More and more, it’s looking like Microsoft’s monumental purchase of Activision Blizzard is going to go through. There is still the business of gaining approval from regulators across the globe, of course, but Microsoft seems confident that things will work out in its favor andthe acquisition will be finalized. Which is why it’s confident in teasing its plans for Activision’s various franchises when it comes toXbox Game Pass.
As soon as the acquisition was announced earlier this year, people were speculating what this would mean for Xbox’s subscription service. Considering its popularity, it’s pretty much a given thatActivision games will be brought to Game Passif the acquisition goes through, and in a message on Microsoft’s website, Xbox head Phil Spencer stated as much. He brought up how the company intends to make “Activision Blizzard’s much-loved library of games” available on the service in order to make them accessible to a wider audience.
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Spencer was a little more vague when it came to naming specific games, however, merely sayingCall of Duty,Diablo, andOverwatchare planned for Game Pass. That’s still good news for Xbox-owning fans of those franchises, but it fails to provide details many have been eager to learn, likehow long it will take forCall of Dutyto be added to Game Pass, or which games will be added. There’s also the question of other Activision Blizzard franchises that weren’t mentioned being included, likeWarcraft,StarCraft,Crash Bandicoot, etc.
Then again, it’s likely those are questions that can’t be answered in greater detail until the acquisition is finalized, and to reiterate, whether that happens will hinge on whether regulators approve of the deal. One potential hurdle is the possibility that the buyout of Activision and its library of major IPs could limit them to the Xbox ecosystem, thusrestricting Sony and other companies’ ability to compete with Microsoft, something the gaming market needs to stay healthy.
Spencer, for his part, doesn’t seem all that worried, and stressed in his message that Microsoft is aware of these potential issues and working to avoid them. In the same way thatMicrosoft has continued to supportMinecraftas a multiplatform release following its acquisition of Mojang, he said that it will do the same for franchises with audiences outside Xbox. This includes being “committed to making the same version ofCall of Dutyavailable on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere.”
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