We have an interesting new rumor about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Game Pass.
Update:
Parris clarified that information they had heard was not from the folks from Treyarch. The article has been updated to reflect this.
Now if you may remember, the advertising for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was spotty and somewhat evasive when it came to Game Pass. The first time we found out that the title would be Day One Game Pass was when print ads appeared for it, ahead of Activision and Microsoft formally announcing it.
Or, that is something that we could claim, if Xbox President Sarah Bond hadn’t already declared last May that all first party Microsoft Gaming titles would be Day One Game Pass. If there’s any reason to attribute the lack of trust in what the higher ups in Microsoft Gaming were already saying, it would be the wild speculation that revolved around Microsoft’s first holidays owning Activision Blizzard King, and of course, Call of Duty. But there really should not have been any surprise here.
If there is anything surprising, it would be that the promotion on Day One Game Pass for what will be the biggest title Microsoft publishes this year isn’t that aggressive at all. But apparently, some Xbox fans were already told why.
As shared on Twitter by Zakken Kloot, YouTubers Parris Vicious and Lord Cognito were told off-the-record that they aren’t actually allowed to aggressively promote Game Pass, or Day One Game Pass, for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at all. Speaking on the latest episode of the Iron Lords Podcast, Lord Cognito started off by saying this:
“I heard off-the-record they literally can’t do that part with Call of Duty, I actually head that off-the-record.”
Parris then said that he could give context to it, and elaborated like this:
“While I was at Treyarch – and again, these were off-the-record conversations – the people involved shall remain nameless. You are 100 % correct, sir. They cannot use that in their current marketing.
Because we were having a conversation about Game Pass, and the impact that they think it’s gonna have on Black Ops 6. Some people at Treyarch think it is going to be a big deal on Game Pass.
But you’re not going to see that big marketing push that you would expect, where Game Pass is uttered every other word, due to various reasons. That’s what I was told.”
Zakken Kloot also points out that Windows Central Editor and YouTuber Rand Al Thor 19 also alluded to this rumor, and he speculated that this was due to ‘ongoing marketing restrictions.’ We don’t know the details on this, but it may have something to do with Activision’s prior deals with Sony. Alternately, it could have something to do with different restrictions Microsoft has in different regions and countries. With no further hints, this speculation is the extent that we have on it.
But we should probably be thankful that we aren’t getting that barrage of Game Pass advertising that we were expecting. Maybe Microsoft just wants to see how it plays out first, and will decide on more aggressive marketing for future Call of Duty titles. We are all certainly waiting to see how this first Microsoft-Activision holiday, with Microsoft getting to plan everything out for at least a year, will play out.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be releasing on October 25, 2024, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows via Steam and Battlenet on Call of Duty Hub. It’s also Day One on Game Pass.
