Microsoft has confirmed the arrival of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 day-one on Xbox Game Pass.
In a put up on Xbox Wire, Microsoft pointed followers to its Xbox Video games Showcase occasion in addition to its Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Direct on June 9, 2024, from 10am PT. There it can share extra particulars on the sport, with a primary in-depth take a look at gameplay “on this darkish new chapter” of the Black Ops sequence.
Microsoft made the announcement alongside the discharge of a live-action reveal trailer known as ‘The Fact Lies’. In it we see world leaders together with Invoice Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, George H. W. Bush, and Saddam Hussein, delivering cryptic speeches. Black Ops 6 is reported to be set through the occasions of the Gulf Conflict through the early ’90s.
Information of Black Ops 6’s launch into Game Pass does not come as a lot of a shock. Xbox president Sarah Bond just lately indicated all Microsoft video games, together with these developed by the just lately acquired Activision, would launch straight into Game Pass.
Microsoft has confronted powerful questions across the potential cannibalization impact of Game Pass, significantly on video games that launch on the service day-one. Whereas Xbox executives have insisted gross sales may be boosted by a sport’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers stay unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for instance, was at all times towards placing Call of Duty into subscription companies. In contrast to Microsoft, console rival Sony doesn’t launch its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.
In an interview with IGN final 12 months, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was requested how he’d deal with his and Kotick’s completely different ideologies after the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard closed. “Properly, there is a completely different particular person making the choices,” Spencer laughed.
New Call of Duty video games promote for $70 and often shift round 25 million copies, amounting to tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in income. By releasing this 12 months’s Call of Duty straight into Game Pass, Microsoft probably dangers cannibalizing these gross sales. In fact, Activision can even launch Call of Duty throughout Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as a sport that may be purchased outright. However with Game Pass subscriber numbers failing to develop meaningfully Microsoft is below stress to draw new clients. Including a mainline Call of Duty sport at launch will little question assist with that. The Verge has reported Microsoft is contemplating elevating the value of Xbox Game Pass Final once more.
Microsoft is within the course of of chopping 1,900 employees from its gaming enterprise. Earlier this month, the corporate shocked the online game world by asserting the closure of Hello-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin. There are fears extra cuts are to come back.
Microsoft is but to announce a launch date, pricing, or platforms for Black Ops 6, however it can reportedly launch throughout PC, last-gen and current-gen consoles.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.