Following Microsoft’s 2023 purchase of Activision Blizzard, the addition of the latter’s gigantic library of games to Xbox Game Pass has been more sluggish than hoped for by many. While fresh Activision games are continuing to be added to the platform, the huge library of classic games is still largely absent.
More recent Activision titles to be released have also followed a similar trend of day-one launch on Microsoft’s gaming subscription. With the exception of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, leakers had previously noted that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 would also receive a day-one launch on Xbox Game Pass, which was afterward confirmed by Xbox. Future game releases in mentioned franchises are guaranteed to do so. But the pipeline of older Activision games not yet added to Xbox Game Pass is significant, even though Microsoft has had a year and some change now that it’s controlled the company.
Tom Warren at The Verge hypothesized on the Xbox Two podcast that it is time and effort-consuming to add classic games to Game Pass, whether from any publisher. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer once stated that introducing Activision titles would be time-consuming. Among them is the fact that classic games need to be updated, for example, to accommodate cloud save files, which involves considerable development effort.
Licensing problems can creep in as well. Even though Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard, previous royalty agreements with voice actors and other partnerships would probably need to be renegotiated or reworked before games are made available on Xbox Game Pass.
Despite such limitations, Xbox is slowly integrating Activision Blizzard titles into its subscription service. In March 2025, the 2021 Blizzard Arcade Collection was included in Xbox Game Pass, covering five games from the studio.
The profitability of including additional Activision Blizzard titles in Game Pass is self-evident. The acquisition of Activision had a drastic impact on Xbox Gaming revenue, and including Call of Duty in Game Pass was a tremendous financial success. The fact that Activision Blizzard titles remain somewhat limited in quantity on the platform is far from resulting from any doubt of their profit-making potential.
