Will Call of Duty and Blizzard games be Xbox exclusive? Here’s what Microsoft has said

polygon.com:

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard brings major game franchises like Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, StarCraft, and Warcraft to the house of Xbox. It’s a coup for Microsoft, which not only grows its number of internal game development studios to 30, but also a major boon for Game Pass, the company’s subscription service that brings subscribers a monthly menu of games for Xbox consoles, mobile devices, and PC.

The Game Pass library will eventually include Activision Blizzard’s games, Microsoft confirmed, but likely not until 2023, when the deal is expected to be complete.

But what does Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard mean for players on other platforms? Will games like Call of Duty and Overwatch become Xbox console exclusives?

Microsoft isn’t saying, for now. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, recently promoted from head of Xbox, said in a prepared statement that when his company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard closes “we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalogue.”

It’s unclear what could limit Microsoft from offering all of Activision Blizzard games through Game Pass, but World of Warcraft, which has its own subscription-based model, could be excluded from Microsoft’s plans.

According to a report from Bloomberg, citing sources, Microsoft plans to continue making “some of Activision’s games” for PlayStation consoles, but will make “some content” exclusive to Xbox. Addressing players of Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation platforms, Spencer said in an interview with Bloomberg, “It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that.” That report