Xbox chief says Activision Blizzard games aren’t coming to Xbox Game Pass until 2024

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By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

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Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed that Activision Blizzard games aren’t coming to Xbox Game Pass anytime soon. In the latest official Xbox podcast, Spencer confirms there’s not going to be a big drop of Activision Blizzard games into Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks and that we won’t see any until 2024.

Here’s what Spencer had to say:

The regulatory process took so long… that we weren’t able to get in and work with the Activision Blizzard on that back catalog work. Now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work, but there is work. I think the Activision Twitter handle… did put out something that talked about 2024, and I think that’s accurate. I would love it if there was some kind of secret celebration drop that’s coming in the next couple of weeks — there’s not.

Activision Blizzard posted on X (formerly Twitter), ahead of the Microsoft deal closing, that Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV both wouldn’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year. But it wasn’t clear about the status of older Activision Blizzard games until Phil Spencer’s clarification today.

“I know there will be some disappointment about that,” admits Spencer. “This acquisition is definitely long-term, so the fact that we’re not hitting day one with a bunch of games dropping in to 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.”

Many Xbox fans had expected