It was mentioned back in January when Microsoft announced the intention to acquire Activision Blizzard that lots of games from the company would be coming to Xbox Game Pass ASAP, and that's still very much the plan.
Speaking recently (as highlighted by IGN), Xbox Corporate Vice President Sarah Bond reiterated the desire to bring "as many titles as possible" to Xbox Game Pass when the deal eventually goes through:
"We want to put as many titles as possible from Activision Blizzard into Game Pass when they join us."
The barrier to this right now is that the deal has not yet completed, with the acquisition expected to conclude somewhere between July 2022 and June 2023, so we could be waiting quite a while yet.
When it does finally happen, we're going to (hopefully) be treated to some amazing franchises that have never appeared on Game Pass, such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tony Hawk, Call of Duty, Diablo and many, many others!
Excited for Activision Blizzard games to hit Game Pass? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 12
"When they join us" so not happening this Sunday.
Good stuff but actions speak louder than words lol. I know the acquisition is technically not complete yet but I’m excited to see Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk, CoD, and more on GamePass!
I got out the old guitar hero for the Wii the other day. Decided to pick up some of the games I didn't have from CEX as well. Been having a blast.
I'm hoping for a port/BC/revival. Would love some classic guitar hero to come back!
I know mostly ppl already knew this but it's impressive that they are adding more games to gamepass ,more reasons to love how gamepass is
Watch the presentation on Sunday be all about Activision games coming to Gamepass. Lol.
I'm guessing anything with licenced music/content isn't coming to game pass, that seems to be one of the major stumbling blocks even when it's MS' own games
I didn't realize this was up in the air on anyone's minds. If the game can run on XBox One or XBox Series X|S, I expect it to come to XBox Game Pass within a couple months after the acquisition closing.
I hope that some of these games are updated for Series X/S in order to run at 60fps, especially Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Xbox One X was more supported than PS4 Pro by third parties but I'm not seeing that many Series X/S upgrades in spite of the popularity of the new consoles. Many notable games are still running at 30fps, e.g. every Crash game except 4, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Forza Horizon 3...
Until MS own Activision Publishing, they don't own the rights to Publish their games to Game Pass. Its the 'Publishing' side of this acquisition that will give them that option. Of course that doesn't mean 'every' Activision Published game can be published to Game Pass, depends on other Licences too (like Marvel, Hasbro or James Bond based games) and who owns those but the rest should be OK.
Its no different from their Purchase of Zenimax and owning the publishing rights to put those 'old' games into Game Pass. Buying a Studio may get you the talent and/or IP, but doesn't give you the right to Publish their 'old' games because someone else owns those. That's why Publishers cost a LOT more money than Studios/IP's. Bungie, with Publishing rights to Destiny and very few IP's cost Sony more than 10x as much as Insomniac who had more IPs but no Publishing rights...
@BBB
They take their hands off the day-to-day, but I am sure they are involved in the strategic side on what franchises should continue, cease, or be created.
I would expect MS to slow down CoD game iterations (maybe 3 out of every five years or even every second year), and start resurrecting franchises parked because of excessive CoD work.
I wonder if the Xbox 360 ports of Wolfenstein 3D and Quake 3 Arcade will come to Game Pass once the deal goes through? Those ports were published by Activision and that’s the only reason I can think of for them not being added alongside the other Bethesda games.
Soldier of fortune to pc pass plz!
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