Activision’s recent town hall was emceed by former late-night host James Corden in what could easily be one of the most surprising news of the year. Having said that, Corden is no stranger to hosting several big events, but even so, this wasn’t a collaboration anyone would have seen coming.
Microsoft is getting closer to finalizing its $69Billion Activision acquisition and following this, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has been reportedly having internal meetings with his employees. It’s one of these all-hands meetings that James Corden is said to have hosted and got Kotick to answer several questions about the future of Activision.
James Corden Fielded Several Questions to Activision CEO
Pending a UK regulatory approval which looks all but done, the acquisition might be announced as early as tomorrow, the 13th of October. As such, Kotick called an all-hands town hall meeting and fielded a bevy of questions from James Corden, the former host of The Late Late Show. Corden was the last person anyone would have expected to see fielding questions to Kotick about the future of Activision-Blizzard-King.
Both James Corden and Bobby Kotick were quite wary of revealing too much regarding the deal but Kotick did drop another hint while answering Corden’s questions about a possible revival of Guitar Hero. Kotick namedropped the game while stating the endless possibilities with Microsoft’s research team who Kotick mentioned to be “extraordinary”, and without whom the “re-emergence of Guitar Hero and other things would not be possible”.
While Kotick clarified the current stance of not having any immediate plans for their blockbusters to end up in the Game Pass library, he did confirm things might change once the deal passes. There was also a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Activision’s official account which also clarified the same.
It’s awesome to see anticipation building for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III. As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass.
While we…
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) October 9, 2023
Candy Crush and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 have both brought in the most revenue in terms of sales and profits by Activision Blizzard, so adding them to the Game Pass library is a no-brainer. However, there are still several other blockbusters that will pull players to the Xbox subscription service, once they get added.
Game Pass Library is About To Get A Lot Bigger
It’s not just the recently released games either, as the deal could potentially bring several older titles as well. Back in July, updated servers brought several players back to playing classic Call of Duty titles like Black Ops and the original Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox. This resurgence had dropped a major hint at the deal getting closer to being finalized which might see these titles being added to the Game Pass library.
Back in March this year, there was an ad for the smash hit mobile game Candy Crush on the Microsoft Rewards App, which turned out to be a mistake and was swiftly removed. Not that the game is exclusive on another platform, as the Microsoft store has the game listed on PC but this was considered a hint at the deal getting closer to finalization and the games coming to Xbox Game Pass with an optimized version coming to the consoles.
There are at least 18 classic titles from the Call of Duty franchise alone that might come to the subscription library along with World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Skylanders, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, Candy Crush, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Starcraft and Geometry Wars.
While the Call of Duty franchise majorly relies on microtransactions, the games usually retail for a premium at launch even for the standard editions. This might change drastically as in-house games and partner games usually get listed on Game Pass on launch day. Gamers will then get access to new titles using just the bare minimum subscription deals.
Bethesda’s Starfield is a prime example of a Day One launch that boosted Game Pass subscriptions closer to the game’s global launch. Forza Motorsport by Xbox Game Studios was released two days back and was immediately accessible to Game Pass subscribers who were able to download and play.
It’s not just on PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles, as gamers with Ultimate Game Pass subscriptions played Starfield and several other new games on other eligible devices using Xbox Cloud Gaming.
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