It looks like the question on whether Call of Duty is coming to Game Pass is just about over.
As shared by Twitter fan accounts Korea Xbox News, Charlie Intel, and GPT: Game Pass Track, Xbox app users received a notification that said this:
“Just Announced
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is coming to Game Pass on day one later this year!”
Jez Corden of Windows Central responded to HazzadorGamin also sharing a screenshot of this notification, saying this:
“yep, should be officially announced this week.”
Although Jez implied that the official announcement may come a few days later, it’s highly likely that the announcement is coming in a few hours from now, in fact, Treyarch shared a teaser to a live action Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 trailer. That trailer is scheduled for later today.
It’s possible that the notification was scheduied for today, but it should have popped up after the live action trailer comes out. Once again, someone in Microsoft may have screwed up on communication and privacy. This time, it’s an advance announcement that helps the company, so one can’t help but wonder if they deliberately did this.
Now, it’s a little surprising that this was somehow an issue. But because of Microsoft failing to manage their public relations well, and their egregious closure of the studios Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, their reputation has been hurt so hard that fans have literally created narratives about the company that contradict the surrounding evidence.
So let’s remind fans that Microsoft has repeatedly confirmed in the past few months that they intend to bring Call of Duty to Game Pass. Whatever theories fans may come up with to justify not going forward with this move, Microsoft had already given their word.
The most recent time they made this claim was near the start of this month. In her most recent interview, Xbox President Sarah Bond declared that all 1st party Xbox games would be Day One Game Pass. And when she was prompted to confirm this included Activision games, Sarah replied that this would be for games across the slate.
Microsoft definitely still expects to make a lot of money with Call of Duty on PlayStation, but by dangling Game Pass to Call of Duty fans, they can also try to get at some of that userbase to get an Xbox. And with Game Pass, they can avail of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 without an Xbox, and even without a gaming PC, assuming the consumer has a good setup for cloud gaming.
