Activision Deal Won't Make Call of Duty Instantly Appear on Xbox Game Pass

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has recently shared his take on Game Pass, its meaning for games, and what's going with Microsoft's deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. The manager also addressed whether Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games would instantly arrive on Xbox Game Pass.

Journalists asked Spencer when can players expect to play Activision games on Game Pass if the deal goes through. The Xbox leader emphasized players should consider some things. 

"I want to make sure people know that there's work to actually move games to Game Pass," Spencer said. "So, for the people who think the deal is going to close and then everything's available, that's not true. And it hasn't been true in other acquisitions that we've done. There's work for us to go do, just mechanical work for us to go do. So, it'll take us time, definitely time to get the games in the portfolio."

When discussing Call of Duty and other games, Spencer also acknowledged that in some cases it does make sense not to add games to Game Pass. For example, if a game is a "successful Triple-A franchise that has a double-digit million marketing budget," it doesn't make sense to appear there on day one. Spencer clarified he has no issue with that.

"We do it as a first party because we're trying to grow the subscription, and we're looking at the overall health of the subscription as an outcome. We love that. We see it grow on console, more growth on PC definitely now, which has been awesome, especially sitting here in Germany. We think about all the PC players here," added Spencer.

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