Key points
- It's been exactly one year since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King.
- At the time, only two Activision games were added to Xbox Game Pass: Diablo 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
- A pre-existing deal between Activision and Sony may explain the surprising lack of COD, but that deal appears to be over as Black Ops 6 launches on the service's first day.
It's been exactly one year since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King in the record-breaking $75 billion merger. However, in the year since the deal closed, we haven't seen many Activision games added to Xbox Game Pass.
As reported in Eurogamer's in-depth analysis of the last 12 months, the only games added so far are Diablo 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (unless you count Overwatch 2, which is free-to-play anyway).
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Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 might have the best zombies of the past decade
As Dempsey would say, REJUICED.
Black Ops 6 launches later this month, and will mark the third Activision game to hit the platform, but it still leaves a surprising lack of classic and backwards-compatible games on the subscription service. Especially industry titans like the original Call of Duty games.
Because there were no classic COD games on Game Pass
In 2022, Xbox said that a “pre-existing agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony includes restrictions on Activision Blizzard's ability to place Call of Duty titles on Game Pass for a number of years.” Phil Spencer later stated that he had spoken with Sony leadership, confirming that Xbox would “honor all existing agreements” following the acquisition.
This came to light after the CMA expressed concerns that future Call of Duty titles coming to Game Pass would drive down full-price PlayStation sales. It's unclear how long the vague “number of years” restriction would remain in place, or when it would end, but Modern Warfare 3 may give us a clue.
It was added to Xbox Game Pass eight months after its release. This seems to indicate that the deal between Activision and Sony is now over, further demonstrated by the fact that Black Ops 6 will be added to the service at launch, and not at a later date.
With that in mind, perhaps we'll see older games added to the service in the release Next 12 months, because the door just opened. Time will tell. Regardless, it's clear that fans can't wait to get back to Modern Warfare 2 and old-school Zombies, and nothing would strengthen those originals' player bases like adding them to Game Pass.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the 2023 remake of the classic 2011 first-person shooter and completes Sledgehammer and Activision's trilogy of updated games. It will directly follow Modern Warfare 2 in terms of plot, once again following Price, Soap, and other members of Task Force 141.