After rumors exploded about Microsoft bringing its games to non-Xbox platforms last week, many have been looking forward to the company's new podcast that launched today. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer promised players that the team would break down the company's plans, shedding light on exactly what it's going to do with the Xbox brand in the coming months. While the team only confirmed four unnamed games will be testing the waters on other platforms, they did reveal that Diablo 4 is making its way to Game Pass. The hit action RPG from Blizzard Entertainment was released last summer, and now Diablo 4 is about to be in the hands of a whole new host of players.

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Diablo 4 has been out for a little under a year but is in the thick of its third season. You might assume that Xbox would want to give players a clean break and bring Diablo 4 to Game Pass alongside Season 4, but that's not the plan. Instead, players will be able to jump into Diablo 4 via Game Pass on March 28. They don't specifically say the game is coming to both Xbox Series X/S and PC versions of Game Pass, but it wouldn't make much sense to bring it to one or the other.

What was made clear is that Diablo 4 will only be available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. This wasn't revealed in the initial announcement, but Microsoft told The Verge, that Game Pass Core subscribers will not get access. That means a decent chunk of the 34 million players who subscribe to Game Pass will not be able to play Diablo 4 without upgrading their subscription.

This is great news for Blizzard fans. Not only will Diablo 4 get a host of new players to hopefully help keep things fresh, but this is also just the beginning of Activision Blizzard games coming to Game Pass now that Microsoft's purchase is complete. Xbox didn't say which games are next, but the pipeline has now been created, and players can expect this to lead to an influx of Activision Blizzard games over the coming year.

Another interesting nugget about this is that, at the tail end of the podcast, the team mentions games that are coming to Game Pass like Hellblade 2, Avowed, and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. They also mention the Diablo 4 expansion. It's not clear if this means Game Pass players will get Vessel of Hatred for no extra purchase, but that seems to be the implication given how the games are grouped. That said, we'll have to wait for official confirmation from Microsoft and Blizzard before we know for sure.

Posted: Feb 20, 2024 10:03 am
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/diablo-4-game-pass-release-date-xbox-pc/