Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
It was debated, it was rumored, it was probably always going to be the end result. But as of this morning, an early push notification from the Xbox Game Pass app is telling some people that it was “Just announced” that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be on Game Pass this year.
It was not in fact, just announced, but that may be happening later today (maybe by the time you read this) or later in the week, depending on the rumblings you believe. Some indications say that a blog post may hit at 10 AM ET on Xbox Wire.
It’s a little surprising that this announcement may go out now when there is a specific Call of Duty showcase happening in two weeks, alongside an Xbox Games Showcase. That seems like it would have been the “big” moment to reveal it, but I can’t imagine this notification is accidentally two weeks early.
The move is Microsoft going as all-in as you can on the concept of Xbox Game Pass, which was always meant to have all Xbox first-party games on day one, but there was some debate about whether they would want to give up a large number of sales on the platform. It seems they have made their decision.
Game Pass
This was always how things were going to end. Xbox had to go all the way with Game Pass at this point, and Call of Duty heading there is a sure sign that there will be no exceptions, everything will go there going forward, even all acquired IPs, no matter their size.
On reason this makes sense is the state of Call of Duty in 2024. Namely, PlayStation sales far outnumber Xbox sales, and the game will still be $70 there, as Microsoft has not taken it fully exclusive, as they promised in court they would not. Plus, there are non-Game Pass PC sales as well.
There’s also the obvious fact that at this point, so much of Call of Duty monetization is not just in copies sold, but in microtransactions; skins and battle passes. Even if players get Call of Duty on Game Pass, they’re still going to have to pay for all that stuff, and I’d be surprised if there are significant discounts for them, if any.
This move is also one of the last wells Microsoft has to draw from to grab a potentially large amount of new Game Pass subscriptions, now that the largest series in the world is available for “free” there. It’s a significant draw, and with COD there’s less of a risk players will cancel Game Pass quickly given that these games are often played all year-round.
After this? I continue to question how Game Pass is going to meaningfully expand its subscriber base going forward, but no, it’s not surprising they wanted to pull out every stop and get Call of Duty as its crown jewel.
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