Xbox Game Pass Will Not Include Activision Games Like Call of Duty Until 2024, Phil Spencer Explains Why

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Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games won't appear on Xbox Game Pass until next year. On the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer claimed that players wouldn't be seeing a big drop of those titles immediately, due to the lengthy regulatory challenges the company faced in its buyout attempt. Since it was uncertain whether the acquisition would be approved by Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) until recently, Xbox wasn't able to do the groundwork for adding the catalogue to their gaming subscription service. Ahead of the deal's closure, Activision Blizzard confirmed on Twitter that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and newly-launched Diablo IV won't be coming to Game Pass soon, but Spencer's statement covers older titles as well.

This is in stark contrast from Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media, where just two days after the buyout, 20 Bethesda back catalogue games, including franchises like Fallout, DOOM, Dishonored, and more were flooded onto Game Pass — free to play for members. “So now that the deal is closed, we're starting that work. But there is work,” Spencer said on the podcast, attesting that Activision Blizzard's tweet is ‘accurate' in terms of the 2024 timeline. He further assured that there's no ‘secret celebration drop' coming in the next few weeks, while acknowledging that fans have the right to be disappointed about it. It's a long-term acquisition though, granting Xbox a lot of time to experiment with the average gamer's ever-growing needs, and to that effect, Phil states that he's excited about the future.

The elephant in the room, of course, is Call of Duty. Spencer reiterated on the same podcast that the franchise will maintain ‘100 percent