Call of Duty, Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft, and any other Activision Blizzard games won’t cause a price increase to PC Game Pass if the acquisition goes through, Microsoft has confirmed. With the potential for the Microsoft-owned subscription service to balloon in size if the company ends up buying Activision Blizzard, it has promised that a series like Call of Duty won’t cause a Game Pass price hike.
At this point, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft remains in question. The $69 billion deal has been blocked by both the FTC in the US and the CMA in the UK in recent weeks. Despite all the legal debates, however, one thing has consistently been on our minds: ‘What’s going to happen to Game Pass?’
More specifically, what Activision Blizzard games, like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 4, will come to PC Game Pass, and will the price go up as a result? Well, in a new court document ahead of the FTC versus Microsoft and Activision court case following the block, the prospective buyer is making its case against.
Naturally, Game Pass comes up, and Microsoft commits to the idea that it won’t be upping the price of the subscription service as soon as a series like CoD come to it.
“The acquisition would benefit consumers by making Call of Duty available on Microsoft’s Game Pass on the day it is released on console (with no price increase for the service based on the acquisition), on Nintendo, and on other services that allow cloud streaming,” Microsoft writes in the court filing (via TweakTown).
While it’s written here, this doesn’t mean Game Pass won’t ever increase in price, as that seems like an inevitability. What it does tell us is that if the acquisition does go through, we won’t suddenly see the $9.99 / £7.99 cost of Game Pass go up. A price increase is coming though, that I’m sure of, as Microsoft continues to buy studios and expand its library.
Since it launched in 2017, Game Pass has been an astoundingly great value proposition. Of course, you don’t own the digital games, and some of us do still love physical discs, but you’re paying $120 a year (or roughly two AAA games) for a massive library. Every first-party Xbox game comes to the service on launch day, including the Starfield release date, and stays there forever, while a massive selection of indies and big hitters rotate across the service over time.
While we all wait to see what happens next in the ongoing Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, our breakdown of the best and biggest upcoming games on PC should keep you busy. Alternatively, we’ve got a look at the best multiplayer games on the market instead, if you want something you can play with your friends.
