A new report suggests that debates have been raging inside Microsoft regarding whether new Call of Duty releases should be made available as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
The information comes from Tom Warren of The Verge, who reports that the debate “has been ongoing internally for quite some time” and mainly centers around concerns that “the revenue the Call of Duty typically generates for Activision Blizzard will be undermined by [Xbox] Game Pass.”
This revelation seems to contradict previous messaging from Microsoft, which has suggested that players should expect to see more major titles like Call of Duty coming to the service. For example, in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast posted in February this year, the company expressed a desire to bring “both new releases and classic games” by Activision Blizzard to Xbox Game Pass.
The potential addition of Call of Duty games to Xbox Game Pass was one of the biggest reasons why some expressed strong support for Microsoft’s purchase of Call of Duty owner Activision Blizzard, which closed in October last year following a protracted period of scrutiny from regulators including the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
While this news is unlikely to enamor many current Xbox Game Pass subscribers, it comes on top of a week of disastrous headlines for Microsoft. This began with the surprise closure of multiple studios including Tango Gameworks - the developer behind the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush. Arkane Austin was shut down too, reportedly right before the release of a major update for its troubled vampire first-person shooter (FPS) Redfall.
The closure of Arkane Austin came alongside the announcement that development had ceased on the game, abandoning the promised Hero Pass downloadable content (DLC) that was available to purchase as part of the game’s premium 'Bite Back Edition'. While Microsoft has announced a compensation plan for players who were unlucky enough to have bought this content, there are very few concrete details about what this actually means right now.
TechRadar reached out to Microsoft and Bethesda with a request for comment when the studio closures were first announced, though neither party has responded at this time.
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