Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set for release on October 23, and in a big shakeup, it will not be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch.
This has been known for a while, but Activision is reminding people of this in a new blog post on the eve of the game's campaign early access on October 16. In fact, Activision has been warning people that MW4 is not on Game Pass for months now, so the blog post is just the latest example of this.
Upon release, the only way to get MW4 is by purchasing it outright, starting at $70 for the base edition and scaling to $100 for the Vault edition.
When will MW4 come to Game Pass?
Activision said MW4 will be available on Xbox Game Pass at some point at the end of next year, meaning it will be "windowed" as a standalone purchase for about one year.
Why are new Call of Duty games no longer included with Game Pass?
2024’s Black Ops 6 was the first entry in the series to launch directly into Xbox Game Pass, with Black Ops 7 following the same playbook in 2025. However, Microsoft announced earlier this year that new Call of Duty titles would no longer debut in Game Pass, an announcement it made in conjunction with a price cut for the subscription service.
Microsoft has never explicitly said why it made this major change, but it could have to do with lost sales. It was reported that Black Ops 6 coming to Game Pass in 2024 amounted to Microsoft missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. That number has been debated, and it does not tell the whole story, but no doubt there was a financial impact that Microsoft is responding to.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is undertaking a "reset" of the Xbox business, and cutting new Call of Duty games from Game Pass is part of that. She is also trying to revive Xbox console exclusives, including a nuclear option.
What other Call of Duty games are on Game Pass?
Although Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can't play MW4 until next year, the catalog currently includes a bunch of older entries in the series.
These include:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Call of Duty: WW2
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)