Blizzard Entertainment Diablo 4 will be the first new Activision Blizzard title to appear on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, Xbox chief executive Sarah Bond announced Thursday during an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. Diablo 4 will be available on March 28, Bond said, and it sounds like the first of several Activision and Blizzard-developed games headed to Game Pass.
Microsoft officially acquired Activision Blizzard in October, as part of a lengthy and highly controversial deal worth an estimated $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard’s franchises, including Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo, are now owned by Microsoft.
When that acquisition closed last fall, That’s what Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, said that Game Pass subscribers should not expect a day one drop in the Activision Blizzard games catalog on the service. “I know there’s going to be some disappointment about that,” Spencer said at the time. “This acquisition is definitely for the long term, so the fact that we don’t arrive on day one with a bunch of games coming to Game Pass is a bit of a dampener, but I’m very excited about the future. And I just want to be honest with people: that’s where we are right now.
A slower rollout of Activision Blizzard games on Game Pass may frustrate subscribers, but it’s clearly in Microsoft’s best interest to roll out those games over time to keep the service’s offerings fresh from month to month . Microsoft also has a long list of back catalog titles to choose from, including other games in the Diablo franchise, annual Call of Duty titles, and classic games supported via backward compatibility.
Diablo 4 was originally released on May 30, 2023 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series Battle.net service, the company later released Diablo 4 via Steam – one of only two Blizzard games to make the jump to Valve’s store so far.
The first expansion will be released later this year Diablo 4titled Vessel of hatredis expected to start. Vessel of hatred will bring with it a brand new class – one that is completely new to the Diablo universe – and will kick off Blizzard’s plan to release a new expansion for Diablo 4 annual.