You've probably noticed over the past few years that we've never seen any Activision games crop up on Xbox Game Pass — the likes of Call of Duty, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk — and Microsoft appears to have revealed the reason for this, as part of new documents related to the attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Although some of the information is redacted for privacy / legal reasons, Microsoft says that Activision is "concerned" about the "brand dilution" and "cannibalisation of buy-to-play sales" that could result from including games on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, especially for new releases.
"Activision is concerned that participation in subscription services could impact its [REDACTED] and would lead to brand dilution and cannibalisation of buy-to-play sales (especially of new releases)."
"Historically, a very limited number of Activision titles have featured on PlayStation Plus, but these titles have always been older releases that have been provided to PlayStation Plus many years after their initial release via buy-to-play, and are only made available for a limited time. Activision has never published any newer content on multigame subscription services and has no intention to do so in the future."
Microsoft's admission is intended to show that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which would result in ActiBlizz games being made available on Xbox Game Pass, "can not make competitive conditions worse" in the industry:
"Without the Merger, Activision content would not be available on multigame subscription services. The Merger can therefore not make competitive conditions worse, under any circumstances."
The document, which is aimed at the UK's Competitive Markets Authority, goes on to argue that Sony has a "range of options to maintain or improve the competitive position of PlayStation Plus" in response to Call of Duty potentially joining Xbox Game Pass (if the merger goes through), including the ability to integrate "additional first and third-party releases in PlayStation Plus on the 'day and date' release".
So, what's the state of play right now? Basically, if Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through next year, the plan is to seemingly include ActiBlizz games "day and date" on Xbox Game Pass in the future, although it appears Call of Duty might be a bit of a special case. If it doesn't go through for whatever reason, it sounds as though Activision Blizzard has no plans to support Xbox Game Pass anytime soon.
Assuming it all goes smoothly in the end, here's what we could be seeing on Xbox Game Pass in 2023:
What do you make of this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source assets.publishing.service.gov.uk]
Comments 34
"So, what's the state of play right now?"
I see what you did there.
@IronMan30
Activision has concerns? Awwww, that's cute.
@Kaloudz
Right now games availible to more gamers, after buys go thru you take away games for 100 million.
How is that more?
Everyone saying that mobile players will start playing console games on mobile are deluded. If they was interested in those games they would have got a console to play them.
@Neverwild true and i dont want to come to the point where games are watered down or held back because companies are trying to include mobile devices as players for a Triple A game.
Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight. Microsoft is buying Activision!?
frankly if you cant make call of duty exclusive i dont see the point in buying them
All Sony want is:
CoD on PlayStation
CoD never on GamePass.
I’m sure Sony would rather see CoD die as a brand than see it go into GamePass. And being offered it be on Plus Extra is not a solution either because they are terrified of anyone not-buying the game on PlayStation.
Smart move by MS as they apply pressure on Sony to play by their rules.
@Rmg0731 i have had no iissues using a controller on my fire 10 hd tablet to play halo... which even though i own a series X is the only place i play halo.. my pont is you dont have to water down a game these days to play it on a phone with streaming just a controller....and there are a bunch of games that dont even need a controller just use the touch screen controls...
Everyone will be moaning in 10 years when game devs make lesser games as it doesn't make them any money. As much as I think gamepass is great and very good value, I do genuinely believe over time we will be seeing a huge reduction in quality, really we have already seen it to a degree, especially as it's one sided, eventually those games won't be selling on playstation very well as you'll just invest in an Xbox of some sort.
Really Sony ( particular Jim ) is like a jealous Rat in the game industry…
@Kaloudz absolutely not mate.
Currently the games are available to all Xbox players and all PlayStation players.
After the acquisition they are only available to Xbox players, which means about 66% of current potential players lose out of being able to play those titles.
Its irrelevant if they are on a service or not.
The only possible difference from the above is COD, which may or may not be available to all, depending on what gets signed.
Signing this deal takes all of activations IP away from the over 100 million PlayStation players. Maybe that works for you, maybe it doesn't. But it certainly is NOT making games available to all, and it definitely IS removing those games from players who currently have access to them.
For it, not for it, doesn't really matter any more, but lets not try and pretend this is Xbox spending for the good of players everywhere, cause that's complete BS
@Kaloudz Why would you assume that? Bethesda was certainly not acquired with that strategy in mind and they have been keen to state they are buying exclusive content for game pass.
If they were buying this company and letting it run multiplat, then we wouldn't have had the sh*tshow we've been watching unfold for months as it would be basically 'as you are'.
You are the first person I've seen who even thinks that could be a possibility, and at no point has Microsoft ever stated they will keep all games multiplat. Why should they? COD however, with over 400 million sales, majority on PS platforms and the biggest game ever to be made outside Japan, is a special case, and they may be forced to concede its release on other platforms for now. But they have never pretended they would do this with the other titles.
One thing that has crossed my mind during all this acquisition drama is the fact that PlayStation consoles will likely continue to outsell Xbox for the foreseeable future regardless of where Activision ends up. As these companies, like any other, will always be for profit, it makes far more sense for Microsoft to keep most games multiplatform for revenue purposes.
