Call of Duty Will Be on Game Pass Day One

A huge factor in the Activision Blizzard acquisition at Microsoft was Call of Duty. Most years, the annual release of the popular military shooter ends up in the top five games in total sales. Its battle royale mode, Warzone, continues to boast a respectable player base. Yes, there are other Activision Blizzard games that certainly bring value to the Xbox Game Studio library, but CoD is a big one. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer is hinting that its larger-than-life status will not exclude new entries in the franchise from coming to Game Pass Day One.

In an interview with Game File, Spencer noted that Call of Duty was likely going to join other first-party titles as Xbox Game Pass Day One releases. “Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard[,] and XGS — Xbox Game Studios — will be on Game Pass, day one,” Spencer said. Most Call of Duty games release around the late fall or early winter, meaning that Xbox Game Pass subscriptions may get a boost during that busy holiday time as well.

Adding past Call of Duty titles to the Xbox Game Pass library will no doubt be a huge boost. Xbox execs have teased that those newly acquired games, as well as others in the Activision Blizzard family, will be coming to Game Pass soon. While we don’t have dates for every single release, we do know Diablo IV is coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on March 28th. This may be a test to see if some newly acquired franchises are reserved for the console-PC hybrid tier of the subscription service.

For a lot of folks, Call of Duty is an annual purchase that they don’t even think about. The sustained success of the series continues to be a mainstay in gaming despite a relatively hostile discourse surrounding the game’s inability to evolve over the years. In reality, if something is working to the tune of millions of dollars, you don’t mess with it. Still, it stands to reason that sales will look a little different this year if Game Pass subscribers are simply given the game on release date via their paid subscription.

Are you excited to see the suite of Activision Blizzard games come to Game Pass? Let us know what old, or upcoming, game you can’t wait to see on Game Pass in the comments.