After 19 months of court cases, talks with regulators, and legal battles, Microsoft finally purchased Activision Blizzard. The deal, worth $69 billion, has been the talk of the tech world and the gaming industry since the acquisition was first announced in January 2022. Now that it’s done, the discussion shifts to how soon the library of games from Activision Blizzard will make its way to Game Pass.
Statements from Activision Blizzard and precedent set by Microsoft’s past gaming acquisitions give us some idea of when ABK titles will be added to Game Pass, but we still don’t know a lot.
Past purchases by Microsoft
Activision Blizzard is the largest acquisition Microsoft has ever made, but it’s far from the only purchase. Microsoft bought Bethesda in March 2021. Less than one week after that deal, 20 Bethesda titles were added to the Xbox Game Pass list. More games made their way to Microsoft’s subscription service, including the complete mainline Fallout series in June 2022. Several classic Bethesda titles followed in August, including Quake 4.
With Bethesda entirely in the fold, Starfield launched earlier this year. It earned high praise and was called “one of Microsoft’s best exclusive games in over a decade” in our Starfield review.
Microsoft will likely take a similar approach to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Some titles will go to Game Pass almost immediately, while more will be added over time. Of course, some games may take much longer than others.
How Activision Blizzard is different
Don’t book Monday off work yet, as you likely won’t be able to get the biggest Activision Blizzard titles through Xbox Game Pass right away.
With the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history comes many complicated steps the tech giant will have to take. Call of Duty is one of the largest gaming franchises, so it is expectedly connected to several licensing deals. Before the CMA approved Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, the latter discussed its plans for Call of Duty.
The gaming giant said it doesn’t have immediate plans to offer Modern Warfare III or Diablo IV. Instead, the gaming giant will likely look into adding premium games to Game Pass some time in 2024.
It’s awesome to see anticipation building for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III. As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass.
While we do not have plans to put Modern Warfare® III or Diablo IV into Game Pass this year, once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world. And we anticipate that we would begin adding games into Game Pass sometime in the course of next year.@ATVI_AB on X (Twitter)
Activision Blizzard was vague even when stating that premium ABK games will likely come to Game Pass in 2024. There are likely a lot of agreements in place and discussions to be had before you see the entire ABK library on Game Pass.
While Activision Blizzard doesn’t have plans to add specific titles to Game Pass in 2023, you may see a wave of games added to the service. Our Managing Editor, Jez Corden, stated that we “expect to see a ton of new games hit Xbox Game Pass the very minute the deal is finalized.”
It’s been a few hours since the deal closed, so we can safely say new games haven’t been added in a minute, but some titles are expected to be added to Game Pass soon, potentially as soon as next week.
A massive opportunity
Corden has an entire piece breaking down how the Activision Blizzard deal closing creates a massive opportunity for Microsoft and gaming. Xbox and PC Game Pass could skyrocket with the addition of Activision Blizzard titles. Cloud gaming and mobile gaming should get a considerable boost as well. You just may have to wait a bit for your favorite games to make their way to Xbox Game Pass.
