Featured Image Credit: Microsoft, Activision Blizzard
Topics: Call Of Duty, Xbox Game Pass, Activision, Xbox
Topics: Call Of Duty, Xbox Game Pass, Activision, Xbox
This is one of those lightning-might-well-strike-twice kind of stories. Having previously seen Bethesda games show up under Xbox Game Pass Deals before then being added to the Game Pass service proper - y’know, you pay your subscription, you download and play what you want from a pretty darn impressive selection - the eagle-eyed Twitter account @modernwarzone has spied Call of Duty games arriving in the same Deals category. Ergo, maybe these are also destined for Game Pass too.
The immediate thinking here is, well, Xbox is buying Activision Blizzard, the publishers of Call of Duty, so obviously a spread of titles from the military shooter series is coming to Game Pass at some point. However, that deal is far from done and dusted, with four US senators saying they’ve doubts over the acquisition, stating that it “threatens worker-led demands for accountability” and noting the “proposed merger has already impeded unionisation efforts” (via VGC).
That said, why shouldn’t CoD games naturally make their way to Game Pass, anyway? Obviously the ongoing negotiations should open doors for Activision content to find a fresh home on Game Pass, but the subscription service is already host to a plethora of titles from huge publishers, ranging from Square Enix to Warner Bros. to SEGA to the whole EA Play package. Activision could easily follow even without it being connected to the purchase that may or may not happen.
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Please enjoy Warzone’s most pathetic hacker, getting their comeuppance…
The games in question, seen by @modernwarzone, include the rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare of 2019, Black Ops Cold War of 2020, and 2016’s Modern Warfare Remastered, an updated version of 2007’s Call of Duty 4. Could these land on Game Pass in the very near future? Sure, why not. We can’t say for sure, but they’re just there, being slightly old, and would no doubt find a fair few new players if they plopped onto Game Pass. I’m no fan of CoD at all, but a campaign playthrough that basically costs me nowt? I might bite.
After some back and forth over whether or not Activision games could be Xbox (console) exclusive if the acquisition goes through, it now seems that they could, despite earlier signs that Call of Duty, at least, would remain cross-platform and also available for PlayStation. While the free-to-play likes of Warzone will absolutely remain playable on a variety of platforms, brand-new CoD releases might only come out for Xbox and PC. No need to panic just yet though, as 2023’s CoD should come out for anything that can run it, really, including PlayStation 4 and 5.