Microsoft bought Activision. Game Pass still had to earn the deal.

Microsoft completed its Activision Blizzard acquisition on October 13, 2023. It bought the teams behind Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. The catalog gave Xbox more games to sell and more reasons for players to keep a subscription.

I see the attraction for Game Pass. A familiar series can persuade someone to subscribe before a new release arrives. That does not mean subscriptions replace individual game sales overnight. Microsoft still has to decide where to sell each title and how much access the subscription should include.

Owning studios also means carrying their development costs between releases. A bigger catalog can reduce dependence on one hit, but it brings more projects to fund and more teams to manage. The acquisition closed the transaction. Players returning for the next game would have to make the business case.