Those: Blizzard
February 16, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. – In the official Xbox podcast, Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty talked about the future of Xbox and presented the first game from Activision Blizzard that will come to Xbox Game Pass. There was also an update to the number of Game Pass subscribers after two years.
You’ve probably noticed: Yesterday evening, February 15, 2024, the official Xbox podcast was broadcast (including via YouTube), in which the Xbox leadership (Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty) talked about the future of Microsoft’s gaming division. In almost 23 minutes there were a lot of PR phrases and very little concrete information. One of the most exciting announcements was that… Diablo 4 will land on Xbox Game Pass on March 28, 2024.
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The Blizzard title, which was released in June 2023, will be part of Microsoft’s subscription service less than a year after launch. In July 2023 Mike Ybarra had confidently claimed: That will never happen! Nun, As is well known, he no longer works at Blizzard Entertainment. Die The new president’s name is Johanna Faries.
There was some confusion surrounding the announcement. Sarah Bond explained in the podcast that all of the current 34 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers can look forward to Diablo 4 (buy now for €91.68).
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But… who exactly is one of these 34 million subscribers? The problem with this statement:
The last official water level report for Xbox Game Pass was from January 2022. At that time, Xbox officials said that 25 million people would use Game Pass. Back then there was also Xbox Live Gold. In May 2020, 46 million players were said to have used this “small” service (via Forbes). In September 2023 As is well known, the new Xbox Game Pass Core from Xbox Live Gold. Core users have access to a fixed library of currently 38 games for 6.99 euros per month. So are core users now among the 34 million Game Pass subscribers? If so, will Diablo 4 also end up in the Core library? And isn’t the increase in Game Pass subscribers since January 2022 disappointingly small, considering that Gold is now Core?
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Fortunately, after the podcast there were a few interviews and clarifications (e.g. at The Verge):
According to Kari Perez, Head of Communications for Xbox, the 34 million subscribers actually include core customers. Diablo 4 will NOT will end up in the small core library, but will only be available through the largest Game Pass subscriptions. So Sarah Bond either made a mistake in the podcast, expressed it unfavorably or deliberately lied to us customers. In an interview with Gamefile, Phil Spencer explained that the switch to Core had resulted in comparatively few new Game Pass customers. According to the Xbox boss, the greatest growth in the past two years has been via PC and cloud.
What is clear: After March 28th, more games from Activision Blizzard will land in Xbox Game Pass. However, details on this will only be available at a later date. The Xbox management also emphasized that the new releases from the new Xbox studios should also end up in Game Pass from day one and, if possible, offer features such as cross-play, cross-save progression, cloud compatibility or Play Anywhere.