New Call of Duty Games Might Skip Xbox Game Pass

The Xbox community already had plenty to say this week after Microsoft announced the closure of several Bethesda and ZeniMax studios, but following some reports about internal discussions within Microsoft, Call of Duty has entered the conversation as well. According to one of those reports, there’s some debate within Microsoft as to whether or not Call of Duty games should be added to Xbox Game Pass. Those subscribed to Xbox Game Pass already would naturally want that to happen since that was one of the big benefits expected from the Activision Blizzard acquisition in the first place, but it seems there’s some concern as to how that’d impact the revenue from Call of Duty games.

The Verge reported on the Call of Duty discussions this week following the Bethesda turmoil. According to the outlet, the discussions about putting Call of Duty games on Xbox Game Pass have been going on for awhile now, though considering how there’s a new Call of Duty game coming out once more this year, a decision will likely have to be made before the holidays regarding at least this one release.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer already confirmed previously that Call of Duty games would come to Xbox Game Pass, but these internal discussions going on now are said to specifically be about new Call of Duty releases coming to the service right at release. However, it’s also worth pointing out that Xbox Game Pass doesn’t even have any Call of Duty games in its library at all. Spencer said that Xbox Game Pass would start getting Activision Blizzard games in 2024 with Call of Duty among those, and while that’s technically true seeing how Diablo 4 is part of Xbox Game Pass as of March, it’s a bit surprising to see that we haven’t even gotten older Call of Duty games added to Xbox Game Pass by now.

Considering how Call of Duty games dominate sales charts annually regardless of how people end up feeling about the game later, it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that there’s some hesitation about adding the games to the service or not, but people have been quick to point out how this differs from strategies for other games. Getting games on day one is one of the biggest boons of Xbox Game Pass with pretty much all the Xbox Game Studios titles following that pattern, even Starfield, but Activision Blizzard games have lagged behind due to that being the most recent Xbox acquisition. If Call of Duty games don’t end up getting added to Xbox Game Pass when released, it’s not hard to imagine Xbox Game Pass subscribers feeling a bit tricked after seeing Call of Duty get special treatment.

Compounding on that issue is the fact that there are also discussions about raising the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate once, but neither those talks nor the ones about Call of Duty have a known resolution at this time.