
Microsoft announced as part of the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard that it would be putting as many games as possible from the company into Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, and that means a lot of potential titles!
Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, so we don't know which games will be joining Game Pass and which might not be eligible, and we've still got to wait until fiscal year 2023 (July 2022 to June 2023) before the deal is completed.
Nevertheless, based on the current Activision Blizzard listings on the Xbox Store, we've come up with a list of 50+ games (thanks to Luke Spencer for the help!) that might be heading to Xbox Game Pass over the next year-or-so:
(Note: this list is based on potential Game Pass titles for console, rather than PC)
- 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures
- Aces of the Galaxy
- Alaskan Adventures
- Assault Heroes 2
- Blizzard Arcade Collection
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty 3
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Call of Duty Black Ops
- Call of Duty Black Ops 2
- Call of Duty Black Ops 3
- Call of Duty Black Ops 4
- Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: World At War
- Call of Duty: World War II
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Carcassonne
- Commanders: Attack
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
- Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
- Diablo 2: Resurrected
- Diablo 3: Eternal Collection
- Geometry Wars Evolved
- Geometry Wars 2: Evolved
- Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
- Gin Rummy
- Golf: Tee It Up!
- King's Quest: The Complete Collection
- Overwatch
- Prototype
- Prototype 2
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Shiftlings
- Skylanders SuperChargers
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy
- Switchball
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
In addition to these, there are a few games left on the Xbox Store that are no longer available to purchase digitally, most likely because the licenses for these titles expired some time ago. Whether Microsoft will be able to do anything to properly relist these games remains to be seen, but here's what we've found in regards to these anyway (this list only includes games that still have an official page on the modern Xbox Store):
- Cabela's African Adventure (delisted)
- Cabela's Alaskan Adventures (delisted)
- Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 (delisted)
- Cabela's Survival: Shadows of Katmai (delisted)
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (delisted)
- Deadpool (delisted)
- Duck Dynasty (delisted)
- Guitar Hero Live (delisted)
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (delisted)
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (delisted)
- Skylanders Imaginators (delisted)
- Skylanders SWAP Force (delisted)
- Skylanders Trap Team (delisted)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Mutants in Manhattan (delisted)
- The Legend of Korra (delisted)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (delisted)
- Transformers: Devestation (delisted)
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (delisted)
- Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (delisted)
- Velocity 2X (delisted)
- White Night (delisted)
Don't forget that Microsoft is planning to launch Activision Blizzard games into Xbox Game Pass in the future as well, so hopefully new titles from franchises such as Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Overwatch, Tony Hawk and more will become day one Xbox Game Pass additions. It's an exciting time to be a Game Pass subscriber!
Which of these do you think we'll see on Xbox Game Pass? Let us know down in the comments below.
Comments (47)
There are a lot of great titles here, hopefully with Microsoft's backing Activision-Blizzard looks into porting/remaking some of their older titles not on this list as well (and adding local multiplayer to various games, I'm still disappointed by the lack of it in the Diablo II Remake!)
What an absolute treat it is to be a Game Pass subscriber.
I love it. I absolutely love it. So glad I went in on Xbox this generation. Still got the ps5 and Switch for their exclusives. I use the xbox for everything else.
Microsoft might have saved all these franchises concidering Activision Blizzard tried to sell their brand/games to Facebook first. That would have been a disaster in the gaming industry. Thank you Microsoft!
Fyi. I dont play any of these games personally but the potential for more people joining game pass is huge and thats great (Especially if youre into online gaming and coop like me).
Lots of great games that are most likely coming to Game Pass and hopefully with this acquisition, Microsoft might be able to release another batch of backwards compatible games now that they own Activision Blizzard.
It's a strong list but other than a few COD's I haven't played, got almost everything else here I want to play.
Wouldn't mind replaying Velocity 2X (it's brilliant) or Transformers: Fall of Cybertron again. What about War of Cybertron though was also published by Activision.
Lastly would MS really get rights to do what they want with Sekiro? How does the publishing rights work in this case? Surely FromSoft has some say? Or maybe not.
Wouldn't mind transformers rise of the dark spark brought back then I can finish off the achievements I can't get since they shut the servers down
Wow, what a list. When is goldeneye releasing? Will it be the "supposed" remaster or the n64 port?
