Activision Titles Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass, But When?

Last year, Microsoft finally closed its longstanding deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Following the legal saga behind this deal was quite a headache, but after just under two years of battling the courts, the FTC, and even Sony, Microsoft actually had ownership of one of gaming’s biggest publishers. The possibilities of this deal were endless, and speculation started to mount regarding what in the world Microsoft would do with Activision now that the deal was closed. The potential for certain franchises to land exclusively on Xbox platforms was the dominant topic of conversation, but it certainly wasn’t the only one.

One piece of the acquisition that seemed enticing for gamers was the concept of Activision-Blizzard titles making their way to Xbox Game Pass. Slowly, we’ve seen our first few titles trickle onto the service, with Diablo IV hitting the service earlier this year and the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 set to launch on Game Pass as a day-one title. Still, though, much of Activision’s classic catalog of games has yet to drop on the service, and it’s easy to wonder what’s taking it so long. Microsoft has to have good reason to wait, but how much longer will the wait last?

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Bethesda Made It Happen

For months, there’s been an expectation that Activision would have some sort of massive drop of titles on Game Pass. After all, Microsoft previously released 20 classic Bethesda titles on Game Pass just two days after acquiring that publisher, and later had another flood of titles drop during their E3 2021 showcase. Right now, you can log onto Xbox Game Pass and play most, if not all, of the major entries in a plethora of Bethesda’s biggest franchises. Whether it’s Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, or Wolfenstein you’re looking for, Xbox made sure early and often that you could get all of these incredible franchises as part of your subscription to Game Pass.

It seemed safe to expect that this year’s Xbox Games Showcase would bring a similar announcement for Activision, but Xbox did nothing of the sort. Yes, we did receive a reiteration about the upcoming release of Black Ops 6 on Game Pass later this year, but with Xbox focusing on showing their exciting lineup of new games, we didn’t hear much as far as legacy titles dropping from Activision. Thus, as of this point, Diablo IV remains the only major Activision title available on the service. Xbox has not come through with a major drop of Activision games on Game Pass, which is honestly pretty shocking given the sheer amount of content Microsoft could make available for its subscribers.

After all, it’s not like Activision is starved for big franchises, or doesn’t have exciting games it could bring to the service. Quite frankly, this is the studio that owns Call of Duty. There are plenty of Call of Duty games that Activision could drop on Game Pass right now that would entice current and potential subscribers alike. Because like the franchise or not, it’s one of the biggest in gaming, and even when the games see drops in quality, they still sell in droves. Furthermore, franchises that have received recent entries, such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Tony Hawk, would be exciting additions to the service.

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There Must Be More

All of this said, Microsoft must surely have their reasons why they haven’t thrown all of Activision’s games onto Game Pass yet. It’s easy to think you know how to run a company when you’re typing from your laptop. After all, while Phil Spencer had to quell some of the rampant excitement and speculation concerning Activision’s titles coming to Game Pass, he has said that he would love it if there was some kind of massive celebratory drop of titles on the service. Perhaps the idea might be to drip-feed and not blow all the excitement at once, or perhaps these Game Pass deals just aren’t ready yet.

Surely, given that the Activision deal took longer to close than Bethesda and had more regulatory concerns, it’s fair to imagine that these kinds of deals would take a touch longer. The Bethesda deal was announced in September 2020 and completed by March 2021, meaning there was only a six-month gap between the announcement of the deal and its eventual closure. By comparison, the Activision merger was announced in January 2022, but wouldn’t be closed until October 2023, meaning it took nearly two years to get the deal through. Naturally, conversations around Game Pass titles may have barely even begun between the two sides, especially once the FTC got involved.

There’s also the possibility that Activision has existing deals in place with other companies that need to be concluded before these games can show up on Game Pass. It should be said that the company’s flagship franchise, Call of Duty, has had a pretty longstanding history with PlayStation. As Phil Spencer himself noted, the appearance of Black Ops 6 at the recent Xbox Games Showcase was the first time Xbox had a Call of Duty game at one of their shows since E3 2014. Following that showcase, Call of Duty appeared more often at PlayStation’s E3 showing and digital events, and the PlayStation versions would receive add-on content earlier than Xbox (or in some cases, exclusively on PlayStation). Thus, Xbox may just be waiting for pre-existing deals to conclude before bringing these titles to Game Pass.

Even still, we’re coming close to the first anniversary of the closure of the deal, and we’ve yet to get a big drop of Activision games on Game Pass. Given that Diablo IV is the only game on the service, perhaps Xbox is attempting to drip-feed these games onto the service, instead of blowing through the entire lineup in one go. Nevertheless, Xbox fans are most certainly chomping at the bit to have some of Activision’s vast catalog show up on Xbox Game Pass, and fans have been hoping for some kind of celebratory game drop to come. Here’s hoping such a thing happens sooner rather than later.