After accidentally spoiling their own announcement earlier this morning, Microsoft officially revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available Day One on Xbox Game Pass, albeit with a caveat.
Questions about whether, or how, Call of Duty would be on Game Pass have been bouncing around since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard. While Microsoft took action to assure regulators, and players, that the game wouldn’t be exclusive to Xbox with deals with various platform holders, and services, there haven’t been any type of promises about what would happen with Call of Duty in regards to Microsoft’s signature Game Pass service. While it’s easy to point to things like Microsoft saying they put all their games on Game Pass day 1, it’s easy to see why there’d be doubt with Call of Duty being one of the biggest gaming imps, and that Microsoft has been busy tripping over its own past statements lately, like around the Tango Gameworks closure.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Will Be On Game Pass
On Xbox Wire today, Microsoft formally announced that they were going to be releasing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass on Day 1, although it lacked other details. Speculation has abounded about an Xbox Game Pass price hike or a special Call of Duty tier of sorts for Game Pass, but as of today none of that has been revealed. Instead, the reveal was kept short, and to the point, while tying in a new trailer that was released today. The full reveal is set to happen on June 9th, right after the main Xbox showcase.
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the 5th numbered entry in the Black Ops subline (Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War is being counted as 5 it appears), and takes place during the Gulf War of the 1990s. A less talked about war nowadays, it lacks some of the controversy of other recent American wars like Vietnam or Iraq, while still providing a more contemporary setting and providing a major face people will know: Saddam Hussein. While these days best known for being targetted by the George W Bush administration for the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, just over a decade earlier Bush’s father, George H. W. Bush was part of a coalition of nations that fought against Hussein after he had invaded Kuwait.
This won’t be the first time that the Gulf War has been depicted in video games either. There have been around 20 or so games that are set in, or have scenarios that take place in the Gulf War, with several of them even taking their name from the war-ending Operation Desert Storm. Developers from companies like Bungie (Operation: Desert Storm, their first commercial game), and Ubisoft (Splinter Cell Conviction) have produced games or levels that take place during the war, though most games that focused on it were released before the Iraq War of 2000s, which was much more controversial.
What do you think of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 being on Game Pass? Let us know below in the comments
