Xbox Considering Ending Day One Call of Duty on Game Pass, It’s Claimed

Access to the new Call of Duty game on day one via Xbox Game Pass may not occur in the future.

In 2023, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the publisher of the Call of Duty franchise. Beginning in 2024, games from the franchise began joining The Game Pass lineup. The most recent two games in the franchise, black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7, were also available day one via Xbox Game Pass.

In 2024, Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz told the BBC that CoD games on Xbox Game Pass would be the biggest test for subscription models in gaming, “because if Call of Duty can’t move the needle in terms of subscriber numbers, probably nothing will.”

Now, new information suggests that the results from that test are in.

Call of Duty Day One Game Pass Release Possibly in Doubt at Xbox

During a recent livestream, Jez Corden mentioned that he’d heard of the possibility that Xbox may remove Call of Duty from Game Pass as a day-and-date launch this year. Xbox is currently undergoing a massive shake-up and regime change following Asha Sharma’s appointment as the CEO of Microsoft Gaming in the wake of Phil Spencer’s retirement.

“If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard. I think it’ll kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly, but I don’t know.”

Corden also discussed how, in his view, the integration of CoD into Game Pass could have hurt the franchise.

“Call of Duty is going to vacuum up a lot of that revenue, which kind of eats into how much money you’ve got month over month to actually get new content. And you need new content to prevent churn,” he said. “Even in an off year. Call of Duty is so big that it sort of harms Game Pass, but at the same time, the idea that you don’t have to buy Call of Duty and get it for cheaper kind of also hurts Call of Duty in reverse.”

As of now, nothing has been confirmed about the future of the military shooter on Game Pass. Insider Gaming will continue to monitor this story and report any updates. For more Game Pass, check out the story of Netflix and Xbox potentially creating a bundle.

What do you think? Do you want to continue seeing CoD on Game Pass? Would it affect you in any way? Sound off in our official Discord server. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.