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."
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...
