Call of Duty Is Coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming on Game Pass Ultimate
You won't need a gaming console to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 when it launches later this month.
On Monday, Microsoft announced that it will bring the latest Call of Duty game, as well as Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone, to Xbox Cloud Gaming at 10 a.m. PT on Oct. 25. That's the same day Black Ops 6 launches and lands on Game Pass Ultimate.
"This opens up even more ways to playBlack Ops 6 starting on day one at launch," Ashley McKissick, corporate vice president of gaming experiences and platforms for Xbox, said online.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is a feature included in a Game Pass Ultimate subscription -- which costs $20 a month. The feature is still in beta, but it allows subscribers to access and play certain games from the Game Pass library on other devices without an Xbox console.
"Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to enjoy Call of Duty in more places than ever before, including on their consoles, PCs, mobile devices, select Samsung TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Meta Quest devices," McKissick said.
To play Xbox games on these devices, people need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and in many cases a compatible Bluetooth-enabled wireless controller.
This news comes a few months after Microsoft announced it was bringing Game Pass to Amazon Fire TV devices. McKissick said at the time that Microsoft has been working for several years to bring cloud gaming to more devices and people everywhere.
Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard, the studio behind the popular shooter franchise, in 2023. As part of the acquisition, Microsoft promised not to restrict Activision Blizzard games to Xbox consoles. At the time this ensured games like Call of Duty would still be on PlayStation consoles. Some, like CNET's Corinne Reichert, hoped it meant games like Starcraft 2 would come to systems like the Nintendo Switch. Now it seems Microsoft also meant it wouldn't limit those games to only consoles.
For more on Game Pass, you can read CNET's Game Pass Ultimate review and our advice on which tier is right for you. You can also check out what to know about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 before its release on Oct. 25.
