Microsoft’s Brazilian partners may have jumped the gun early on a deal they have planned for Xbox owners.
As reported by Tech4Gamers, a Brazilian app called PICPAY posted an ad for Game Pass, which explicitly indicated that Diablo 4 would be part of the subscription program.
As of this writing, Diablo 4 is not a part of Game Pass. That ad was subsequently pulled, but not before people went so far as to grab screenshots for it.
Of course, the big elephant in the room here is that the company that made Diablo 4, Activision Blizzard King, is in the middle of negotiations to be acquired by Xbox owner Microsoft.The two parties have finalized the details of the deal on their end respectively.
The holdup has been from various regulators in the different countries and regions where the deal will be relevant.
For the moment, we are waiting on the San Francisco, California court ruling on the injunction filed vs the deal. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s decision could make the difference on whether the deal pushes through or not.
But it stands to reason, if the deal pushes through, that Microsoft would be able to offer Activision’s games through Game Pass. No such arrangement exists now, because Activision isn’t willing to license those games. This is partly because they can see other ways to better make money with their games. Potentially, it is also partly because of business arrangements that Activision could have made with Xbox’s primary competitor, Sony’s PlayStation.
But in a world where Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard King, Microsoft stands to make more money if they placed Activision’s games on Game Pass. This may not necessarily lead to PlayStation gamers making the switch to Xbox consoles completely. As we know, Microsoft is incentivized to keep bringing their games to PlayStation as well.
However, it would mean that Microsoft has a better chance to compete in the market vs Sony, and regardless of how fans feel, at this moment in time, that would be better for the industry, since it would lead to more competition between the two.
In the case of Diablo 4 in particular, we should remember that this is Blizzard’s foray to take the franchise into a live service direction. While players can currently buy the game as a standalone product, there is definitely appeal in getting the game as part of a subscription, and subsequently not having to pay full price or buy any potential DLC.
In other words, it could transform the way Diablo players buy Diablo games. That kind of radical change is now possible if the Microsoft Activision deal goes through.
