New Call of Duty games could potentially come to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on day one starting with the 2025 entry. Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been made to secure console exclusives for Xbox, but more importantly, secure day one games for its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Call of Duty has been the best-selling game nearly every year for almost two decades, and so it stands to reason that locking it down as a day one game could be huge for Xbox Game Pass. It's the kind of franchise that could create all kinds of new Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and is no doubt a big part of why Microsoft wants to acquire Activision Blizzard King in the first place (that and the mobile content that comes as part of King).
Now that a judge has ruled in favor of Microsoft's Activision acquisition, fans may be wondering when they can expect new Call of Duty game to hit Xbox Game Pass on day one. Anyone expecting it to happen with the 2023 Call of Duty game will be disappointed, however. Due to a pre-existing deal between Activision and Sony, it's likely that the first Call of Duty game to hit Xbox Game Pass on day one will be the 2025 entry. No information on that project is available at the time of this writing, but based on the pattern that's been established, the 2025 Call of Duty game will almost certainly be developed by Modern Warfare studio Infinity Ward.
This means that even if Microsoft's acquisition of Activision closes as expected, fans shouldn't expect to play the 2023 Call of Duty game or the Treyarch-developed 2024 Call of Duty game through the Xbox Game Pass service on day one. On the bright side, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision should see all the older Call of Duty games hit Xbox Game Pass, which is especially exciting when one considers that many of them are backward compatible.
In fact, almost all main series Call of Duty games are playable on Xbox One and Series X consoles through the backward compatibility program. The only exception is the original Call of Duty. And with classic Call of Duty games like Black Ops 2 still going for $50, getting these titles on Game Pass should be a big deal.
So while Xbox Game Pass subscribers may have to wait until 2025 to get brand-new Call of Duty games as day one Game Pass games, they will likely be treated to the older CoD games not too long after the deal is finalized.