Xbox Game Pass plans to add key Activision Blizzard games, including Call of Duty
It’s starting to look like Microsoft’s monumental purchase of Activision Blizzard is going through. There’s still business of getting approval from regulators around the world, of course, but Microsoft seems confident things will work out in its favor and the acquisition will close. For that reason, it’s confident in teasing its plans for Activision’s various franchises when it comes down to it Xbox Game Pass.
As soon as the acquisition was announced earlier this year, there was speculation as to what it would mean for Xbox’s subscription service. Given its popularity, it’s pretty much a given that Activision games will be brought into Game Pass if the acquisition goes through, and in a message on Microsoft’s website, Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained as much. He talked about how the company intends to make “Activision Blizzard’s popular game library” available through the service to bring it to a wider audience.
However, Spencer was a bit more vague when it came to naming specific games and just said call of Duty, Diabloand over watch are planned for Game Pass. That’s still good news for Xbox owners of those franchises, but it doesn’t provide details that many have been eagerly awaiting, such as: B. how long it will take call of Duty to be added to Game Pass or which games are being added. It also begs the question of whether other Activision Blizzard franchises not mentioned are included, such as: Warcraft, star ship, Crash BandicootEtc.
On the other hand, it’s likely these are questions that can’t be answered in more detail until the acquisition is complete, and to reiterate, whether that happens depends on regulatory approval of the deal. One potential hurdle is the possibility that acquiring Activision and its library of key IPs could confine them to the Xbox ecosystem, thereby limiting Sony’s and other companies’ ability to compete with Microsoft, which is what the gaming market needs to be healthy to stay.
For his part, Spencer doesn’t seem too concerned, stressing in his message that Microsoft is aware of these potential issues and is working to avoid them. In the same way that Microsoft continues to support Minecraft As a multiplatform release following the Mojang acquisition, he said it will do the same for franchises with audiences outside of Xbox. This includes “committing to maintain the same version of call of Duty Available on PlayStation the same day the game releases elsewhere.”
With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Spencer said Microsoft wanted to “take a principled path” and concluded by stating that the company will continue to work with regulators to ensure the acquisition ultimately “benefits the industry and stakeholders.” Hopefully things move in that direction and Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play Activision’s games without worrying about the wider implications.
Source: microsoft
https://gamerant.com/xbox-game-pass-activision-blizzard-call-of-duty-plans/ Xbox Game Pass plans to add key Activision Blizzard games, including Call of Duty
