If you’re an Xbox player, there’s one big difference for this year’s Call of Duty release: Black Ops 6 coming to Xbox Game Pass subscription service on day 1. That’s a pretty big deal; especially, combined with the excellent $1 trial offer that allows newcomers to test the service. Well, that’s until Microsoft decided to end the $1 trial offer… nice timing.
Indeed, unfortunately, the suits at Microsoft have decided to close the door on the offer just in time for Black Ops 6. As a result, you won’t be able to cash in on the offer if you’d been considering giving it a try as the next big chapter in the CoD franchise arrives. And while that probably makes sense from a financial perspective, I think a lot of the user base has a right to be very upset with Microsoft and Activision. In fact, I’d suggest even The Replacer could have handled this whole situation better than Xbox.
Over the past decade, Call of Duty has typically been shaking hands with PlayStation and Sony. Acitivision’s timed exclusivity deals have seen its games put on PS Plus, and provided PlayStation players with additional game modes and earlier release dates as a bundled perk. All that without Sony owning Activision as Microsoft does now.
Of course, back in 2023, Microsoft splashed out to purchase Activision in a merger worth $68.7 billion. And after lots of paperwork and court proceedings, the deal was settled. It should have been a huge moment for CoD fans on Xbox. Activision’s marquee franchise was at one point heavily rumored to become exclusive. While that didn’t eventually occur, the Xbox fanbase was certainly looking forward to the sorts of perks PlayStation had enjoyed for years, and hopefully much more.
As it turns out, though, very few perks have come their way. MW3 Beta on PlayStation was launched a week before Xbox in 2023. Even the PS players who didn’t pre-order MW3 could play the beta sooner than the ones who bought the game on Xbox. This is peak L for Microsoft if nothing from buying Activision. Now in 2024, when the big news of CoD’s arrival on Game Pass was supposed to herald the much-anticipated boon for Xbox gamers now feels like another L.
It began with a Game Pass price hike, putting the Ultimate version above the Standard in a new tier list. Put simply, if you pay $14.99 for Game Pass, you’re on the Standard tier, which doesn’t get the day 1 release of the Xbox games, including Call of Duty. Not a good look when Sarah Bond, president of Xbox at Microsoft, had directly stated that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 would not be locked behind a new Game Pass tier.
So not only are you not getting an early release or timely exclusive game modes like the Onslaught of Cold War for PlayStation, but it has recently emerged that the $1 Game Pass Ultimate deal for the newcomers has also vanished. 2 weeks away from Black Ops 6‘s release. Arguably, that was the last big perk that made Game Pass feel like a win for Xbox CoD players.
Come and think of it, buying the Game Pass Ultimate for playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 doesn’t even feel like a good deal anymore for CoD fans. You’ll have to pay $19.99 a month, putting the annual cost more or less at a brand new Series S. Now, pay $70 and you’ve got Black Ops 6 forever across multiple platforms. Xbox desperately needs The Replacer, really.
