Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, took not to the Xbox Wire page but rather to the official Microsoft Blog to talk about some of the changes and concerns over Microsoft's potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In the blog, Spencer tries to put to bed fears that long-standing multi-platform titles like Call of Duty would suddenly become Xbox exclusive.
In the blog post, Spencer also says that franchises such as Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty will eventually come to Xbox Game Pass. These titles will still be released on PlayStation and other platforms on the same day. Spencer says that their goal is to bring games to as many people as possible.
This is all assuming that the regulatory bodies across the world, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, gives their approval for the $70 billion deal to go through.
"We intend to make Activision Blizzard’s much-loved library of games – including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty – available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities. By delivering even more value to players, we hope to continue growing Game Pass, extending its appeal to mobile phones and any connected device." (...)
"In doing so, we will pursue a principled path. We’ve heard that this deal might take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places where people currently play them. That’s why, as we’ve said before, we are committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. We will continue to enable people to play with each other across platforms and across devices. We know players benefit from this approach because we’ve done it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has expanded to even more since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014."
"In doing so, we will pursue a principled path. We’ve heard that this deal might take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places where people currently play them. That’s why, as we’ve said before, we are committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. We will continue to enable people to play with each other across platforms and across devices. We know players benefit from this approach because we’ve done it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has expanded to even more since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014."
