Activision Blizzard expects to bring its titles to Xbox Game Pass as early as 2024, according to a new statement from the company.
This news follows Microsoft’s prediction that it will complete its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard within the next week (via VGC). Despite resistance from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), it appears that Microsoft is close to completing the acquisition – almost two years after the initial announcement.
In response to this development, Activision Blizzard released a statement on Monday outlining what this means in regards to making titles available on Microsoft’s popular subscription service, Xbox Game Pass.
“As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we are receiving some questions about whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available through Game Pass,” Activision Blizzard said.
“Although we have no plans for that Modern Warfare 3 or Diablo 4 in Game Pass this year, once the deal closes, we expect to work with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world over the course of next year.”
Although the FTC lost its case against Microsoft because the judge ruled that the acquisition did not violate US anti-monopoly laws, the tech giant still had to address the concerns of the CMA in Britain. To appease Britain’s monopolies watchdog, Activision Blizzard promised to sell the streaming rights to its games to Ubisoft, breaking competition in the streaming market. This move satisfied the CMA, which subsequently stated that this plan “substantially addresses most of the concerns” the British organization had about the takeover.
With this in mind, while Activision Blizzard games may appear on Game Pass next year, it seems highly unlikely that the titles will be available on the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.
Looking for a distraction from the legal drama? Check out our lists of the best pc gamesthe best PS5 exclusivesand the best Xbox Series X games.