It's official: Microsoft has confirmed today that Call of Duty: Black Ops6 will be available "on day one" with Game Pass.

Putting Black Ops 6 in the game pass on launch day is a big deal. Call of Duty is one of the world's largest video game series, and is believed to be the crown jewel of Microsoft's acquisition of publisher Activision Blizzard in 2023 forActiv68.7 billion. As Associate editor Ted Litchfield pointed out when rumors of the release of the Game Pass first surfaced, the ironic tricky question of what Microsoft wants to do with it.

Leaving Call of Duty with just printing money is clearly one option, but Microsoft's desire for big picture games is that the game is not a game. It seems to be flagging a slow: subscription rates have reportedly been sluggish and slowed, at least in part, driven by a lack of new games of value over the past year or so. "Better" is a highly subjective assessment, but it's hard to argue that the latest Call of Duty game is not eligible.

However, while adding black Ops6 to the lineup on release date will undoubtedly be a big boost for Game Pass, there is also the risk of cannibalizing retail sales to some extent. Aside from the financial hit, it could put Microsoft in a tough place in the coming years: the up-front losses are too big, so pulling future Call of Duty releases from Game Pass will not make the company friends, and there is a risk of depressing subscription fees even more.

For now, it's a completed deal and we bet we'll hear a winning year-end announcement about the noticeable surge in gamepass subscriptions that the launch of Black Ops6 helped generate. Whether it is held in the long term, we shall see.

Call of Duty: Black Ops6 will be fully revealed in the live stream on 6/9 and will soon follow the Xbox game showcase starting at 10AM PT/1pm ET. In the meantime, Microsoft is already using Black Ops6 to support the rest of the Game Pass, and "there's a pile of (figurative) games to check out and play while waiting for the preinstall button to light up.""