With Microsoft’s massive deal to acquire Activision-Blizzard looking more and more likely to close, it’s time to start looking at what it will actually mean for the industry. In a new interview with IGN, Phil Spencer has tempered expectations around Activision-Blizzard games on Game Pass, warning that “there is work to actually move games to Game Pass.”
“People think the deal’s gonna close and everything’s available on Game Pass. That’s not true.” Spencer said when answering a question about Call of Duty coming to Microsoft’s subscription gaming service. “There’s work for us to go through, just mechanical work. It will take us time to get the games up.”
He adds that this delay isn’t specific to the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, noting that Microsoft’s previous acquisitions have always required time to get native games up on Game Pass. Looking back to Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda in 2021, it definitely didn’t take long before Bethesda games started appearing on Game Pass, with 20 titles from the studio’s back catalogue added just three days after the deal was finalized.
During the interview Spencer was careful to avoid going into specifics about Call of Duty on Game Pass, bringing the topic back to discussing Microsoft’s proposed deal with Ubisoft, and how it relates to its ongoing negotiations with the UK’s CMA.
Previously, it was reported that Call of Duty likely wouldn’t be brought to Game Pass until 2025, though that information came from a CMA report so may not be Microsoft’s official plan. Spencer notably didn’t confirm that Call of Duty would definitely be coming to Game Pass at all, leaving Microsoft’s plans for the mega franchise still unclear.
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