Microsoft is reportedly considering pulling this year’s Call of Duty game out of Xbox Game Pass as a day-one release.
Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who was first to report the talks, said the addition of Call of Duty as a day-one Game Pass launch was one of the reasons Microsoft hiked the price of the subscription.
Earlier this week, reports emerged that new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, told Xbox staff that “Game Pass has become too expensive for players.”
Microsoft added Call of Duty games to Game Pass following the company’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While former Xbox executives had insisted sales could be boosted by a game’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers remained unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for example, was always against putting Call of Duty into subscription services.
In an interview with IGN in 2023, then Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked how he’d handle his and Kotick’s different ideologies after the deal to buy Activision Blizzard closed. “Well, there’s a different person making the decisions,” Spencer laughed.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.