Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer has confirmed that Activision Blizzard games won’t be dropping on the Game Pass until at least 2024, despite Microsoft’s recent acquisition. This confirms an earlier statement from Activision that fans shouldn’t expect the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remake to drop onto Game Pass on launch.
Many had hoped the acquisition clearing UK regulatory courts would mean a sizeable drop of new content for Game Pass subscribers. This had previously happened after the Bethesda purchase, with Game Pass players being treated to an influx of new content that included Bethesda games like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored, and more. Unfortunately, due to the complexities of the purchase of Activision Blizzard, that simply wasn’t possible this time around.
Speaking to the Official Xbox Podcast, Spencer was clear that the way everything was structured meant securing such a drop was near-impossible. "The regulatory process took so long, and frankly there was a lot of uncertainty in that process up to a week before we closed — or the week of — when the CMA finally came down to their decision, that we weren't able to get in and work with mostly Activision Blizzard in this case, on that back catalogue work. So now that the deal is closed, we're starting that work, but there is work." He went on to say ""I would love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop that's coming in the next couple of weeks. There's not."
So that is, unfortunately for fans, pretty clear. Spencer went on to confirm that the target painted by Activision last week of 2024 was accurate, and he was being so clear with this because he didn’t want to sugarcoat the truth and hide it from people.
There has been no word on which games we can expect to see on the Game Pass from the Activision Blizzard roster, but it’s highly likely we’ll see a good number of Call of Duty titles, new and old, as well as a number of Blizzard games. Diablo seems like a solid option for the Game Pass, and so are games like Overwatch 2, and StarCraft. Will the mighty World of Warcraft be included on the Game Pass? That seems a lot more unlikely, given the juggernaut’s ability to continue pushing sales by itself.