could be one of them. There aren’t many MMOs available for consoles, and bringing WoW to Xbox would greatly expand its potential audience. However, programming a console-based interface and control will not be a simple task.

Even if Microsoft brings WoW to Xbox Game Pass, what will its profit model be? Blizzard currently charges a monthly subscription fee for the game, which would somewhat negate the purpose of including it in Game Pass. We could see Microsoft letting users play through the base game and the first expansion for free, then charging a subscription fee for the passed content.

Alternatively, World of Warcraft could go the free-to-play route. Of course, that would anger a lot of existing fans, and could backfire for Microsoft. That’s why we think it will be a couple of years before we see any changes to the way World of Warcraft operates. Microsoft will want to recoup a huge amount of money it paid Activision Blizzard, and rocking the boat of the biggest money maker Blizzard won’t be a great start.

Mostly, we think Microsoft could offer the base game and expansions to Game Pass owners, but we doubt there will be any changes beyond that. There will most likely be an Xbox version of the game, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see that materialize in the next few years.