The first Activision Blizzard game to join Xbox Game Pass will be Diablo IV, and it’s due to land on March 28. The move means Diablo IV will be playable on Xbox and PC at no extra charge to Game Pass members — of which there are 34 million, Xbox announced today.
This is just the first step in Xbox’s broader plan to offer Activision Blizzard titles in its monthly subscription service, now that Microsoft fully owns the studio.
“There will be even more to play as we begin to fulfill our commitment to offer Activision and Blizzard games with Game Pass, both new releases and classic games from its legendary catalog,” the Xbox Wire reads. Xbox plans to share more information about additional Activision Blizzard titles hitting Game Pass “soon.”
Diablo IV is a big get for Game Pass, and there are plenty of other popular franchises in Activision Blizzard’s roster, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tony Hawk, World of Warcraft and Starcraft.
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in October 2023, after nearly two years of antitrust investigations from authorities in the United States and abroad. The deal was worth nearly $69 billion, the largest in Microsoft’s history. As part of negotiations with regulators, Microsoft agreed to offload the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games onto Ubisoft, opening the door for their inclusion in Game Pass, Ubisoft+ and other cloud services. That deal lasts for 15 years, and Microsoft signed similar 10-year agreements with Nintendo and a few other streaming hubs.
In the US, the FTC is continuing to investigate the acquisition and recently accused Microsoft of misrepresenting its plans for Activision Blizzard following layoffs in January that affected 1,900 employees across the company’s gaming segments. In the process, at least one Blizzard game was canceled and Skylanders studio Toys for Bob was gutted.
