Poll: What Do You Think Of Call Of Duty's Delay To Xbox Game Pass?

I'll say it again. Essential should be free multiplayer, zero game pass games. Ultimate should be done away with so they aren't beholden to the "day 1" games. And premium should be the only tier at $15 a month with first party games coming a year later.

@VeganH I would be happy with an Xbox Studios only tier for less than Ultimate, but I do enjoy the day one nature of Ultimate, however not enough to gripe if they take it away. Your options make a lot of sense too, though.

I couldn't care less about COD, so if it's cheaper because it isn't on there, then great. That said I'd much rather they got rid of Fortnite, EA and Ubisoft classics from it and whatever other perks there are. All I want from Gamepass are Xbox's own games (minus COD) and 3rd parties that I don’t need to install another launcher for on PC

It's slightly cheaper to buy CoD and Game Pass separate than it is to have the game bundled in when it was 29.99 for Game Pass. It also helps if you DGAF about CoD.

I haven't been a fan of CoD for probably 15 years now, so this is a great compromise as far as I'm concerned.

I completely agree that this does set a precedent for XBox removing other games from Game Pass day and date too... I wouldn't be too surprised if the current Ultimate tier becomes separated out as an option to keep the first party day and date games (let's call it XBox Studios Access for example), and the Premium tier (these naming conventions are terrible) becomes the standard access to the rest of the games library.

Let's just hope the pricing models are adjusted to reflect whatever changes happen...especially if the rumours of no longer having to pay for online access are true, which let's face it, we shouldn't need to pay for online gaming on any platform these days (and if true, I really hope it forces Sony and Nintendo to follow suit!).

Sure, who wouldn’t want COD as part of Game Pass but at the end of the day it’s been shown that the COD fanbase will go out and buy the games so why put it on Game Pass when you can sell it instead.

Does this set a precedent that other franchises will follow suit? Possibly, yes.

I only play COD if it has a good campaign, so I can wait a year and have cheaper GPU.
I mean recently, I can’t complain.
FH6, Halo, gears e day and Fable soon.
And others.

@Fiendish-Beaver must be quiet day over on push square.

@Fiendish-Beaver
Doesn’t the equation have to include loss of GPU money and maybe subscribers if day one games disappeared.

I would probably then leave GP, as cloud saves are free to anyone.
I have GPU for day one FH6, Halo, gears e day and Fable as fantastic examples.

Also they could lose people to PlayStation as well, with no GPU day one games.
Especially as currently gears e day is the only major exclusive.

I liked having COD day one with game pass.
Black Ops 6 was first one I played in years and really enjoyed the multiplayer and put a fair few hours into it. Skipped BO7 as that didn’t look great and I preferred to get BF1 instead.

I won’t buy MW4 as I’m happy to just wait a year 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Most people that play COD don't play other games, so it's never really made sense to be on Gamepass anyway.

@AI-Generation the biggest appeal to me is the day one games. I know I can basically pay £150ish for a year with vouchers and play those games you mentioned without having to fork out any extra.

That’s the great thing about game pass for us players and consumers, but from a business perspective does stop people opting to pay for the games.
Any of them I like I’ll get once they’re cheap.
I prefer to “rent” them first and at a later date add them to the collection for one day when I’m sure I’ll no longer have game pass but still have my Xbox.

A pretty high percentage of Call of Duty multi-player gamers only play COD and nothing else, so it wasn't really a good fit for Game Pass.

It's also the first party Xbox game I'm least interested in, so taking it out of day 1 and lowering the price is a big win for me.

Next step: remove the Fortnite cosmetic subscription and drop the price of Game Pass another buck per month.

I pay for the best version of GP so I expect all the benefits of that. Having priced lowered is a great thing but not if I'm losing one of those benefits. I should get the option to pay for the service that gives me every benefit of GP. If u don't want to pay that then their is cheaper options for you

Well they didn't buy Activision just to give it away. You didn't really expect not to pay for it, did you?

Only cod I care about comes with chips, mushy peas and lots of salt & vinegar.

So it wouldn't phase me in the slightest if Call of Duty never came to Gamepass and was buy only.

If day one XGS games we’re completely removed from Game Pass Ultimate, what would be the USP of Xbox over PlayStation?

As far as I’m concerned, even though Xbox owns CoD now, it as a franchise is and will continue to be a completely separate entity from XGS games, because the people who play the newest CoD every year only play CoD, and the rest of us are perfectly serviced by the older games being on Game Pass for very casual play.

