Phil Spencer confirms plans to bring Activision Blizzard titles to Game Pass in 2024

Earlier this month, Activision put out a statement saying that it does not expect to bring its games to Game Pass until next year. An additional report claimed that we could see some older titles coming to the service earlier. However, Xbox head, Phil Spencer, has now straightened things out, confirming that the team is targeting 2024 to start dropping its newly acquired franchises into the service. 

On the official Xbox podcast this week, Phil Spencer answered a number of questions about the acquisition. The biggest question was of course, when can we expect to see Activision Blizzard titles on Game Pass. Spencer harkened back to Activision's earlier statement, confirming it to be an accurate representation of their plans.

Spencer began by stating that due to the lengthy regulatory process to get the deal approved, Microsoft has not been able to meet with the Activision Blizzard teams to begin planning Game Pass integration. However, now that the deal has closed, the work is beginning, with Phil Spencer set to spend the next couple of weeks flying around to meet with all of the studios.

“The regulatory process took so long that we weren’t able to get in and work with Activision Blizzard on that back catalogue work. Now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work. I think the Activision Twitter handle did put out something that talked about 2024, and I think that’s accurate.”

He added that he would “love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop” but unfortunately, there is not. With that in mind, we could be waiting a few more months before seeing franchises like Call of Duty or Diablo on Game Pass, alongside back-catalogue titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Spencer ended off by saying: “The fact that we’re not hitting day one with a bunch of games dropping into Game Pass is a little bit of a downer, but I’m very excited about the future, and I just want to be straight with people that that’s where we are.”

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KitGuru Says: While Bethesda titles dropped onto Game Pass pretty swiftly after the acquisition, the situation is a bit different with Activision Blizzard. Activision is a much larger company and it is going to take some time for Microsoft to get everything in order but with the deal now closed, that work will be taking place over the next few months. We can hope that we'll get some big news in early 2024, after Kotick has left the company, perhaps even around the two-year anniversary of the deal being announced. 

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