Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 trailer teases lies throughout history as Xbox Game Pass day one launch is confirmed
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, and there’s a new live-action trailer to watch.
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What you need to know
History is a lie.
That’s the core message of the new live-action trailer forCall of Duty: Black Ops 6, which shows various historical leaders like former U.S. president Bill Clinton and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein discussing the nature of war in the shadows. Alongside the trailer, Microsoft and Activision have officially confirmed viaXbox Wirethat Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be launching day one inXbox Game Pass.
You can check out the trailer below.
A full reveal for the game is coming on June 9, 2024 as part of theXbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. While Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 was added to Microsoft’s gaming subscription service back in March, this move will mark the first day one inclusion of an Activision Blizzard King title in the service since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 billion in October 2023.
Call of Dutywill remain a multiplatform franchise, per Microsoft’s binding commitments, meaning players on Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows PC will all be able to buy the game when it launches later in 2024, even though Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass remain restricted to Xbox consoles and PC hardware, respectively.
A Call of Duty four years in the making
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has had a longer development time than any title in the franchise, with work spanning across the last four years. Development has been led by Treyarch, though naturally this game has received development support from almost every team under the Activision Publishing wing.
Recent Call of Duty games have suffered from a lack of development time, with the annual releases of the franchise demanding additional resources and studios as fast or faster than Activision could pile them in. Last year’s entry,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)had a campaign that was reportedly developed in just 16 months, which in turn reportedly demanded massive crunch and led to a poorly-received story mode, though the multiplayer was popular among the playerbase.
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Analysis: A simply seismic move
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There’s simply no other way of putting it: This is a massive move. Call of Duty hasn’t been associated with the Xbox brand since 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which will be adecadeold this fall. Having that association again, alongside making this a first-party Xbox Game Pass launch, isgargantuan. We’ll have to wait and see how everything pans out, but this is the correct (and frankly, needed) commitment after the slog that was closing the acquisition.
Make no mistake, I’m still frustrated with some of Microsoft’s recent choices. This is a great burst of positive energy though, and I hope they can correctly build on it in the coming weeks and months.
Hopefully we’ll also be seeing other additions to Xbox Game Pass from the Activision Blizzard King library soon. There’s a litany of Call of Duty games alone that can be added in bursts or patches in the leadup to this game’s launch, not to mention titles like Spyro, Crash, and Diablo games outside of the most recent entry.
Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.
