Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra has reaffirmed that Diablo 4 is not coming to Xbox Game Pass.
The former corporate vice president of Microsoft’s gaming division said as much on Twitter after Brazillian payments application PICDAY mentioned that the latest Diablo installment is available now via Xbox Game Pass (via Game Pass Tracker and IdleSloth84).
Ybarra’s response was short but clear: “This is not happening”, he wrote on Twitter. Back in March of this year, prior to the launch of Diablo 4, Diablo manager Rod Fergusson also said debunked rumors that the game is coming to Microsoft’s subscription service.
“It’s awesome seeing the excitement around the Diablo IV Beta and our Wolf Pack puppy!”, Fergusson wrote on Twitter. “We’ve been getting some questions about D4 on Game Pass and I want to let you know we have no plans for that. See you in Sanctuary during the Beta Early Access weekend starting on March 17!”
It will be interesting to see if Diablo 4 will eventually end up being on Game Pass if the heavily-debated merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard finalizes. For now, however, Blizzard’s answer is a clear no, and why would they? After all, the game has already harvested well over $666 million in revenue.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. We reviewed the game upon launch and praised its visuals, atmosphere, combat, its intriguing story, improved skill system, and excellent soundtrack.
“Diablo IV is a return to form at a much-needed time for Blizzard. It delivers incredibly fun hack-and-slash action combat, a greatly improved skill system, and a ton of things to do, not to mention the best story told in the franchise yet”, we wrote. “It also looks awesome, sounds great, and runs well (except for rare instances of traversal stuttering). That said, it sticks a little bit too closely to the rulebook, which works against it in a few areas. The open world is not as dynamic as one could have hoped, with events getting repetitive rather quickly. The side content doesn’t provide any real narrative juice, and the endgame replayability may not be as deep as needed due to limited randomization and lack of certain features.”
