Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shed some light to IGN on Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard and if that would mean Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games would arrive on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
When talking about the decision to sell cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft to appease the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), we asked him if that had any impact on us playing Call of Duty via Xbox Game Pass once the deal closes. While he didn’t address the Call of Duty part of it directly, he did touch upon the work it takes behind the scenes when an acquisition happens.
“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.”
Speaking of Call of Duty, we spoke a bit more about the franchise that is getting set to release its newest entry in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III later this year. In regard to the franchise’s arrival on Xbox Game Pass, which may not be possible until January 2025 under agreements from June, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick previously stated that he doesn’t agree with “the idea of a multi-game subscription service as a business proposition.”
While that may seem like a roadblock, Spencer laughed when we asked how he’d handle their different ideologies when the deal closes. In addition, Spencer took the time to discuss his team’s philosophy on Xbox Game Pass and why not every game is a good fit for the service.
“Well, there’s a different person making the decisions,” Spencer laughed. “That’s one thing. On Game Pass, it’s not necessarily true that every game looks at Game Pass and says that’s the opportunity for me. If you’re a massively successful Triple-A franchise that has double-digit million marketing budget to go drive awareness and discovery of your game day one, and that’s part of your model, I totally understand why you wouldn’t window your game day one into a subscription. I’ve got 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.
“So, I just got out actually of a round table with a bunch of indie developer leads, studio heads, and the subscription helps them. It helps them in terms of dev funding, certaintly in what they can go build. Every game that’s in Game Pass is available for sale. So we’re not trying to turn the world into a subscription only world, I promise. That’s not our plan. And we think it’s a great model for certain teams. And for other teams that decide it’s not the right model for them ever or right now, that’s also totally cool as well.”
For more, check out Spencer’s comments on if Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 would ever make their way to Xbox and our roundup of all the big reveals from gamescome Opening Night Live.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
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