0-20%: Unlikely – Lacks credible sources
21-40%: Questionable – Some concerns remain
41-60%: Plausible – Reasonable evidence
61-80%: Probable – Strong evidence
81-100%: Highly Likely – Multiple reliable sources
Following Microsoft’s expensive acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the biggest question mark was whether the latter’s most popular product, Call of Duty, would join Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft eventually decided to add new installments starting with 2024’s Black Ops 6, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software. Right away, it broke franchise and Game Pass records, but later it became clear it wasn’t such a good decision for the franchise. Now, according to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, Microsoft might even remove 2026’s Call of Duty from Game Pass.
Speaking in his latest podcast, Corden said:
It’d be interesting to see 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 kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly.
In the same podcast, Corden added that the franchise being on Game Pass actually hurts both sides:
Game Pass has disrupted Call of Duty’s business model in a pretty negative way. Microsoft has a formula, it’s called a member weighted something or other, with which they charge back Game Pass revenue to the studio. So if a big game like Call of Duty goes in, it is going to vacuum up a lot of that revenue, which kind of eats into how much money you’ve got month over month to actually get new content. And you need new content to prevent churn. So CoD is so big that it sort of harms Game Pass. But at the same time, the idea that you don’t have to buy Call of Duty and get it for cheaper kind of also hurts Call of Duty in reverse.
Of course, there’s the fact that Microsoft raised Game Pass Ultimate pricing by 50% last October, specifically because it was the tier that allowed subscribers to play the new CoD game. If the first-person shooter game series is being removed, an equally substantial price cut to the subscription service is definitely in order.
This is the opposite way to “fix” the current Game Pass value issue. A couple of months ago, Corden said Microsoft was considering adding subscriptions like World of Warcraft, Fallout 1st, Minecraft Realms, and ESO Plus to Game Pass Ultimate to make players more comfortable with its $30 price. Now, though, if they are removing Call of Duty, chances are they’ll simply reduce the price.
In the new podcast, Corden also mentioned that dataminer Red PHX discovered evidence of two potential new Game Pass tiers, codenamed Triton and Duet. Both of them would focus on only providing access to first-party games, including Doom Eternal, Doom 64, Dishonored 2, Fable Anniversary, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Gears 5, Halo 5 Guardians, Halo Wars 2, Hellblade, Ori and the Blind Forest, Psychonauts, State of Decay 2, Elder Scrolls Online, and retro classics. Clearly, this would be an even cheaper option.
We’ve added a poll below; feel free to vote and express your opinions in the comments.
Should Microsoft remove Call of Duty from Game Pass?
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.
In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.
Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.
His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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