Diablo IV is Coming to Game Pass Next Month
After Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, many fans were wondering how quickly Xbox would make use of this $75 billion deal. When the deal was finalised, it was announced that the huge back catalogue of Activision games including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo would immediately become part of the Game Pass service (which most first party Xbox releases are immediately integrated into). Instead, players would have to wait until these are trickled out throughout 2024. Thankfully, the first of these Ips is coming to the service in late March- and it’s one of their most recent releases.
Image by Blizzard
During last week’s Xbox Business update (where it was also confirmed that several Xbox exclusives would become multiplatform), it was also revealed that Diablo IV would be the first project to have a presence on Game Pass after the Activision acquisition. The action RPG only launched last year and, when it did, it received positive reviews from critics and fans alike. Although some of that excitement has dwindled with over monetisation and pay to win strategies (which many have blamed on the financial success of the mobile game ‘Diablo: Immortal’), it’s still an impressive project to have added to Game Pass less than a year after launch.
Image by Blizzard
Of course, with this announcement, many Xbox players are questioning when other Blizzard and Activision IPs will make their inevitable transition over to Xbox’s subscription service. Although nothing has been officially confirmed, its likely that we’ll see the entirety of the back catalogue of these studios be added to Game Pass before the end of the year. Considering how huge this acquisition was, however, it makes sense to drip feed these games over a few months rather than dropping them all at the same time.
Image by Blizzard
This news also means that (if we follow previous precedent for studios like Bethesda and Obsidian) all new releases from now on from either Activision or Blizzard will come to Game Pass on day one. Whether this means that these games will become fully exclusive depends heavily on the franchise and Xbox’s strategy going forward. For example, we know that Call of Duty will remain multiplatform for at least the next five years thanks to a deal with Sony- as well as news that Xbox want to bring the franchise over to the Nintendo Switch. For now, though, if you never got a chance to play Diablo IV at launch, you’ll get your chance on March 28th where you can form your own opinion on this heavily divisive ARPG.
