This week, Microsoft introduced a massive change to its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service that lowered its price from $29.99/month to $22.99/month effective immediately, making the premium tier of Xbox Game Pass $7 more affordable than it was after the firm infamously hiked its price up 50% last year. The move has been widely praised by Xbox and PC gamers all over — though it didn't come without cost.

The price drop was accompanied by the news that new Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass at launch, and will instead come to the program a year after they release. The idea here is to make Game Pass more affordable while simultaneously trying to stop it from cannibalizing Call of Duty sales as it has with recent releases, which most fans seem perfectly okay with.

Article continues below

It's unclear which games will come to Xbox Game Pass or how many of them are on the way right now, though there's a large list of potential candidates; at present, 15 Call of Duty entries are absent from the service, including the following:

• Call of Duty (2003)
• Call of Duty 2 (2005)
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005)
• Call of Duty 3 (2006)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
• Call of Duty: World at War (2008)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)

Of these, it would be great to at the very least see some of the most popular games in Call of Duty history — Modern Warfare, World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, Black Ops 2, and Ghosts — make their way onto Game Pass. In an ideal world, though, we'd see the entire franchise in the program's catalog.

Notably, this news comes after the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot came to Game Pass last week, joining its sequels Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3. The Modern Warfare reboot is also surging right now thanks to a Steam sale; that shows how cheaper access to older games can give them a serious boost, and why putting classic Call of Duty titles on Game Pass is a good idea.

Which older Call of Duty games would you like to see made available on Xbox Game Pass? What's your favorite title in the series? Voice your opinion in the comments, and vote in our poll about the decision to remove Call of Duty from day-one Game Pass access, too.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).