Diablo 4 won’t be on Xbox Game Pass
Blizzard Entertainment’s president, Mike Ybarra, has publicly denied a rumor about Diablo 4 coming to Xbox Game Pass. This possibility was brought into play by an advertisement for a Brazilian payment app, which connected the new action RPG with Microsoft’s subscription service, saying people could buy the game or get it through Game Pass.
Ybarra personally took to Twitter to write: “This is not happening.”
The ad had already been pulled before Ybarra made his response, but it’s good to have the official clarification anyway.
It seems like the company’s president is enjoying his own time with the game as well, admitting to his hardcore mode character dying at level 59 – that means he had put a good amount of time into the run before death came knocking (there are no revives in hardcore mode, one death and it’s game over).
That fun tidbit aside, Ybarra’s clear stance pretty much follows established company policy – Activision has previously stated similar things regarding Call of Duty. Sony’s Jim Ryan recently stated that publishers hated Xbox Game Pass, because it’s “value destructive.”
Microsoft is of course in the process of taking over Activision Blizzard, though the deal is being contested by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US and the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) in the UK.
Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service offered by Microsoft that enables members to access a vast library of games on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The company announced plans to include titles of Activision Blizzard in the catalog after completing the proposed takeover – a move that potentially may not go down well with everyone over at Activision Blizzard, though they could dry their tears with the dollar notes they are getting out of the deal in this case.
Diablo 4's first season is coming up this month, giving players a taste of what kind of content they can expect in the future.
