The earlier uncertainty surrounding the merger means no Activision games will be on the service until 2024, at least according to Phil Spencer.

 

 

So Xbox now owns Activision-Blizzard, right? So why aren’t Call of Duty and Diablo on Game Pass yet!?!?! This is a question on many people’s minds these days. Now that the huge acquisition of Xbox is finally complete. Recently, Xbox head Phil Spencer appeared on the Official Xbox Podcast to try and answer the question.

During the podcast, Spencer was asked about the recent news that we won’t see a massive drop in Activision-Blizzard games on Game Pass immediately after the deal closes, as many expected.

As pointed out, Game Pass got a lot of new games back in the day when Xbox acquired Zenimax. Just days after the deal closed, twenty Bethesda games were added to the service. Including some of the company’s biggest franchises.

So where are Activision Blizzard’s games? Spencer says: they’re coming. Sooner or later. But the regulatory challenges surrounding the acquisition made it a little more complicated than the Zenimax deal. Adding games to Game Pass is not as simple as flipping a switch.

“The truth of the matter is with Activision/Blizzard/King that the regulatory process took so long, and frankly there was a lot of uncertainty in that process up until really 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 catalog work,” says Spencer.

“So now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work, but there is work. And…the Twitter handle did put out something that talked about 2024, I think that’s accurate. I would love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop that was coming in the next couple of weeks, there’s not.”

Spencer went on to admit that the lack of a celebratory, sudden drop was “a little bit of a downer” but reassured that games are coming, after all, including Diablo 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

In the same interview, he reiterated Call of Duty’s “100% parity” across all platforms. Including PlayStation, in line with the 10-year agreement between Xbox and Sony.

Activision Blizzard’s acquisition of Xbox officially closed last week. Xbox paid $69 billion to fully absorb the gaming giant after more than a year of legal and regulatory battles in several countries.

Source: YouTube