Diablo, Overwatch, & Call Of Duty Franchise Will Be On Xbox Game Pass; Next CoD Confirmed For PlayStation

Xbox boss Phil Spencer stated on the Xbox blog this morning to confirm that the next Call of Duty will be on PlayStation. Oh, and that the Diablo and Overwatch franchise will be on Xbox Game Pass.

At this point in time, it’s unclear whether this will include Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 (all signs point to “yes”, but it’s not official), though the post was made to make things clear regarding the ongoing attempted merger with Activision Blizzard. The post also seems to imply that the CoD franchise (then, future, and now) will be coming to the subscription service.

“We’ve heard that this deal might take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places where people currently play them. That’s why, as we’ve said before, we are committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. We will continue to enable people to play with each other across platforms and across devices. We know players benefit from this approach because we’ve done it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has expanded to even more since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014.”

Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022

This does make sense in the long run: why keep one of the biggest game franchises exclusive when you can sell them on rival platforms AND profit from it somehow? It worked for Minecraft; why stop there?