This year’s Call of Duty game, Black Ops 6, will debut on Xbox Live Game Pass the day it’s released. That marks a major change for the long-running, popular franchise: It means Xbox players with a Game Pass subscription won’t have to pay the retail price to get the game.
Last year’s edition of Call of Duty, Modern Warfare III, cost $70 for Xbox gamers when it debuted. With Game Pass, that cost won’t apply to console players for Black Ops 6. An Xbox Game Pass subscription costs $10 a month.
It’s unclear from the announcement if Windows PC players will also have access on launch day to the game through Game Pass, but an X account for Game Pass PC reposted the news. The announcement reads: “We’re excited to confirm that Game Pass members will be able to jump into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on day one with Game Pass.” PC players are able to play Game Pass with a PC Game Pass subscription or Game Pass Ultimate, which provides access to libraries of PC and Xbox console games.
The move, which had been predicted by a Wall Street Journal report, was announced by the studio, Activision, and its owner Microsoft on Tuesday morning. But the news apparently leaked accidentally to Game Pass subscribers who use the service’s mobile app: as reported by Tom Warren from The Verge on X, a push notification reading, “Just Announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is coming to Game Pass on day one later this year!” was sent out overnight. The push notification contained a link to an unpublished blog post.
No release date, information on different editions of the game or its pricing have been released yet on what Activision is calling a “dark new chapter” in the franchise. Activision previously announced an online reveal event at 10 a.m. PT on June 9 as part of an online Xbox Games Showcase, followed by a Black Ops 6 Direct broadcast.
Activision didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The main story in the last Black Ops game was set in the early 1980s and was a direct sequel to the first game in the series, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Like other Call of Duty games, its multiplayer included a Zombies mode as well as a free-to-play battle royale game called Warzone.