Put another way, if Game Pass ultimate loses the day one games, I’m sure the subscription drop-off from myself and others will be quite large, because at that point there’s zero reason to give Xbox subscription money beyond online play, and personally I would almost certainly play on Xbox far less than I currently do.

I'll repeat what I said back in April when the news was announced.

This sets the stage for more first party games no longer launching day one on gamepass.

I dont really care for CoD specifically but I dont like they way it was handled. Drop CoD, but keep the price higher than before was a bit ***** but it also a risk it sets a precedent where more first party games are kept of Game pass for a year or more. And that I dont like!

I have too many subscriptions as is so I've cut down alot of them which included all gaming ones aswell as netflix. It's too much for my finances atm.

@VeganH whilst I agree in principal that online should be free on all platforms, I am not sure it would be a good idea. MS have confirmed how low the profit margin.(Accountability margin) Is for Xbox, so I don't think this would be the correct time to throw money away by making online free. In future maybe but right now it would just be throwing money away.

So the topic was Call of Duty but I find this particular digression interesting. The only fact that we know is that Asha teased more tiers and adjustments in the interview. Game Pass Ultimate is currently the best value in gaming because it includes AAA games on day one, all of Xbox minus Call of Duty and incredible third parties like Sega's Persona. Games are very expensive, so yes, it's great value even if you just play a few of them. Great for us, players.

However, what would be better for Xbox? They are assessing the engagement and how the price reduction is currently increasing the number of subscribers and retention after losing millions with the price hike. She also confirmed that they want the platform and subscription to be more accessible.

Because of these facts, I can see two possible outcomes: keeping things as they are if Game Pass keeps growing after the price reduction or remove day one/Ultimate if there are not enough subscribers to justify the investment. It will depend on the number of subscribers and retention.

Regarding that rumoured advertisements tier, if they go ahead with that, it will be a mobile-Cloud thing for getting some casuals on board with limitations, like that Discord perk. PC Game Pass will disappear, I'm afraid, because it's too good. My prediction is that once Helix arrives, PC Game Pass is gone or merged with another tier because Xbox games will be exactly the same on console and PC. Online multiplayer might be free on Helix.

I'm not into COD, but I think this sucks. I remember when Phil Spencer said that only a couple of older exclusive games were going to other platforms, for example. If this is a success financially, which it's guaranteed to be, they'll be looking at what other Xbox Game Studios games they can do the same thing with.

For a lot of people, getting first party games on release day is the primary reason they pay for Game Pass, but MS seem to want the best of both worlds; for themselves of course. They know what Game Pass eats into their game sales, but they want us to still keep on paying for it AND buy their games.

@SigmaTheDJ I think they want a balance. They have said many times that games sell well or even more because of Game Pass, perhaps because those games stand out and get more attention. Likely, it's not always the case, but it happens. So I think that it will depend on how many users stay subscribed. If it's a healthy number, there's no reason to remove day one as long as the most important releases still sell well, like Forza Horizon 6 did. If the number of subscribers is not enough, they have a solid argument for removing day one/Ultimate and convert those subscriptions to more months of Premium or whatever. This topic and what they will do with the third-party PC storefronts next generation are the most intriguing.

I have never played a CoD game in my life, and that's not going to change.
So I prefer cheaper prices because I wouldn't play CoD anyways.
I think removing CoD Day 1 was a smart move.

@AI-Generation its a good point and i know some people got into xbox only because of GPU and primarily they only play GPU. That was working for MS (and that was the plan with series s + GP combo) until subs stopped growing at a number where it did not satifsy MS. If you think about it there were only 20-25M of real GP subscribers - the 35M numebr included the 10+ gold subscribers.

They had a sub that was making money - live gold.
GP is sub where they constantly were losing money one way or another.
I still belive it could all work, strategy is not bad by itself but seemingly they needed more subs to work - maybe 50M or even leaked 100M. And i know there was a report saying its sustainable but that excluded 1st party content - which is not right because clearly these games suffer and studious get closed.

So now I think its time to move away from day 1.

John Price (running a fish shop): "Sorry, we're fresh out of cod. May I interest you in, say, catfish, salmon, or pollock?"

@RiverGenie Glad I wasn't the only one who had fish on the brain when seeing the article contents...

I’ve always bought the CODs I have wanted. MW4 will be one of them for sure.

