Neither Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Diablo 4 will be included in PC or Xbox Game Pass this year, as announced by Activision Blizzard.
“As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass,” it said in a post to X (FKA Twitter).
“While we do not have plans to put Modern Warfare 3 or Diablo 4 into Game Pass this year, once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world.
“And we anticipate that we would begin adding games into Game Pass sometime in the course of next year,” it concluded.
The most recent report on the progress of the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft revealed that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved the acquisition.
There were “residual concerns” closing off a total approval from the regulator, but Microsoft was apparently aiming for a positive announcement in the next few days.
The CMA has been one of the stoniest obstacles in Activision Blizzard and Microsoft’s path to acquisition. Its continued rejection of the terms of the acquisition led to Microsoft offering Ubisoft the streaming rights to current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games in perpetuity.
“Under the restructured transaction, Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service – Xbox Cloud Gaming – or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services,” explained Microsoft.
As such, it is not know how this will affect the timeliness of Activision Blizzard’s plans to add Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 to Xbox Game Pass until the deal is done.
In other gaming news, The Last Of Us Part 2 has shown up in promotional material for PlayStation Plus, suggesting that the game could come to the subscription service soon.