Activision Blizzard executive Rod Ferguson has confirmed that Diablo IV will not launch on Xbox or PC Game Pass and is encouraging players to try out the early access beta this coming weekend.
“It’s amazing to see the excitement around the Diablo IV beta and our Wolf Pack pup! We’ve had a few questions about D4 on Game Pass and I want to let you know that we have no plans for that,” Ferguson. explains on Twitter. “See you at Sanctuary during the Beta Early Access weekend starting March 17th!”
While some might have expected the game to launch with Microsoft’s subscription, it also makes sense that it won’t. All of Xbox’s own games are brought to the service on launch day, but Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard has yet to be officially approved in places like the EU. As such, Activision Blizzard is not yet part of the Xbox’s own lineup.
Both Sony and Microsoft are still fighting the merger. Sony wants to stop the deal, claiming that the terms Microsoft offered for future Call of Duty releases on PlayStation would irreparably harm competition in the industry. Sony is also worried that Microsoft could sabotage Call of Duty on PlayStation by doing things like raising its price or offering it only on Game Pass.
On the other hand, Microsoft has tried to calm regulators about their anti-competitiveness fears. Microsoft signed a 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo devices on the same day as Xbox and another 10-year deal to bring its PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now.
Diablo IV’s early access beta runs from March 17-19 and its open beta from March 24-26. The game will be released on June 6 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
In IGN’s Diablo IV preview, we said, “Heaven help any game that ships anywhere near Diablo 4, because I know I’ll be too engrossed in my adventures in Sanctuary to care about any something else.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He has been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When he’s not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey