This means that much of the franchise’s history still remains unplayable through Game Pass, going all the way back to even the very first Call of Duty game from 2003. According to PCGamer, a source from Activision has said that there are plans to bring more of the games over to the service some time this year. The exact timeline of when this will happen remains unknown.

It is worth noting that many of the older games in the Call of Duty franchise remain seminal even to this day. This includes entries like 2005’s Call of Duty 2, 2007’s Modern Warfare and its follow-ups from 2009 and 2011, and much of the Black Ops series, which started in 2010.

According to industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis, October 2025’s price hike for Game Pass subscription largely came down to the fact that Microsoft had projected quite a bit of lost revenue from bringing Call of Duty to the service on day one of release. Unfortunately, the necessary growth in subscriber numbers didn’t happen, which necessitated prices going up. “It meant Game Pass pricing had to be increased to offset some of the commercial implications of the approach, which had its own impact on retention of longer-term subscribers,” he explained.

In another post, Harding-Rolls has also noted that Call of Duty no longer coming to the subscription service on day one gives Microsoft to open the door for similar action with its other first-party releases. While first-party games on the service will remain “a core piece of the offer,” he wrote, “this opens the door to potential windowing of other new 1st-party releases,” allowing more games to generate higher revenue for a year before coming to the service.

Whether these older Call of Duty games that are reportedly coming to Game Pass will be available through the much-rumored “Triton” subscription tier, which only offers first-party games, also remains to be seen. The tier was discovered by dataminers finding references to its codename, as well as a list of games made by first-party studios, which included Halo Wars 2, Gears 5, and Fallout 4, among many others.

Another report, courtesy of Windows Central’s Jez Corden, has also implied that Microsoft might be having internal discussions about a “pick your own plan” style of subscription tier for Game Pass.

“A sort of ‘pick your own plan’ formula for Xbox Game Pass is on the cards, essentially, where users can effectively decide what packages of content they want to see as part of their plan,” writes Corden. There have also been reports about the Triton tier only offering Cloud Gaming capabilities with a time limit.

Harding-Rolls has also noted that a 12-month “window” before bringing in a Call of Duty title to the subscription service will “generate significantly more revenue” than a spike in Game Pass subscribers would have. “It will also support sales on PlayStation and other platforms,” he wrote, before going on to mention that this doesn’t necessarily mean that day-one releases of games on Game Pass are dead.

“This is still a core piece of the offer,” he wrote. “However, this opens the door to potential windowing of other new 1st-party releases.” Whether this ultimately means that we might see a year-long delay between the release of, for example, a new Gears of War game and its arrival on Game Pass is currently unknown. However, by doing this with Call of Duty, Microsoft has certainly given itself the window to do so in the future. As for how this will affect the Ultimate tier of Game Pass, which promises day-one first-party releases, remains to be seen.

In a lengthier report, he had noted that the decision to bring Call of Duty to Game Pass likely stemmed from an attempt to “turbo-charge the service” by bringing in more subscribers. However, this has seemingly not been the case, and a game on the scale of Call of Duty was not able to draw in enough new subscribers to offset the revenue lost by simply selling the title. “It meant Game Pass pricing had to be increased to offset some of the commercial implications of the approach, which had its own impact on retention of longer-term subscribers.”

In the meantime, reports have also been going around of Microsoft exploring the potential for a cheaper subscription tier for Game Pass that would only include first-party games. Codenamed “Triton”, this tier is also expected to include Cloud Gaming as one of its core features. However, when compared to the limitless implementation of Cloud Gaming on other tiers, Triton’s version is expected to include a time limit, bringing it in line with Nvidia’s GeForce Now.

More recent reports have indicated that Microsoft’s plans might extend even beyond that, with the potential for a “pick your own plan” option being discussed. According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, such a plan is apparently “on the table,” and would allow potential subscribers to only pay for the things that they might actually want from the service. Users who don’t play Fortnite, for example, can get rid of the Fortnite Crew benefits. On the flip side, there is also the potential for users to bundle their subscriptions, like those for Minecraft Realms or World of Warcraft. The same rumors also indicate that a Family Plan might be in the works for Game Pass as well.

Unfortunately, the rumors are true: new entries in the Call of Duty franchise will no longer be added to either tier on day one. Instead, they’ll become available about a year later during the holiday season. There are no changes to current titles, which is good news for all ten people who still enjoy Black Ops 7.

Regarding the changes, Microsoft said, “Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.”

For starters, the price changes are welcome following Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma reportedly claiming that the service had become too expensive. Of course, discussions have allegedly been brewing about a new tier that only includes first-party titles and a cloud gaming tier with a time limit.

As for Call of Duty, this move makes the most sense, given the sheer amount of revenue generated from game sales. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 reportedly out in October and perhaps poised to stir the franchise back in the right direction, you can bet that Microsoft wants to reap as much revenue from it as possible.

“I told everyone we were only going to make a movie if it’s right. In David Ellison, we found that partnership,” he said. “We want to make sure that the authenticity of it is captured on a human level so that it feels really real and infuse that with epic scope.”

