Quick summary
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be on Xbox Game Pass, as we knew before.
Now we know which tiers will be restricted to only its campaign, and which will include Multiplayer and Zombies. PS5 owners are biggest to miss out.
Xbox has finally detailed in full how it's going to bundle this year's Call of Duty game into Xbox Game Pass, and it is indeed a little complicated.
Buried below a hunk of information about pre-order benefits and open beta plans, the system has been explained in a blog post on the Call of Duty website, and it basically boils down to a few tiers of access.
If you have Game Pass Ultimate, you'll get access to the entirety of Black Ops 6 at no extra cost, including online multiplayer and Zombies alongside the game's campaign. This will apply on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.
If you instead subscribe to Game Pass PC, that'll be the same, without any restrictions other than it'll only be on PC.
Two subscriptions that will have less access though. Game Pass Console owners will only be able to access the game's campaign, for example.
Members on that plan will therefore have to upgrade to Ultimate to access Multiplayer or Zombies, since the plan doesn't include online multiplayer.
Game Pass Core customers, meanwhile, don't get free access to the game at all, just the ability to play online once purchased: "Game Pass Core includes online console multiplayer access, which is required to play Black Ops 6 online modes (Multiplayer and Zombies) on Xbox consoles, but does not qualify you to access the full game."
As for PlayStation 5 owners – you're in the same boat. You will be required to buy the game outright if you want to play it. Don't expect it to pop up on PS Plus.
So, it looks like you'll basically need either Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Game Pass PC to get the full-fat experience in this year's COD, which shouldn't come as a massive surprise.
After all, by putting the game on Game Pass at all, Microsoft is basically betting the house on its subscription service once again – Call of Duty is the biggest-selling gaming franchise most years, and this could see those figures tumble on the platform as people instead take out a month or two of Game Pass to enjoy it.
This way those months might end up being on the more expensive tiers of the service, at least – as Xbox will certainly be hoping.