I’m a fan of Gamepass and think it offers great value, however, I do think there’s a debate that can be had about it potentially ‘diluting’ a brand and the impact it may have on gaming overall.
Xbox has done pretty well over the last decade diluting their own first party brand before Gamepass was even a thing though with lacklustre exclusives and bad studio management. Can’t put any of that down to Gamepass 😜
Why are we still arguing that cod is going exclusive? Not even Sony believes that no matter what their hands wringing. Nor is destiny going ps exclusive.
The issue with money made on game sales and rising costs is that, add long as there are so many devs wanting us to buy so many games there's a cap on what people will spend. They need to start thinking of ways to get prices down of they want more people playing their games. If it's not subscriptions then what? Because the current model just ensures only the biggest blockbusters generate sales and everything not a sure bet big marketing sequel/service gets doomed long term.
@Neverwild fwiw I've started buying games on xb expressly because I can stream them to my phone in a controller grip. Granted I'm streaming from my console but that's semantics.
@NEStalgia I am not one to argue why anyone buys whenever they want, especially not Xbox since I also prefer to buy on Xbox, but, PlayStation also has remote play that lets us do the same thing.
@Kaloudz The goal posts will just move again.
The real problem is Sony never believed CoD would just disappear on their platform, that never made business sense for anyone. Their REAL fear has always been MS doing to them what they did to MS, i.e. being the "better deal" console associated with the most popular game, thus getting the big money pot. Everything they say is just manipulation and lies with some other indirect scapegoat excuse rather than having to come out and say "our problem with the deal is that we're afraid of them doing to us what we've done to them for 10 years, and nobody else should be allowed to use that One Simple Trick!" Even though they more or less actually did already say it semi-directly.
@Tharsman Yeah, and I do use Remote Play for that as well, but the whole way RP is handled on PS is kinda mediocre, and actually requires third party client software to work well. Not that I'm thrilled with XSXS weirdly hanging and not always turning on remotely. Plus on XB I have the XSS set up as a dedicated streaming rig, and it doesn't balk at trying to change logins like PS does. I have PS4 set up as my PS streaming rig because I don't want to waste runtime on the expensive and scarce 5 for streaming But I do use both.
Seems like Microsoft is the only company looking out for the consumers in this situation.
@Agnostic No.
@Kaloudz Not at all. MS response that Sony can just put more 1st party games on PS+ or acquire more 3rd party games for PS+ is BS reasoning. Playstation and PS+ isn't a loss leader for a trillion dollar company like Xbox and GP is for Microsoft.
It reminds me of when billionaires born from means say crap like "I got my start with a small (multi-million dollar) loan from my family." So because Xbox has a rich daddy all other game publishers should too. The only people who should be rooting for this acquisition to go through are fanboys. Frankly as a GP subscriber I don't want this to go through because I don't want to have to pay more for the service to pay for this acquisition.
@Serpentes420 That makes no sense at all, and before this deal Sony was flaunting their dominance over the home console market. It just sounds like they really don't like having good competition. Competition brings about improvements in industries, and I don't see why Microsoft should have to be forced to not compete for Sony's benefit. You don't see Nintendo crying over this deal for a good reason, and last I checked they were a major player in the gaming industry.
@Neverwild 100 mil? Where did you get that number? Also not true about mobile players. Sure might be true in the west but have you ever heard about China? Everyone and their dog there plays on mobile since phones are rather cheap there and there are millions living in big cities with great Internet coverage, so cloud gaming is definitely doable there and it is a giant market
"Activision has never published any newer content on multigame subscription services and has no intention to do so in the future." Xbox players will be absolutely LIVID if this deal goes through & they didn't put them on gamepass , if they're planning a future under Microsoft then they should be planning to launch games on gamepass lol
@Kaloudz would be interesting to see what would happen if playstation players stopped buying games like cod after the acquisition (obviously they wouldn't)
@Tharsman do you really think Microsoft would let them have it on their competing subscription service ? That would be like Netflix letting Amazon prime have stranger things lol
@Kaloudz spyro & crash are the only games I'm concerned about they're 2 of my favourite IPs have fond memories of playing the originals on the PS1 & I've just got a ps5 so if Microsoft make them exclusive I'll be pissed lol
@Kaloudz
As I see it games with microtranscation (cod) going to stay multiplatform with some exclusive things for Xbox (same as it now for Ps), after all MS not gonna lose all that income.
But new games probably gonna be pc/xbox exclusive and we already know activ/blizzard working on a shooter like destiny and a survival game.
Activision HAD concerns... Then a check for $68.5 Billion landed in their lap... Now they just don't give a fuuuuhhh
@Would_you_kindly They let Nintendo have banjo and golden eye. Anything is possible
@Kaloudz I think once the acquisition is through Sony will just have to accept that 'the best place to play' cod won't be playstation they wouldn't stop selling it on playstation because they want it on as many platforms as possible to sell the microtransactions/ dlc on top the £70 game I can see them pushing for Xbox live integration though
Interesting article. With so many games on gamepass, I never realized Activision wasn’t on there.
... I just want Tenchu Stealth Assassins to come back. I don't even know if Activision still owns it 😆
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...