One of the driving factors behind the Microsoft x Activision Blizzard King buyout was the potential to expand Game Pass with lucrative titles like Call of Duty, and while Treyarch claimed that Black Ops 6 greatly benefited from launching on the service, later reports suggested that Microsoft lost $300 million in potential sales.
Some have speculated that with diminishing returns, a pivot towards PC gaming, and new leadership abandoning the ‘This Is An Xbox’ campaign, future Call of Duty games may not launch day and date on Game Pass going forward. According to Windows Central editor Jez Corden, there’s a “possibility” that might happen.
“If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard, I think it’ll reveal some of the cracks in the strategy,” Corden explained. “But I don’t know.”
Xbox Overall Revenue Fell By 9 Percent In 2025
It was widely speculated last year that Microsoft was attempting to mitigate another potential loss in sales by increasing the price of Game Pass Ultimate by 50 percent ahead of Black Ops 7’s launch, but Xbox still reported a dip in revenue for 2025 after the lukewarm response to the game. Activision announced that it would no longer launch back-to-back releases to avoid future burnout, but it’s possible that Game Pass again played a factor, and that the price hike was not enough to offset the loss.
PlayStation doesn’t launch its flagship first-party titles day and date on PS Plus, reporting that its “strategy of bringing games in when they’re 12, 18 months old or older” is “working really well across the platform.”
If so, it would make sense for Xbox to reevaluate its strategy of day-and-date releases for its heaviest hitters on the service. However, it’s worth taking Corden’s claim with a grain of salt. As he himself said during the stream, it’s a “possibility” — not set in stone. If nothing else, it at least indicates that these conversations are happening behind-the-scenes, not just among consumers and analysts, but Xbox pulling Call of Duty from day-and-date releases doesn’t necessarily mean that other first-party titles, like The Elder Scrolls 6, would follow suit.
Whatever the case, new Xbox leadership is working to earn back trust among players, rolling out long-awaited changes to achievements, and polling fans on what updates they want to see next. Whether it can keep that momentum going into Project Helix remains to be seen, but it’s a refreshing change of pace from the stagnation of the last two eras.
Hacking Group Claims To Have Breached Rockstar, Demands Ransom By April 14
ShinyHunters alleged on April 11 that it breached Rockstar Games, gaining access to corporate data via a third-party integration platform.
