Diablo 4 GM Confirms Blizzard's Upcoming RPG Won't Be Available On Xbox Game Pass

If MS is serious about Gamepass being like Netflix... it will be on Gamepass as soon as possible. Same with CoD.

@Kaloudz adding Diablo to GP the same moment acquisition happens will be kinda cruel to all the people who preordered Diablo on xbox (and thats a solid amount of loyal players). I think they will add it to GP after releasing the first big payed DLC.

They aren't owned by MS so yeah, as an independent company they never had any plans to put this in any subscription. Once first party it will be added like all other first party titles.

Not a lot of News so far this week eh, everyone writing articles about anything they can try n put a negative twist on Xbox. Surprised we haven't seen anything about Xbox actually not being carbon neutral due to employee fart emissions not being taken into consideration.

@Tomato_Goose not adding first party games to a service that boasts day n date for first party would kinda be a bigger deal. How many times have folks bought a 3rd party game only for it to come to gamepass a week later? Buyer beware is how it goes.

Yea it will take a while even if it closed tomorrow. Zenimax acquisition closed early March 2021, but we didn’t see their full catalog enter game pass until late September. Even if ABK deal closed today, it’s too late for it to launch into the service.

It takes time post acquisition finalization for MS to start changing stuff around, and ABK is much bigger than ZeniMax.

Oh and of course, everyone should stop looking for CoD to launch into Game Pass, PlayStation’s pre-existing marketing deal includes this year entry. Also: don’t expect WoW to be added either. There is no way MS will give up on those subscription fees, which are actually higher than Game Pass’s.

@Tomato_Goose unlike Sony, Xbox allows people to cancel preorders, and orders, even if they have already been per-downloaded or even played for a small amount of time.

Of course no Acti/Bliz game is 'coming' to Game Pass or has plans to come to Game Pass because that's the way Acti/Bliz conduct their business. It was made clear by MS in their response to CMA that A/B won't put their games into a Sub Service day & date, a 'reason' to Pass the deal because when MS take over, games will be on Game Pass bringing more Gamers into those IP's on whatever devices they have...

It was stipulated that this will ONLY happen if the Merger concludes. Therefore it's not 'unexpected' for ALL current Devs/Studios to have NO plan to release Games into Game Pass. MS (or Sony for that matter) can't 'negotiate' new deals with A/B whilst there is a 'take-over' bid in place. Sony can't 'negotiate' to extend their arrangement with CoD for example and MS can't negotiate to bring Diablo IV to Game Pass day & date.

As for 'when', if they get the deal done, on that Day, they could add 'every' A/B game released on 'Xbox' (except licensed games that A/B no longer hold - Spider-Man, Transformers, James Bond etc). The reason is that they would OWN Publishing Rights as well as the IP's so its just a case of making those games 'available' - they are in their 'Store' already of course. I would expect Diablo 4 to be one of those - unless there is a 'deal' in place to honour like Sony paying to keep it off for a period of time.

My most wanted game of the year and Diablo is a top 10 franchise all time for me, so i will digitally buy this day 1. Log 100’s and 100’s of hours into it. Will be worth the money and then some. Still play Diablo 3 on Xbox, i wish this game had a steel book and i would even consider buying the physical copy, something i rarely even do, i can count on one hand how many physical games i have bought since middle life of 360.

@Kaloudz glad i could make you chuckle.

@Tomato_Goose tbf if you still pre-order in this day and age you got it coming
But I get the sentiment

Shame its not on GP, as I currently boycott all Acti/Blizzard games atm due to their behaviour and the way they have treated their devs.
If it were on GP, I could argue with myself that they already have the money and I wouldn't be contributing to those hideous managers bonus by simply playing it....
This is the game that it hurts not to play, I really couldn't care less about the other titles from ABK. But its a good year for games, I'm sure I will survive
It looks fantastic, so I hope all you fans will have great time...

I assumed that. Otherwise, Microsoft would have been all over advertising it. Still buying it for the Series X as I find that multiplatform games perform and look better on my Series X compared to my PS5. Probably because of the boost in hardware.

@Titntin I'll be buying it, but I totally understand your position.

That's fine. After how awful Diablo 3 was, and how bad the re-release of Diablo 2 was, I don't have much hope here.

And this is coming from someone's who's formative years were pretty much everything Blizzard and Westwood.

@Kaloudz doubtful. The game has no native controller support, and its not just movement and combat, but also the extrmely-complex UI. It isn't a trivial thing to make a controller friendly UI, much less one as complex as that one. FFXIV is an incredible MMO controller experience and even that game has very awkward controls for UI navigation at times.

Only way I see it happening is if Microsoft started to allow pure mouse + keyboard games to be published on the console.

Even if that became a thing, many would consider the game unplayable without third party UI mods, that tend to include executable code and are unlikely to be ever accepted additions to an Xbox game, this would place the console players at an extreme disadvantage. I would imagine such a version having its own segregated servers to deal with that.