Only game on that list for me is tony hawk……… and i already bought that🤣🤣🤣 yet more buyers remorse. Lake was another. Oh, and deaths door it seems. No point buying games now on xbox cos they’ll inevitably end up on gamepass
That would be absolutely massive if there was a large drop, similar to the Bethesda GP drop shortly after that acquisition announcement. Sadly, i have no interest in any of those titles. Not because i think the games are bad, rather because I have played all of them already lol.
I wondered about Sekiro and Game Pass, but apparently Activision only had publishing rights, not the IP also, which remains with the developer. So, in summary - no.
Not that I’d have played it anyway.
Maybe MW3 remastered might become a thing now. Love the ost on that game
@FraserG and everyone else, how long do you think it will take for games to join Game Pass? When regulations have been checked in one year and a half or earlier? 😁
There are many things in there that I want to play but, objectively, the biggest deal will be Call of Duty exclusively on Xbox from 2023 on. If you consider that Xbox also has EA Play including FIFA on Game Pass Ultimate, it's crazy. Not to mention the new-gen games that Xbox Game Studios are making... 😂.
@themightyant @Clankylad If you have the publishing rights you can publish the game, generally for 20 years, and you pay the owner for doing so. Then the rights can be renewed or not. Activision Blizzard haven't ceased to exist so they still have the publishing rights after the acquisition as part of Xbox Game Studios.
@Banjo- Thanks. Wasn't sure how this worked in the case of M&A or if FromSoft has some say.
World of Warcraft to console confirmed!!!
@Tasuki podcast unlocked said on the most recent episode that WoW has had the background stuff for controller for a long time. Would be pretty interesting to see it on console. I fear there are too many usable spells and such though for it to work flawlessly though.
@FatalBubbles If Skyrim works...
Most of those 'delisted' were delisted because of Licensing. Disney now owns Marvel (apart from Spider-Man) so those games were delisted.
That's why I don't expect the Transformers 'Cybertron' games to come to Game Pass or the devs to make a new one...
Nice list man. This is huge. Cant wait.
@Banjo- If it follows the Bethesda pattern, a few of them might be drip-fed before a huge batch is dropped at the close of the deal.
I guess it just depends on the terms of the acquisition.
That's a huge list of games. While dropping a load at once would be amazing I think drip adding them would actually be better.
This will be a great catalogue to draw from for game pass additions alone the really good part for myself though is the new future titles to come,
One observation I have noticed in the Playstation fanbase when a selection of the games were listed elsewhere is a shift with the comments in that they have now suddenly overnight decided they don't even like any of the titles...classic defensive denial but at least things have calmed down a little now.....well I thought they had calmed down but just had a look again but it seems they are all whipped up into a wild frenzy again today really must stop looking
I wonder if we will get a brand new World of Warcraft next gen at last when new games start getting developed...chooo chooo...not that I would even play it im an offlline campaign gamer but it's long overdue that one of these older online games like WoW Elder Scrolls Neverwinter etc got into this generation for those that do
@Banjo- I’m not following? Some dps rotations in WoW can be 6+ spells/attacks. That would be difficult to pull off well with a controller. Plus there are non rotation things that are used as well in raids that you’d want hot mapped somewhere. I’m not saying it’s impossible, it just doesn’t seem straightforward to me.
@Banjo- @themightyant I do believe MS would have to work our a deal with From. Game Rant had an article on it.
https://gamerant.com/sekiro-xbox-activision-acquisition/amp/
@FatalBubbles The console does support keyboard and mouse. I think the issues some may have is if they use a separate custom overlay UI for the game likely wouldn't work on console. I don't even know if this is a thing for WoW but I know it was popular with other MMOs. But, keyboard and mouse should be easy enough to implement.
All we need now is Microsoft to buy Sony Interactive
@iplaygamesnstuff There are lots of custom UIs for WoW as well as tons of add ons such a Dps, healing and threat meters, quest helpers, etc.
I’m sure mouse and keyboard would be no issue but that sort of defeats going to console to play it for me.
@FatalBubbles That article is misleading. Of course, Sekiro is not owned by Activision Blizzard but the publishing rights that Activision Blizzard have aren't affected by who owns Activision Blizzard now.