The adaptation is being headed up with TV creator Taylor Sheridan – known for Sicario, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and Yellowstone – as screenwriter alongside Pete Berg. The latter is also working as the movie’s director. Both are producers on the project as well, along with 101 Studios’ David Glasser.

Rumblings of Call of Duty getting adapted into a movie have been going around for several years. Reports from as far back as 2017 have indicated that Activision Blizzard was in talks to create movies based on the Black Ops and Modern Warfare sub-franchises under the larger Call of Duty umbrella.

“We have plotted out many years. We put together this group of writers to talk about where we were going,” said the at-the-time co-president of Activision Blizzard Studios, Stacey Sher, in an interview. “There’ll be a film that feels more like Black Ops, the story behind the story. The Modern Warfare series looks at what it’s like to fight a war with the eyes of the world on you. And then maybe something that is more of a hybrid, where you are looking at private, covert operations, while a public operation is going on.”

As for the upcoming adaptation, no other details have been revealed. With the release date set, however, we can be certain that plans are likely in place to begin filming by the end of the year, with post-production wrapping up by the end of 2027. The story itself will likely draw on Sheridan’s experience in working on projects that involve intense, high-octane action punctuated with long, drawn-out scenes that build up tension, much like Sicario.

On the gaming side of things, the most recent entry in the franchise was Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which saw a negative reception due to many factors. With the year moving along, however, rumors have already started popping up about what the next entry might entail. One such rumor from earlier this month has indicated that this year’s entry will be a new one in the Modern Warfare series, as a follow-up to 2023’s Modern Warfare 3. Just months after the title’s release, reports had already indicated that the next Modern Warfare was “already well into development” thanks to the commercial success of the series.

Another report from earlier this month has also indicated that Call of Duty could be taken off the Game Pass line-up, with Microsoft seemingly prioritizing “more niche and PC-focused” outings.

Windows Central’s Jez Corden noted this on The Xbox Two Podcast when responding to a user who said the company may prioritize “more niche and PC focused” ventures for the next generation. “Maybe. I mean, it’ll be interesting to see if they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard.”

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (alongside Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) earned $465 million for Xbox in December 2024, the latter also reportedly gave up over $300 million in sales. We don’t know the impact of Game Pass on Call of Duty sales in 2025, or whether price increases managed to mitigate any potential losses.

However, the latest entry likely did enough damage on its own, thanks to the awful campaign and generally stale quality. Such was the debacle it caused Activision to commit to no longer releasing Modern Warfare and Black Ops sequels back-to-back.

Of course, most likely due to the free-to-play Warzone, Call of Duty was one of the most top-played titles in 2025. Time will tell if that fact has an impact on the next mainline title remaining on Game Pass or not.

“The rumor factory working overtime. This ain’t it,” it said succinctly.

The title would allegedly launch alongside a “traditional” Call of Duty multiplayer title and the next Xbox, which is reportedly targeting next year if everything goes according to plan. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Activision did something similar with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered launching on the same day (and the latter being a tied to the former).

It all sounds well and good, but the keyword here is “floated.” It doesn’t necessarily mean that a separate Zombies title is in development (or has even been greenlit). Microsoft and Activision have been fairly tight-lipped about the next game in the series, simply committing to no longer releasing back-to-back Black Ops and Modern Warfare titles. Which you can thank the negative reception of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for.

In the meantime, the latest entry in the franchise continues to receive updates and isn’t suffering too greatly in sales. It topped US software sales charts for January 2026, despite its Steam player base dropping to historic new lows in the same month. How Activision can reignite interest in the franchise remains to be seen, but maybe it will return with a vengeance, as former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra believes. Time will tell.

The original plan was to seemingly launch on the new console alongside Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6 and compete with the game for player attention. However, with the console itself rumored to be delayed thanks to global memory shortages, new plans have apparently been drawn up that revolve around two separate Call of Duty games being made for the next Xbox. Comparisons were drawn with the release of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. This also indicates that we might see a standalone release of the franchise’s Zombies mode alongside a standard multiplayer release.

“Sources indicate to me that the delay on the next Xbox has ‘hurt’ a lot of COD’s marketing plans as they wanted Modern Warfare 4 to be a launch title and draw a lot of hype to compete with people’s attention alongside GTA VI,” wrote the leaker on social media.

“Because of this delay, the idea of two Call of Duty games launching with the next Xbox has been floated. A traditional Call of Duty multiplayer and a standalone Zombies title presumably developed by Treyarch. Likely similar to that of Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered were both released together.”

As for Activision’s wider business plans, the leaker has also reported that Microsoft wants the company to be “more agile”, and less devoted to its yearly release schedule for the Call of Duty franchise. In terms of software development, being agile means having a clearly-defined project development pipeline that can quickly pivot to new ideas. This, according to TheGhostOfHope, would have apparently allowed Activision to have a more competent version of the Call of Duty: DMZ mode to cash in on the hype around extraction shooters than what we ultimately got.

“Microsoft wants Activision to be more agile and less attached to annualized releases in the future. The consensus is that a more quick and coherent product/development pipeline would have allowed them to cash in on the extraction shooter hype sooner with a DMZ update for example.”

It is worth noting that, going by other rumors surrounding next-generation consoles, the timelines don’t quite match up precisely. Before RAM prices skyrocketed, leading to several hardware delays, reports had indicated that Sony and Microsoft were eyeing a 2027 launch for their respective next-gen consoles. Considering previous PlayStations and Xboxes having come out in Winter, in time for the Holiday season, it is likely that even the PS6 and next Xbox would have come out around November in 2027, which would have been a full year after the initial launch of Grand Theft Auto 6—out on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th this year. The leaker could, however, be referring to the next-gen launch of GTA 6.

Activision had also announced back in December that it was moving away from back-to-back releases for sub-series in the overarching Call of Duty franchise. This means that, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 being the latest game, the next one wouldn’t be from the Black Ops series. Similarly, the next Modern Warfare won’t be followed by another one.

Why is that a problem? The Call of Duty App doesn’t just include Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which launched last year to underwhelming reviews due to its campaign. It also tracks Black Ops 6, Warzone, the Modern Warfare series, and much more. Keep in mind that these player counts follow Holiday discounts and even a free week. The sad part is that this isn’t even the lowest in the past week, as it reached 39,015 peak concurrent players on January 8th.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped last November’s US sales charts (even if Battlefield 6 emerged as the top-selling premium game of 2026). Engagement with the app on consoles in the region was also as strong as ever, only lagging behind Fortnite and eking out ahead of Grand Theft Auto 5.

Nevertheless, Activision has pivoted significantly by announcing that it would no longer release back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops titles. “We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.” Its developers have apparently been building the “next era of Call of Duty,” and judging by the current release cycle, it may be Modern Warfare 4.

In the meantime, check out our review for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 here. We gave it a five out of ten for the multiplayer (despite netcode and hit registration issues), and Zombies (despite the overtly safe gameplay loop). The campaign is an utter disaster, but at least Treyarch released an update to let you skip it and go straight to Endgame.

On Xbox? Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5, Roblox and Minecraft. What’s even crazier is that these are the same as 2024’s most-played titles on both platforms, though Call of Duty on Xbox fell from first to second place year-over-year.

However, despite critics and fans dragging last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for its horrendous campaign, and Battlefield 6 emerging as the best-selling premium title, the brand still has some pull. Of course, there’s also the free-to-play component, Call of Duty: Warzone, which remains a significant presence. The same goes for Grand Theft Auto Online, although even standalone, it isn’t free.

Then again, Grand Theft Auto 5 has shipped over 220 million units and is available on three different console generations, so its popularity seems a given. Which only makes you wonder just how much more successful Grand Theft Auto 6 will be, even if it doesn’t ship with its own multiplayer mode at launch. It’s slated for launch on November 19th after two big delays.

In his post, Ybarra wrote about how competition in the market is often a good thing, and how the success seen by titles like Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders will encourage the developers of Call of Duty to “come back with a vengeance”. He also noted that “We will get a better Call of Duty thanks to Battlefield.”

“Competition is good. I’m rooting for the Call of Duty team to come back with vengeance – for the players and their team. They work incredibly hard and remain very talented,” he wrote.

Interestingly, Ybarra had been one of the earlier critics of the Call of Duty franchise this year, especially in light of the success seen by Battlefield 6’s open beta back in August. At the time, he went as far as to say that the latest entry in the Battlefield franchise “will boot stomp” Call of Duty this year. Even at the time, however, he noted that this will lead to the fact that “Call of Duty won’t be lazy anymore, and we’ll all get better FPS games for it.”

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is unlikely to have resulted in a loss for Activision, the title is clearly not in the zeitgeist this time around, unlike its predecessors which have tended to be the subjects of discussion for several months after their release. Industry analysts like Christopher Dring of The Game Business and Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics believe that this is down to the fact that there were some bad decisions made in the development of the game, which also managed to come out in a tough market.

“One reason for the decline is the intense competition from rival shooters, mostly Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders,” explained Elliot. “The new Battlefield title had a massive launch, securing the biggest opening in its franchise’s history. ARC has sold almost 8 million copies so far, and the latest Fortnite Simpsons crossover was a hit. Attention is scarce.”

“Players have expressed growing dissatisfaction with CoD‘s lack of innovation, feeling that the franchise is ailing. The introduction of Fortnite-like cosmetic items like non-military character skins (Beavis and Butthead, Nicki Minaj) has alienated a significant portion of the fanbase who prefer a more grounded military aesthetic. The co-op campaign was a major point of criticism. It was uneven and tedious when played solo, while also requiring an always-online connection. It also drew controversy and ire for its use of AI slop in game.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. Also check out our thoughts on its boss fights. Activision has also recently announced that the franchise wouldn’t go for back-to-back releases in the Modern Warfare or Black Ops series anymore, instead choosing to alternate their releases.