@Kaloudz video game addiction is a real thing, and service games have always been the most addictive drug for people prone to it. The days of just relating it to WoW have long passed, since now you cant throw a rock in any direction without it being blocked by a season pass.

@Cherip-the-Ripper preordering is a great thing to do! You get to beta test as a perk

@Tharsman the fact we are all on Pure Xbox rambling about our addictions and we are ok with it shows our addiction. Should we all put together a class action lawsuit against the video game industry who addicted us?

Surely they could still come to some sort of arrangement for it to be added to game pass even though the deal hasn't been finalised yet.

@BBB last time I checked (just before Dragonflight launched,) the only controller support was via a third party UI addon. I seen videos of it and it’s just that, an addon.

Making every single UI element conform to GamePass input (moving inventory items, navigating settings or talent trees, for example) was nowhere in the scope of that addon.

@Kaloudz
Hi mate - no quite the opposite, I am a Diablo fan, and me and the misses would have a great time playing it, which is why it hurts to pass it by. Damn my stupid stances
However, if you truly care about something then you will pay the cost it takes to stick to your guns. I really despise the stories I've heard about Blizzard and how they have treated many devs, and that means I feel I cant support them with my money.
I know in the grand scheme of things such actions don't really have any effect, but as I've got older I've stuck to my principles even if it costs me. Shopping from local farmers and only eating organic or higher welfare meat for instance swallows a lot more cash than I would ideally want, but I do it anyway.
Blizzard wont notice me not buying the game of course, but I am a man who tries to stick to his principles in later life, so I would not let myself excuse such a spend when I look at the whose pockets those bonuses will fill.

It is however my choice, and by explaining it I don't wish to imply others should do similar, and I in no way wish to disparage anyone who will buy and enjoy this. We are all different and I'm simply jealous of anyone who can buy and play this in good conscience - good luck to them!

Smart move to get this out in the open ASAP, so they don't thwart potential sales. If someone thinks they might be able to get it free around the time of launch, they'll just hold out for a release on Game Pass. With the merger not yet approved, that would be a terrible strategy and unnecessary risk.

personnally i found ferguson rude he could have simply said it's not in our plans at the moment,i really found his comment cold, personnally i will not buy d4 at launch i will wait for a sales or a gamepass all access.

@Kaloudz You are indeed making sense.
If I didnt give 'em money, I'd play it - I'm not a masochist!

It might not be day 1 GP, but once the deal gets done it will 6 months later or so, so maybe I'll bite then. Tough to know where you draw the line, I've no issues with the game

I still find it funny that Rod Ferguson left The coalition to only end up at another company that Microsoft is trying to buy.

Game Pass the best deal in gaming!

Not.

@Tomato_Goose If you are a gamer in today's world and you are still foolish enough to pre-order, that is totally on you.

Should be common sense by now to never, ever, ever, pre-order any game. Especially at that insane and ridiculous $70 price point.

I am happy to wait!

@GuyinPA75 there are different cases, different games and different developers. I agree that preordering something in general is some kind of a cat in a box.

On the other hand I have preordered Baldur's Gate 3 at the very same moment preorders became available on PC, because I've played all Larian games before and wish to support the dev. And I will preorder Hades 2 immediately once I can. These games are something I want and I will play day one.

Not tricking me again Blizzard. After the last couple releases, you can’t use your ‘blizzard polish’ argument to get me to pay full price for another of your games. That blizzard is gone. If I don’t get day one activision games if or when the deal goes through, my game pass sub will be gone as well. At this point, more games I like leave every month than are added.

@Kalele ABK is firmly anti-subscription/anti-GP, so being "cold" about that stance is to be expected. Until they answer to Phil, they view GP as a problem. There's some irony that one of the most anti-sub publishers will be bought by the biggest sub.

But this is Blizzard of "Do you guys not have phones?" fame/infamy. Why would anyone be surprised?

Well I'm sure the deal needs to be finalized first.

It's cool, I can wait. Gives the game time to get patched up anyways.

That’s fine I can wait a little while longer until it is added to Game Pass WHEN the deal goes through.

It should go without saying that there’s zero sense in buying any Activision/Blizzard games if you are a continuous Game Pass subscriber like I am.

@Tomato_Goose Hope didn't think was pooping on you. I'm just like why pre-order only encouraging developers push stuff out broken. Can still buy on day one without pre-order. Plus keeping that money in bank for months without pre-order earns interest.

@GuyinPA75 just discussing stuff, no offense, sure.

I see several cases, where pre-orders can be justified:

1) You know the game is gonna be good and you wish to play it at the release (or as soon as possible). Plus you'll get some pre-order bonuses (which are usually so-so, to be honest).

2) You want to support game developers. Not all games are made by big companies with billions in their pockets. Some studios work hard to provide the best possible games for their fans. Each player find something for himself here.

3) You don't care about the money at all. Rare case nowadays, but it exist.

But if you have doubts about the project quality, have no information about the game, don't care about playing it at the release, in that case it will be better to wait some time and see whether it won't be postponed, get some nice reviews or take part in a sale, sure.