When you pay $70 or so billion to buy something, you don’t wait to put it work – you take it out of the box and let it do its job as soon as you get home. With Microsoft expected to close the Activision Blizzard deal on October 13, it appears the tech giant wants to do that.
Earlier today, Activision Blizzard released a statement confirming neither Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 aren’t coming to the Game Pass until at least next year. Many have taken this to mean that everything else is fair game. Don’t forget that Microsoft didn’t wait to bring the titles under the ZeniMax Media umbrella to the Game Pass.
Now, we’ve got more proof that Microsoft won’t exercise patience anymore after waiting for the better part of the past two years for the deal to finally be official.
Our sources indicate (surprising nobody) that despite Activision's statement, you can expect to see a bunch of Activision stuff hit Xbox Game Pass as soon as the deal is finalized.
What would you like to see hit XGP? https://t.co/RA7Ozb6FH2#Xbox #XboxGamePass
— Jez (@JezCorden) October 9, 2023
According to Jez Corden, his sources claim that “despite Activision’s statement”, Microsoft is just waiting for the deal to finalize before we “see a bunch of Activision stuff hit Game Pass.
Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest video game companies in the world. It’s known for Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty, among others, but its library goes much deeper. It owns several properties like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Prototype, Blur, Geometry Wars, and so much more. One perspective based on Corden’s statement is that all of these “smaller” games will hit the Game Pass soon enough. Besides, don’t Microsoft have to deal with the licensing issues that may come up when trying to add legacy titles to the Game Pass? We’re pretty sure Microsoft has its work cut out, although that’s assuming it hasn’t ironed out these details yet, which is highly unlikely.
The more probably scenario is that Microsoft already has some games ready to add on the Game Pass from Activision Blizzard at a moment’s notice – they probably only need to flip some sort of switch to make these “hidden” games available to the public.
As long as Activision Blizzard (and, now, Microsoft, by extension) is legally allowed to add a title to the Game Pass, the process don’t require much technical effort. Subscription services don’t exactly sell these games to players, they’re merely granting them a temporary license to access them.
What may present a problem is the PC Game Pass. On the PC, Game Pass titles need to be listed on the Microsoft Store, which Activision Blizzard games currently aren’t. A potential workaround is engineering a way to link Battle.net into the Xbox app, similar to what Microsoft did with EA Play. This isn’t impossible, it’s just time-consuming.
Another potential issue is the integration of older Activision Blizzard titles. Legacy Call of Duty game are known for its unpatched RCE exploits. Microsoft should handle this as soon as it closes the purchase. Otherwise, disaster waits for unaware players who will boot these exploit-ridden games and get their data stolen in a blink of an eye.
Ultimately, Activision Blizzard is doing its job. It’s still fully independent until the deal is final. A layman’s interpretation of the statement is, “yes, we won’t put these games on the Game Pass, but we can’t say the same for Microsoft.”
With October 13 just a few days away, we’ll find out before the current week ends to see if Activision Blizzard will remain an independent identity and/or if Microsoft will welcome a smorgasbord of new games to the Game Pass.
