Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will release day one on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft today announced.
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It’s official: Black Ops 6 is launching day one into Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft revealed the news ahead of its big Xbox showcase on June 9 at 1pm EST and confirmed multiple reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters in the process.
“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,” Microsoft wrote on the Xbox Wire.
Earlier this month, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that “big games” were coming to Game Pass in 2024, and Black Ops 6 is among them.
The strategy is part of Xbox’s plan to significantly grown the Game Pass subscription model by capitalizing on Activision Blizzard King’s core strengths. Based on internal files from the FTC v Microsoft merger case tried in federal courts, Microsoft wants to eventually have 110 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers across cloud, PC, and console.
Due to the size of annual Call of Duty games, Microsoft is expected to reveal new pricing tiers for Xbox Game Pass ahead of Black Ops 6’s launch onto the subscription. Game Pass has a negative ‘cannibalization’, or replacement effect, wherein subscribers will typically stay subscribed instead of buying new games. The service’s value proposition is very strong–if Black Ops 6 is offered on Game Pass for $17-20, why buy it at full price for $70?
What exact version of Game Pass that Black Op 6 launches onto remains to be seen.