While there’s not yet any Activision Blizzard games on Game Pass just yet, Phil Spencer has reaffirmed that Call Of Duty will eventually arrive on the subscription service.
The larger ramifications of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will likely not materialise for a few years, but one reasonably imminent benefit is the promise of some or all of their titles coming to Xbox Game Pass.
During the company’s ‘business update’ last week, Xbox announced Diablo 4 as the first Activision Blizzard title coming to the subscription service, on March 28, but there’s been no word on any other games beyond that.
However, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has now confirmed that sales juggernaut Call Of Duty will eventually make its way to the service.
‘Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax [parent company of Bethesda], Activision Blizzard, and XGS [Xbox Game Studios] will be on Game Pass, day one,’ Spencer told Game File.
It might, however, be a while before Call Of Duty launches on Game Pass at the same time as it goes on sale, with Spencer not saying anything about whether this year’s game, likely due out in October, would come to Game Pass on day one.
‘We’re doing the back end work to make them come to PC and console simultaneously,’ he added. It’s not clear exactly what this means, as the games are always on the Xbox store for normal purchase and making them free to Game Pass subscribers doesn’t seem like it would involve any additional work.
No Call Of Duty games are currently available on Xbox Game Pass. While this year’s entry is yet to be announced, various leaks and reports have suggested it will feature an open world campaign and be set during the Gulf War.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Spencer also addressed the reasons behind the 1,900 layoffs at Microsoft earlier this year, which he cited as being to ensure ‘long-term growth’ for the trillion dollar business.
‘I have a commitment to the company on the Xbox business being a profitable and growing part of Microsoft,’ Spencer said. ‘And I need to put us in the best position for long-term growth.
‘Most of that is about building great products that exceed their expectations and find millions of customers. But honestly, you know, the cost of building the products inclusive of the people who work on them – I need to make sure we have enough of the right people and the right number of people in the right places for us to succeed.’
Some might find the line about exceeding expectations hard to swallow when you look at Xbox’s output over the past year, as both Starfield and Redfall did the exact opposite, with Spencer himself taking personal responsibility for the latter.
It remains to be seenwhether Activision Blizzard titles like Call Of Duty will push the needle when it comes to Xbox Game Pass numbers. Microsoft recently stated the service now has 34 million subscribers, a disappointingly small jump from the 25 million it reported two years ago.
It’s also unclear whether all of these Game Pass subscribers will get access to Activision Blizzard titles. As confirmed after the Xbox business update, Diablo 4 will not be available to those on the lowest ‘core’ tier when it launches next month, so this might be the pattern Xbox adopts for future Activision Blizzard games on the service.
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