Activision Blizzard announced Call of Duty and Diablo IV won’t be on Xbox Games Pass this year but outlined a plan to add both titles eventually.
Microsoft’s nearly $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard remains in the balance. The deal took a significant step towards being completed after Microsoft won its case against the FTC in federal court. In one final push, Microsoft recently restructured its deal in the UK. The Competition & Markets Authority said it will issue its final judgment on or before October 18.
If the CMA approves the re-structured deal, the deal is reportedly on track to be finalized by October 13. Fortunately, PlayStation fans have nothing to fear, as Microsoft reached an agreement, keeping Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles.
However, a completed deal opens the door for Microsoft to add Activision Blizzard titles to Xbox Game Pass, and fans finally received a long-awaited update on that process.
Are Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo IV coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Call of Duty fans initially assumed the series’ debut on Xbox Game Pass might be imminent. In a leaked message on the Xbox store, Brazilian gamers received a message about Black Ops 2 being free, and some fans even added COD Ghosts to their Game Pass library for no additional cost.
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Despite that, Activision Blizzard put any speculation to rest in an official announcement.
On October 9, Activision Blizzard announced: “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.”
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…
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) October 9, 2023
As previously mentioned, Call of Duty and Diablo coming to Game Pass is dependent upon the Activision Blizzard acquisition going through. We will provide an update when we know more about both franchises making the leap to Xbox.