Modern Warfare 4 on Game Pass? The new Call of Duty is deliberately opting out—and is even advertising this fact

Ad banners for the new Call of Duty emphasize that Modern Warfare 4 won’t be available on Game Pass at launch. Activision likely wants to set the record straight—and boost pre-orders.

It’s hardly news that Microsoft likes to promote games by highlighting that they’ll be available on Game Pass right at launch. What’s unusual, however, is the marketing strategy forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The ads specifically emphasize:Not on Game Pass this year!

Pre-orders Instead of Subscribers

A recent promotional banner for Modern Warfare 4 reads:Log in for Early Access to the campaignand furthernot on Game Pass this year, pre-order now.

Of course, advertising the fact that something isn’t being offered sounds strange at first. But upon closer inspection, the ad makes sense. Let’s recall: Microsoft only announced the changes to Game Pass in April 2026.Game Pass is now cheaper, but CoD is no longer included in the subscription at launch.Apparently, it wasn’t worth sacrificing sales for the additional subscribers.

Activision presumably assumes that not everyone has realized over the past two months that Modern Warfare 4 won’t be available on Game Pass until a year after its release. And those who don’t know this won’t necessarily pre-order it, assuming they’ll be able to play it through their subscription.

Ultimately, the advertising campaign is primarily aimed at driving pre-orders as high as possible, since these are known to be crucial for publishers. To achieve this, they’re once again resorting to a controversial tactic: Anyone who pre-orders gets to play the campaign a week early. For shooter expert Phil, however, this is—for once—a good sign:

Modern Warfare 4 has big plans in other areas as well. For example, Infinity Ward is bringing back the multiplayer extraction mode DMZ, which was somewhat neglected in its first iteration. While CoD plans to invest heavily here, the shooter is expected to take a more restrained approach to skins and focus solely on authentic collaborations. You can read more about both topics in the box above.