Diablo 4 – Xbox owners will have to pay for it (pic: Blizzard)
Although it may soon become a first party Xbox game, Blizzard claims there are currently no plans to bring Diablo 4 to Game Pass – day one or otherwise.
With all the fuss being made about Call Of Duty, it’s become less clear what the driving force behind Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard really is.
Microsoft’s been desperate to claim it’s not for exclusives, but they’ve not mentioned Game Pass much lately, despite the initial implication being that any and all Activision Blizzard games would automatically appear on the service, once they become first party games.
That’s apparently not the case for Diablo 4 though, at least not at launch. And it’s now unclear whether the game will be on Game Pass even after Microsoft buys the publisher.
Diablo 4 will launch on June 6 on both Xbox and PlayStation formats, which will likely be before the acquisition is officially authorised (if it’s authorised, although it’s looking increasingly likely that it will be).
What happens after that, in terms of Activision Blizzard’s backlog, is unclear but theoretically there’s no reason that all of their games couldn’t instantly be made available on Game Pass.
That has been one of Sony’s key arguments against the deal though, which has led to Microsoft promising to make Call Of Duty available on PS Plus and GeForce Now… if Sony is willing to pay for the former.
Diablo isn’t quite as big a franchise as Call Of Duty, at least not on consoles, but it’s possible that Microsoft might also be forced to extend its PS Plus offer to cover Diablo 4. Or just keep it off Game Pass as well.
As far as Diablo boss Rod Fergusson is concerned, he has ‘no plans’ for the game to be on Microsoft’s subscription service. With the acquisition potentially imminent you’d have to assume he knows about any short term plans, although his priority at the moment will be to ensure launch day sales are as high as possible.
In the meantime, a beta of Diablo 4 will run from Friday, March 17 until Sunday, for anyone that has pre-ordered the game. Everyone else can play it the next weekend, from March 24.
The beta is a generous one, with no time limit and the ability to level up your character as far as level 25, allowing you to complete almost the entire first act of the game.
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Although it may soon become a first party Xbox game, Blizzard claims there are no plans to bring Diablo 4 to Game Pass – day one or otherwise.