Maybe just the campaigns should be on GPU. But I don't know what I think the right answer is any more. GPU is great for me as a consumer, but if it's ultimately hindering the viability of great games, just scrap it

I believe that Fortnite Crew is the reason that Game Pass jumped up so much in Cost and that they took the WRONG product out! I don't think it was CoD, but they know the fan base will still buy CoD and probably pocket the money for all those paying for Fortnite Crew but don't play Fortnite, don't have to give Epic their cut...

Game Pass is about Games, its a Game Library service and Microsoft promised ALL their Games Day and Date in Game Pass - that promise has been broken and now I don't trust Microsoft or that they won't decide to keep other games from the Service in the future, maybe Elder Scrolls 6 or some other expensive game to make that won't get the sales they want/expect.

Call of Duty doesn' just make its money from 'sales' of the base game, it makes money from Blackcell Season Passes, CoD Points and Customisation bundles - and more gamers in, more buying those extras. No-one will buy in a 'year' when the Seasonal content is gone and it actually cost 'more' to Sub for a year than buy anyway.

Fortnite crew doesn't add Games to a Game service, doesn't enable you to play a Game you couldn't play 'Free' without Game Pass and added a LOT to the price - CoD was in Game Pass before they added Fortnite Crew (a $12 Premium sub) and Ubisoft+ and raised the price by $10 - a 'bargain if you consider Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ would cost around $17 separately but only raised GPU by $10 - but it was that $10 price rise that forced many to quit and dropping CoD and the Price back down won't bring me back at all.

I subbed to GPU because ALL MS games, now and future were expected to be Day 1 but now they aren't. It may only be CoD (an Annual release I enjoy and usually end up buying anyway) but its the principal and I'm not paying for 'other' Subscriptions (Fortnite, Ubisoft etc) that I don't use - its now 'cheaper' to buy the 1 or 2 MS games a year I'll play - especially as I don't need to play Day 1 than Sub. I won't miss not trying games that I probably wouldn't have bought just because they were in Game Pass - even if it did lead to a couple of purchases I wouldn't have made without trying but I'm also not paying for a Subscription that I'm only playing 1 or 2 games

It was nice to play some games Day 1, instead of waiting for sales, but I'm happy to wait for sales and save my Subscription fee to buy an extra game or two...

I'm of the mindset that they should strip day 1 access of games from GP. Now please hear me out before just replying and disagreeing. Is it a good deal for us? Without a doubt. It's great, but clearly not sustainable.

If it was, Xbox wouldn't be in their current predicament. It really does eat into their own software sales and has trained their own users to "wait for it on gamepass."

Now the flipside to this is that we're in a terrible place economically, so trying to squeeze more from users is just a bad idea. It's really a lose/lose situation. Maybe some XGS games can still release day 1, but I think most should or will be added to GP 6 months to a year after they come out from now on.

It's that or GP/Xbox ends up slowly dying overall, if that fate isn't already sealed.

@Coletrain Not just you, nobody really knows the answer because we don't know all the numbers. We know it's profitable after spending $1B yearly in third-party additions, but the first-party games are much more complicated to measure and we don't have a clue about that. All we know is that some studios were bleeding money and that millions of subscribers were lost after the price hike, but they are seeing growth and retention now and, of course, have very successful studios and games.

They will monitor Game Pass subscribers and content sales in this new era and, depending on how they look, they'll make adjustments. I think that the first of them is making Game Pass more accessible somehow, because Asha teased that, probably to furtherly boost the number of subscribers and retention, but more drastic changes could happen eventually if needed, like changing the tiers or the included content.

The section about the infrastructure and vendors makes me think that they can save a huge chunk of money that way. Why not merge a few ABK studios and just have one publishing arm, instead of having Zenimax and ABK operating separately? There are several reasons why Xbox is bloated besides the great number of studios and Asha referred to that in the letter. I expect positive changes in this direction.

If it looks good, I will just buy it. When it was Gamepass I only played because it was available.

I honestly think the Day 1 releases are the most appealing part of Ultimate…now as a result of that I haven’t bought a single first party title in years (as opposed to PlayStation where I buy several of there’s each year)…so I guess I’m part of the problem not the solution lol

@Banjo- I think the service itself is likely quite profitable for sure, but clearly the strategy is causing layoff after layoff, year after year.

Sometimes I think well yeah it would be a good idea to get rid of day 1 games, but then Xbox loses it's USP. Guess it needs to find a new one!

I’m not a COD player, so had no issue with it being removed.