@FatalBubbles It doesn't defeat going to console, do you know what kind of gaming PC is needed to match Series X performance? The cost is incomparable.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a deal sorted for this years COD to hit Game Pass before the deal closes.
Everything else will probably be released in batches once the deal closes sometime in 2023.
@blinx01 At the end of the day, paying Activision for a deal now is money that will be back once the acquisition is completed. That might be what happened with the Zenimax games that joined Game Pass before that acquisition was completed. Microsoft wouldn't mind paying for this year's Call of Duty being on Game Pass.
So this time next year we might see some of these on gamepass at the absolute earliest?
Diablo 2 & 3 are the only current ones I would have an interest in playing. /shrugs
Please figure out a way to bring World of Warcraft to Xbox
@Banjo- I can easily play WoW with keyboard/mouse on my PC, so playing it with keyboard/mouse on Xbox defeats the purpose. If I’m playing it on console, it would be because I can use a controller. Which is in line with all the comments I’ve made about why it would be hard with a controller…
The only game from this lengthy list that I play is Crash Team Racing, and I play it with my wife on my PS5, and that's not very often. But I do want a next-gen version of it! whether that's on PS5 or Series X.
@FatalBubbles You do, and do you think that all console players have a gaming PC that matches Series X performance? People that are not comfortable playing PC games without a mouse and keyboard can do it on Series X.
@eagletrippin It should get FPS Boots, that and Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot N.sane Trilogy. All of them are 30fps on Series X but now (next year) Microsoft software engineers can touch the code without asking.
@Banjo- You can play WoW on the back of a cereal box. 😂
@FatalBubbles Ha ha! Fair enough, one point for you 😁. I mean a future/updated version of the PC IPs that are part of Activision Blizzard. My point is that keyboard and mouse are not redundant on Series X. I have a top-tier Surface Laptop 4 (9 months old) that can't run Xbox One Play Anywhere games properly. I don't even have a desktop PC.
@Banjo- Haha! It’s not redundant for everyone, 100% correct. I was referring to myself when I said that. I don’t know how many people you’d pull into WoW on Xbox if it requires a MK though. People that aren’t playing it right now probably controller users.
@FatalBubbles You never know! Flight Simulator still is popular on console Game Pass. Because I don't game on PC, I'd try other PC IPs if they come to Series X/S and would use a keyboard if necessary as I did with Monster Hunter Tri on Wii. PC players (like you) will likely prefer playing these games on PC but that also means that Game Pass PC and PC sales will benefit a lot from this acquisition.
War for Cybertron appears not to be bc, which I hope changes because I still have a copy.
lets bring THPS 1+2, pronto!
Going by that list I now realize that I'm not a big fan of the games Activision publishes. Beside the Spyro remakes, which I have not played, none of these interest me. Compared with the library we got with the Bethesda's deal, I really don't care if any of these come to gamepass.
@LtSarge
Interesting at work this morning spoke with a couple of PS5 COD gang.
Jokingly said what you going to do in 2023 when COD is Xbox console exclusive.
Which without any hesitations, buy Xbox.
Shows the dedicated COD players which they are on console, will just switch as COD is what matters to them.
Really the only games I'd like to play here are the Spyro and Tony Hawk re-makes, and I haven't been bothered enough about them to actually buy either.
Really I'd rather that MS didn't buy them, and the company had been broken up again rather than becoming a bigger and bigger corporation. We could have still got great games on Game Pass without this.
@FraserG One I noticed missing from the article that has a page on XBox Marketplace is Spider-Man 3
https://marketplace.xbox.com/en-us/Product/Spider-Man-3/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802415607e2?cid=search
Mind you, it's an odd one. The game itself does not seem to have ever been available digitally (I think) and you still can buy DLC for the game.
That aside, i know its beyond the scope of the article, but hoping we can have the following ones back too:
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man 2
Ultimate Spider-Man
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
There are also quite a few Transformers games:
(Movie tie-ins)
Transformers: The Game
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
(The Cybertron trilogy)
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
It would also be super nice to get the Activision Wolfenstein games:
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)
Wolfenstein (2009)
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