Xbox Game Pass has now crossed 25 million subscribers, Microsoft announced this morning alongside its massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The previous milestone was 18 million subscribers in January 2021, so the game subscription service gained 7 million subscribers since last year.
Microsoft originally launched Xbox Game Pass for Console back in June 2017, and the company has since followed up with Xbox Game Pass for PC (now PC Game Pass) and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a premium tier that adds Xbox Live Gold, EA Play, and Xbox Cloud Gaming to the mix. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate remains of the best deals in gaming these days, but it’s going to get better for fans of Activision games.
“Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog,” said Phil, now CEO, Microsoft Gaming today. The Redmond giant expects the acquisition of Activision Blizzard to close in the fiscal year 2023, but until then, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently.
We don’t know yet if once Activision Blizzard officially becomes part of Microsoft’s gaming, Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, and other popular game franchises will be exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms. Following its acquisition of ZeniMax/Bethesda, Microsoft said that it would make future Bethesda games exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem “on a case-by-case basis,” but all options are still on the table as of this writing. However, Xbox Game Pass can only get better with Activision Blizzard on board.