I also had my ultimate paid through August this year, so haven’t really been impacted by any of the price increases. I’m def dropping tiers in August. Gamepass is a great value if all you play is day one games, but that really isn’t me.

I love call of duty but that price hike was excessive. I currently have the newest call of duty but still find myself playing modern warfare 2 so I think it’s better because call of duty games age well

What you pay less in enough to buy CoD.

@Fiendish-Beaver I’m paying for the Ultimate sub so if playing Day 1 games through that service is the cheapest option I’m going to do it BUT if they remove Day 1 games and lower the sub price I can promise you I’m going to be buying every first party title out the gate and I bet a good amount of other gamers would as well…it sounds stupid but the reality is Gamepass after all these years has conditioned me in a way where I buy less games on Xbox thanks to Day 1 first party releases something PlayStation has not done even tho I’m a PSP Premium subscriber as well…so there’s def an argument to be made on why Xbox should reverse course especially since I care about the future of Xbox (even though it seems like I care about my wallet more sometimes lol)

Adding additional $8 a month for a game that not everyone is going to want to play nor by was stupid if it was a dollar or two not really an issue but when it's 30% higher yeah it needed to be removed if there's any other games that first day release is causing it to be $5 high or more those need to be removed as well cuz $20 a month for ultimate meant $240 a year that's more than enough for an online business of products you never own

The quality can only get better after the last release right? I think it was the right call to take it out of Game Pass.

I think it's a huge yearly release that needs to have that revenue stream flowing and then bringing it to Game Pass after the first year. That's the right call. You don't really lose anything if you play the campaigns and can wait. If you're all in on multi-player. Obviously, you'll purchase it outright anyway.

The fact that Game Pass is cheaper now is beneficial and the majority are absolutely fine with that.
Having one of the biggest releases in a year and losing that revenue from your own audience is slightly insane. No matter if PlayStation is the place where it's buying audience is mostly.

Thin end of the wedge!! Their reason for removing COD day 1 is no different from any other big, exclusive game! It cannibalises sales!!
I’ve seen Xbox fans rejoicing that Gears Eday won’t come to Playstation, i find this bizarre!! This game will flop!!! Over $400 million budget, for a 14 hour game!! It’s Game Pass day 1 and they cut out their biggest market!!!
Third party games sell 80%+ on Playstation 5!!
Asha has pandered to the social media fanboys an it’s gonna hurt Xbox!!

@Glorioso

What you pay less in enough to buy CoD.

Exactly. Win-win for Xbox and Game Pass subscribers.

Dont think anyones that bothered tbh people who play cod would buy it anyway and pretty sure it didn't add that many gp subscribers if I remember right

I can't get any COD to work without plugging into wired network. So I gave up ages ago.

I was a long-lapsed CoD player and Game Pass brought me back. Well, first there was the DMZ in MWII beta, then MWIII campaign. I am fine with the removal as I understand the stakes. For me, I am unaffected financially due to stacking with rewards points. The reality that eventually Ultimate would be too full of 1st party too fast, leading to changes, never escaped me.

I am considering buying the new 2026 CoD, and I do wonder how many people like me are out there.

@Fiendish-Beaver it’s the horde thing i’m eager to play.
I’m a big The Last of Us fan and the PS5 remaster of TLOU2 has the No Return game, i’ve put about 400 hours in to that! That’s a similar concept.

@Fiendish-Beaver it’s not a horde mode as such. You navigate a series of encounters, ranging from fending off waves of infected to surviving against enemy reinforcements, and culminating in a challenging boss fight.
Permanent Death: If you die midway through a run, you lose all weapons, items, and upgrades you’ve accumulated and must start from the beginning.
Playable Roster: You can unlock characters like Ellie, Abby, Joel, Tommy, Dina, Jesse, Lev, Yara, Mel, and Manny.
Dynamic Challenges: Optional "Gambits" can be accepted during rounds to test your skills and earn bonus resources, such as landing specific headshots or dodging melee attacks.
Leaderboards: The mode features a Daily Run leaderboard where players around the world attempt the same randomly generated run.

I'm glad they removed COD day one, it wasn't worth the egregious price increase to Gamepass Ultimate. I also believe that Black Ops 7 would've failed even if it wasn't on Gamepass because it was literally just Black Ops 6.5 and a direct sequel which was the worst case scenario.

The game didn't fail (it's the worse selling entry since 2008's World at War) because it was on Gamepass, it failed because it was a bad game.