We have a new rumor about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
As shared by CharlieIntel, extas1tv claims that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be added to Game Pass on July 24. That’s the same day that Season 5 of the game will begin.
If the rumor is true, it could point to what Microsoft is planning to do when it comes to scheduling their now prodigious library of first party games to Game Pass. While they just finished buying Activision Blizzard King, they also have Bethesda’s games, and also games from studios they founded or acquired separately to plan for.
While they no longer plan to offer it across the board, the rotating library of games remains a key reason to purchase Game Pass. The expectation, of course, is that games made by Microsoft’s own studios will be part of that rotating library permanently. If Microsoft has to negotiate contracts with the companies that own third party games, they don’t have that problem with the games they own.
But Microsoft has to balance this out with the ability of these games to make money out of Game Pass. This is not so much about devaluing Game Pass, as it is the fact that many of Microsoft’s games, including Call of Duty, are sold outside their platforms.
If Microsoft did make it so that every one of their own games were Day One Game Pass when it was launched, it could lead to less money going to them overall. If this decision making were a slide on going all in on Game Pass and abandoning it altogether, Microsoft is still somewhere in the middle.
There has certainly been a lot of speculation on how successful Game Pass is when Microsoft is planning to launch a new tier that does not have Day One games. But we don’t know the numbers that Microsoft is crunching. That’s partly because Microsoft no longer wants to put their gaming division up to public scrutiny, and now hide those numbers in larger figures when they make their financial reports.
We don’t know if this standard can or should be applied to all their games, but maybe this will be good for Call of Duty games in particular. Since Call of Duty is an annualized franchise, most gamers will not be playing last year’s game when the newer game has launched. In fact, the older game is sure to see a dropoff in numbers weeks before.
Well, we will have to see Microsoft’s behavior in the next years, but if this rumor is true, don’t be surprised if they confirm it in a matter of days.
