Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard took a year and a half and wasn't fun for anyone. But it's finally over, which means it's time to figure out what that means for gamers.
The news became official on the Xbox Wire blog on Friday morning, confirming that the biggest corporate acquisition in gaming history is final. For the low, low price of $69 billion, Xbox now owns Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and dozens of other valuable properties. Surely that means every Activision game ever will be available on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service now, right?
Well, no — not exactly. From a consumer standpoint, Game Pass is indeed the focal point of this deal. As a matter of policy, first-party Xbox games (and anything Activision makes now falls under that umbrella) comes to Game Pass on day one. That will probably become reality for titles like Call of Duty at some point, but according to Activision itself, the latest releases like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV aren't coming to Game Pass just yet.
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Will 'Call of Duty' and other popular Activision games be Xbox exclusives?
There is another focal point for this acquisition, which is the issue of platform exclusivity. Xbox has insisted for the last year and a half, over and over again, that Call of Duty won't become Xbox-exclusive anytime soon. In July, Xbox and PlayStation agreed to a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for the foreseeable future. Fans of that particular franchise can breathe easy for another decade.
It's hard to say what will happen with the other Activision brands, though. Xbox head Phil Spencer wrote in the announcement blog post that fans of other platforms don't have to worry, but the wording is broad enough to leave plenty of room for interpretation.
"Whether you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile, you are welcome here – and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn’t where you play your favorite franchise," Spencer wrote. "Because when everyone plays, we all win."
That could signify that Activision games will keep coming out on other platforms or it could mean they'll eventually be available via Game Pass cloud streaming. "You are welcome here" doesn't necessarily mean "we will still be everywhere years from now."
One only needs to look at Xbox's previous acquisition of Bethesda to see that this can go either way. Deathloop made it onto PlayStation 5, but Starfield didn't. This might operate on a case-by-case basis for a while.
There's still a lot that's up in the air regarding this acquisition and nobody has all the answers right now. The only things we can say with certainty right now are that Activision games will appear on Game Pass eventually and Call of Duty won't leave PlayStation for another 10 years.
Topics Xbox
