When Is Call of Duty Coming to Game Pass? (Details & More)
| Tags: Call of Duty
| Author Paul Goño
The Call of Duty franchise is finally within sight for Game Pass members. When Is Call of Duty Coming to Game Pass
Activision-Blizzard titles are finally coming to the Game Pass.
One of last year's biggest debacles in the gaming industry was Microsoft's ambitious acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. This was a widely-covered takeover that not only handed Microsoft the reigns of one of the most well-known studios in the business, but also gave the Gates-founded megacorporation a disproportionate advantage in the market. That said, the merger's legal process lasted months, and was delayed some due to official panels and trade commissions actively trying to hinder the deal.
After much negotiation, the deal eventually came to pass. Messy mergers meandering many morbidly morose Microsoft machinations aside, it's time to look at the biggest titles that are potentially on the docket for the Game Pass. And one of the most anticipated competitive first-person shooters: Call of Duty.
Modern gaming owes a lot to Activision-Blizzard. Timeless classics that were developed in the halls of its Santa Monica HQ have helped raise generations of gaming enthusiasts, including but not limited to the world-famous wargame it now owns. So here's everything to look forward to with Call of Duty coming to the Game Pass.
When Is Call of Duty Coming to Game Pass?
In a tweet from October, Activision-Blizzard officially announced on X (formerly Twitter) that their efforts to bring major titles like Diablo IV and Call of Duty to the subscription service post-merger would begin “over the course” of 2024. This was later confirmed by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
It’s awesome to see anticipation building for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III. As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal, we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass.
While we…
— Activision Blizzard (@ATVI_AB) October 9, 2023
Unfortunately, we still haven't gotten word on an update, so no official dates yet. However, if there's one thing we can look at, it's the past mergers Microsoft has had in the past.
Believe it or not, Activision-Blizzard isn't the first major game publishing company they've set their eyes on. So if we can compare the general date range of acquisition vs when the flagship game was dropped on the subscription, we can get a better gauge on when our beloved war sim will probably hit the Xbox Game Pass.
Mojang
Date of acquisition: November 2014
Mojang started out as a Swedish independent game company that was hard at work publishing its very first product, a small, indie sandbox called Minecraft. And in the years that followed its breakout success, Microsoft was eager to partner up and amass its potential. In the end, Mojang was bought for a solid 2.5 billion dollars in 2014, eventually having its flagship title added to its catalogue 4 years later in 2019.
Obsidian Entertainment
Date of acquisition: November 2018
Microsoft's then-Studios division was bolstered before the pandemic when the software vendor acquired Obsidian during the height of its success with Pillars of Eternity 2; Deadfire and Fallout: New Vegas. Both became Xbox Game Pass selections in February 2021 and March 2021 respectively.
ZeniMax Media
Date of acquisition: March 2021
The publisher of the widely-acclaimed Elder Scrolls RPG was acquired along with all of its subsidiaries back in 2021 for a whopping $7.5 billion, and has since become a subsidiary Microsoft Gaming. Bethesda's parent company celebrated its new partnership with a huge injection of ZeniMax classics just 2 weeks after the deal closed, with AAA games like Fallout: 76, Skyrim and Doom Eternal hitting digital shelves.
Call of Duty Game Pass Release Dates
From what we've seen, big triple-A titles get added onto the subscription service sooner than you'd expect. At the same time, the October close date of the Microsoft's latest merger is certainly something to factor in. So realistically, it will be a couple of months before the first CoD games start becoming available (more if you consider the holiday season). Optimistically, we might even see our first Call of Duty title on the Game Pass a few weeks into February.
Plenty of unsaid factors can affect our guesstimate, including unfortunate company layoffs and priority shifts. But if the pattern is anything to go off of, Xbox Game Pass subscribers should get Call of Duty on their premium service before the first quarter of 2024 comes to a close.
We'll update this page with more confirmed details soon, so keep posted!
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Paul started writing for ESTNN in 2022, the same year he beat his first Souls game. An avid fan of RPGs, his all-time favorites include Baldur's Gate 3, Assassin’s Creed and Kingdom Hearts 2. Besides being a professional nerd, he still struggles to get over the broken PS2 memory card that stored years of his save files.