Activision Blizzard is currently under investigation following accusations of harassment, discrimination, and fostering a hostile work environment. You can read more about the investigation here.
Historically, Blizzard Entertainment has designed its games with PC players in mind. However, Blizzard has made more of an effort in recent years to get more of their titles to consoles. While games such as World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 are still exclusive to PC platforms, other Blizzard IPs such as Diablo and Overwatch are easily accessible on various consoles. Of course, Blizzard’s push to get their games in the hands of more console users really started in the earlier days of the company’s “Activision Blizzard era.” Quite a lot has changed since then in ways that some fans fear will impact how, when, and if they play Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
Earlier this year, Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion. Thanks to this transaction, Microsoft now owns every Activision and Blizzard IP under the sun, including Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Crash Bandicoot. This is why trailers for Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 popped up during the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. After all, what better time for Microsoft to flaunt its latest acquisitions? However, while those trailers wowed viewers (well… mostly), they also raised important concerns regarding those games’ future platforms. Now that Microsoft owns Diablo and Overwatch, will they actually still release them on PlayStation platforms? Thankfully, the answer is “yes.”
Scour the internet enough, and you will find the Activision Blizzard press release site. Two recent additions tackle Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Their respective press release announcements explicitly state that the games will launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, in addition to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S (looks like the Nintendo Switch will be left out for now). Admittedly, that revelation seems at odds with what was presented during the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.
After all, that stream’s Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 segments ended with those games’ currently scheduled release windows and the words “Xbox Consoles · PC,” implying anti-PlayStation exclusivity. Truth be told, that’s just standard practice for showcases. A company holding a big game reveal stream and advertising its competition is just bad for business. While that decision sounds reasonable from a marketing standpoint, it painted a confusing picture for just about everyone. However, news of the PS4/5 ports for Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 probably should not come as a surprise since Microsoft previously went on record that it wouldn’t get in the way of games Activision Blizzard started developing before the acquisition, including those planned for PlayStation.
In February, Microsoft announced via blog post that Call of Duty would continue to remain a multi-console franchise (at least temporarily). Initially, Microsoft only planned to honor existing contracts, which implied the series might eventually become an Xbox exclusive or, at the very least, a timed exclusive. However, the company then stated it would make Call of Duty titles available on PlayStation consoles “beyond the existing agreement and into the future.” Even if Microsoft hadn’t decided against eventually restricting Call of Duty games to PC and Xbox, it is still honoring agreements that concern games developed before the acquisition. This clearly extends to the Blizzard side of Activision Blizzard, as well as Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
On that note, you may have heard some rumors that suggested the Diablo 4 team was planning on dropping their support of all last-gen consoles (meaning PS4 and Xbox One). However, Blizzard has since clarified that those reports are false and that they still intend to port the game to those consoles.
Even though the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase didn’t advertise the PlayStation 4 and 5 versions of Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, it seems that Microsoft still intends to release those titles on all of those platforms. As for whether or not they’ll try to offer PC and Xbox gamers some kind of exclusive content or additional incentives designed to drive them to Xbox-friendly hardware…well, that certainly wouldn’t be unheard of, but we’ll just wait to see how generous they’ll ultimately be.