Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will launch on Xbox Game Pass

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be launching day one on Xbox Game Pass. This was announced via an official blog post on the Xbox Wire website, and while there's not a huge number of details on exactly how this will work, it's a massive move to tempt a new wave of players over to the subscription service.

As for when we'll get these additional details, Call of Duty is getting its own little E3-style showcase on June 9 during Summer Game Fest where we'll be able to see the game in-action for the first time, as well as an Xbox games showcase right after where additional details may be shared. So if this news has raised your eyebrows at all, those are worth tuning into.

We don't know what tier of Game Pass you'll need to have in order to jump into Black Ops on day one, but regardless, it offers a wild deal to those who own either a PC or console. Being able to hop into a new Call of Duty for a fraction of the price is nuts, especially when you can just cancel the sub when you've had enough and save yourself a tasty pile of cash in doing so. The aim from Microsoft here is obviously to bring in longterm players, those who will stick it out on Game Pass for months and years and eventually eclipse the 60-70 dollar buy in that Call of Duty usually demands.

It's also interesting to look at this news through the lens of the FTC trail following Microsoft's aquisition of Activision Blizzard King. During that long legal process, revealed documents showed how much Call of Duty was worth to PlayStation. And while the FTC couldn't find any evidence of Microsoft keeping Call of Duty Xbox exclusive (which confused other companies like Bethesda who were led in that direction), this Game Pass angle does make it obvious which platform is getting the better deal. Call of Duty may remain on PlayStation, but you've got to splash the full price buy-in to play it day one, whereas Xbox players can jump in at a fraction of the cost.

Whether or not this will pay off will be unveiled over the next few years in all likelihood. If Microsoft succeeds then it'll have used Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to reinvigorate Game Pass's stagnated userbase and bring in way more profit that it would have done through good ol' fashioned boxed sales. That's a steep target though! Even if Modern Warfare 3 (2023) sold significantly less than Modern Warfare 2, it made a wild amount of cash off sales alone. If players swarm to Game Pass but don't stick around very long, then we're talking millions in losses. Sure, you could argue this would prop up Game Pass as a valuable service, but millions of dollars could be burned for the sake of making Game Pass look good.

What do you think - is this a good move by Microsoft? Let us know below!