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Microsoft recently completed its enormous $68.7 billion deal to purchase Activision Blizzard in the biggest video game industry acquisition ever. That means Activision Blizzard games are expected for Game Pass, but will Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III come to the subscription service?
Here’s everything we know about the situation and what to expect before MW3 launches on November 10–and the campaign launches even earlier for those who preorder a digital copy.
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Now Playing: Modern Warfare 3 Beta – X Things I Wish I Knew
Modern Warfare 3 on Game Pass? Not at launch
Microsoft has said it will eventually bring Activision Blizzard games to Game Pass–and of course it would, considering how it will help grow the subscription service. But no one should expect to play Modern Warfare III on Game Pass this year. Prior to the deal closing, Activision told fans not to expect Modern Warfare III on Game Pass in 2023, either at launch or sometime later in the year.
The soonest the game could come to the catalog would be 2024, if it happens at all, and that is not confirmed. But why? According to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Microsoft was not able to do the technical work required to get any Activision Blizzard games on Game Pass until the deal closed. This happened on October 13, and Microsoft is now “starting the work” to bring Activision games to Game Pass, Spencer said.
What about next year?
The soonest that Modern Warfare III might come to Game Pass would be 2024, if the statements from Spencer and Activision continue to hold true.
What about CoD 2024?
A new Call of Duty game is expected to launch in 2024, and many are wondering if it will come to Game Pass as a day-one new release. This would seemingly be a big deal for Game Pass and could help drive sign-ups, but it remains to be seen if this might be the case. A Call of Duty game launching day-and-date on Game Pass would be the biggest day-one launch for Game Pass ever given the size and scale of the franchise, and it’ll be intriguing to see how it all shakes out.
Older CoD games on Game Pass?
In July, Microsoft quietly fixed the matchmaking servers for a range of older Call of Duty games for Xbox 360, sparking speculation that Microsoft was getting things in order to bring them back via Game Pass. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. Whatever the case, fixing the matchmaking improved player numbers substantially, with more people, at the time at least, playing older Call of Duty games on Xbox 360 than Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042 combined.
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