Microsoft has confirmed that Diablo 4 will be the first Activision Blizzard title to come to Xbox Game Pass.
- READ MORE: ‘Diablo 4’ review: diary of a necromancer
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finally approved in October 2023 after being announced in January 2022 via a deal thought to be worth £50billion.
Now the first of Microsoft’s new franchises is coming to its subscription-based Game Pass service. Head of Xbox Sarah Bond confirmed the news during an official Xbox podcast last night (February 15).
Diablo 4 will be available to play via Game Pass from March 28 and is said to be the first of multiple Activision and Blizzard-developed titles coming to the service.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer announced that Game Pass now had 34million “fully paid” subscribers compared to 25million in 2022. The service has apparently seen “significant growth” from PC and cloud gamers.
“When there’s a fixed number of console players on the planet, you’re not going to grow Game Pass forever by shipping just on consoles,” he added.
The past few months have seen speculation that Xbox would be rolling out Game Pass to other consoles, fuelled by Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart saying the company wanted the service on “every screen that can play games.”
Spencer quickly debunked the theory that Nintendo and PlayStation consoles would be able to access Game Pass and reiterated that message again last night. “Game Pass will continue to be only available on Xbox platforms,” he said.
It comes as Microsoft has confirmed it will be releasing four Xbox-exclusive titles on the Nintendo Switch and PS5 in the near future as a “learning” opportunity. Despite rumours, these titles will not currently include the likes of Starfield, Indiana Jones & The Great Circle, Halo and Gears Of Wars. “I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” he added.
“[By releasing those four titles on rival consoles] I’m going to learn about our partnership with other platforms. I’m going to learn about what happens with our players.”
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