Call of Duty will come to Xbox Game Pass, says new report

Microsoft is planning to put Activision's biggest series, Call of Duty, on Xbox Game Pass

(Credit: Activision)

• 🤞 Call of Duty could be coming to Xbox Game Pass day one

• 🤔 Microsoft has been reportedly mulling over the decision

• 💰 It may create a new higher paid Xbox Game Pass tier that includes the next CoD

• 📈 The next of Call of Duty game is bound to be one of the best-selling games of 2024

It seems like Microsoft has finally decided whether to put Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass. The company was reportedly unsure if it should add Activision’s ever-popular first-person shooter to its subscription service, as the game tends to sell millions of copies every year at full price.

However, according to The Wall Street Journal, the next Call of Duty will launch straight into Xbox Game Pass, which will undoubtedly help drive more sign-ups to Microsoft’s service.

The decision might seem like a no-brainer to some, especially as Microsoft parted ways with the sum of $69bn to acquire the publisher, but it’s not too difficult to see why it’s struggled to reach this conclusion.

Call of Duty sells millions of copies every year and continues to be one of the most popular games by some margin. Putting the title on Xbox Game Pass will lose Microsoft potentially millions in guaranteed sales, but it will hope that its presence on its subscription service will be more beneficial in the long term. The game will also release on PS5, where Microsoft will take a 70% cut of each sale.

Microsoft could choose to create a new Xbox Game Pass tier that includes Call of Duty, too. That might offset some of the short-term losses it would face and may encourage users to upgrade their memberships from Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

We’ll see the next Call of Duty in action at Microsoft’s Xbox Games showcase on June 9. A separate digital presentation will be held after the main show that will seemingly focus entirely on Activision’s next entry in its long-running series.

The next Call of Duty is tipped to release in October and will almost certainly get tills ringing and provide a significant boost to the games industry as a whole. Whether or not it will be as good as the last entry – or whichever Call of Duty game you hold most special in your hearts – remains to be seen.

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.