Microsoft’s hard-fought acquisition of the behemoth Activision Blizzard King is coming to a close and Xbox players can now call franchises like Call of Duty and Overwatch theirs. This is easily one of the biggest days in Xbox Game Pass history and Microsoft is wasting no time when it comes to sticking Activision Blizzard games on Xbox Game Pass. The service is sharing a short, but quite sweet, statement online.
When you think about all the best Xbox Game Pass games available right now, they’re almost always new Xbox games from Microsoft’s first party studios. Starfield, Forza Motorsport, and Microsoft Flight Simulator are all staggering in scope and scale. However, as the selection of Xbox Game Pass November 2023 games shows, there’s a lot more to this service than just Xbox games; and, soon, there will be even more to talk about.
Following statements from the Call of Duty devs on the possibility of Modern Warfare 3 heading to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has confirmed that the gargantuan $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King is complete – to quote the iconic nineties girl group Spice Girls, two become one.
Mere moments after this was made official, the Xbox Game Pass social media account shared the following statement:
“Today, we can now begin the work of bringing Activision Blizzard King’s iconic and groundbreaking games to Xbox Game Pass. We can’t wait to share more details in the coming months.” Xbox head Phil Spencer also says the deal will “unlock a world of possibilities for more ways to play”.
We know some of you were hoping to see an announcement regarding Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Game Pass as soon as the deal was closed, but this is – without a doubt – a welcome sign to Xbox players with Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. You can also check out Xbox head Phil Spencer’s comments on the whole thing right here.
The battle between Microsoft and financial regulators to complete this acquisition was a 20-month one. The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proved to be the last hurdle for the Xbox company to overcome, but with a few commitments to cloud gaming and an unusual partnership with Ubisoft, everyone was able to agree that this wouldn’t be detrimental to the industry and – importantly – the players.
If you’re a PlayStation player, you don’t need to worry much, you should find all your favorite Activision Blizzard games – like Call of Duty – are still available on PS5 (at least for the next few years). Beyond that, Ubisoft could prove instrumental in bringing Call of Duty to PS Plus if it starts appearing on subscription services like Xbox Game Pass. As the statement above says, though, only time will tell – and we may have to wait a month or two to find out what the plan is.
Although, we can imagine Microsoft has already been formulating plans and we wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing Activision Blizzard King games trickle onto Xbox Game Pass in the coming months. Ubisoft has already confirmed that they’ll be heading to Ubisoft+ at some point in the future – although no details on when are being shared just yet. For now, you can check out all the Xbox Game Pass games currently available right here.