Phil Spencer has reiterated Xbox‘s aim to make Call of Duty available to all players, making a second allusion to previous PlayStation COD practice in the process.

In an on-stage interview at IGN Live, the Microsoft Gaming CEO was discussing the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and how it motivated the team to find new players, when the topic of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming to Game Pass was brought up.

Spencer replied that playing the game on Game Pass was one of numerous ways to play the game, and that he wasn’t interested in using “slimy” exclusivity tactics to make players opt for a specific platform.

“It’s a choice,” he explained. “We didn’t say to anybody ‘you have to subscribe to play’.

“If you want to buy Black Ops 6, that’s great. It’s great for us, it’s great for the developer. If you want to subscribe, it’s also great.

“I want to give you the choice on how you play your games, and who you play with, and not try to do slimy platform things to force you to do what I want you to do.”

The comment was the second time that day that Spencer had alluded to previous PlayStation Call of Duty exclusivity deals.

Starting with Black Ops 3 in 2015, PlayStation enjoyed a series of exclusivity deals with Activision in which PlayStation players would receive the likes of DLC maps, beta access and in some cases entire modes (like Specs Ops Survival in Modern Warfare) as timed exclusives, lasting anything from a week to a year.

After showing the first Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, Spencer referred to the previous exclusivity deals, implying that Xbox wouldn’t be taking the same action despite now owning Activision.

“It’s been 10 years since Call of Duty has been in our show,” Spencer said. “It’s been even longer since all Call of Duty players got the same game at the same time.

“Going forward, everyone will experience the game, including the Black Ops 6 beta, the season expansions and the updates, at launch.”

Microsoft has announced the next mainline entry in the Gears of War series.

“Gears of War: E-Day is an origin story that depicts the horror of Locust invasion on Emergence Day through the eyes of Marcus Fenix,” according to Xbox Wire.

It follows younger versions of the series’ original protagonists, Fenix and Dom Santiago, as they battle against the invading forces.



Featuring a new instrumental version of ‘Mad World’, the track featured in the original Gears of War’s iconic 2006 commercial, the reveal trailer above was created by The Coalition in collaboration with Blur Studio using in-game assets in Unreal Engine 5, Microsoft said.

“It’s going to feel like a new Gears game, because that’s what it is,” creative director Matt Searcy told the site.

“It’s us revisiting the tone and the feeling of what makes Gears great, but we’re tapping into new techniques, new processes, and new technology that’s going to make the gameplay feel better than ever. It’s going to be awesome, a game that feels both truly new, and authentically Gears.”

Kate Rayner, studio technical director at The Coalition, claimed the game will offer an “unrivalled visual experience”.

“With the advancements in Unreal Engine 5, the leap in technical capabilities is tremendous,” she said. “This includes over 100 times more environment and character details than Gears 5, hardware raytraced lighting, reflections and shadows, next generation destruction and gore, and cutting-edge animation technology, to name just a few of the countless improvements that will make Gears of War: E-Day an unrivalled visual experience.

“Our ambition is to, once again, set a new standard in technical excellence,” Rayner adds. “We have fully modernized gears from the ground up, infusing the DNA of Gears with the full capabilities of modern gaming technology. Every character, environment, and animation in ‘Gears of War: E-Day‘ has been completely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, allowing us to portray the Gears universe with unprecedented detail and fidelity.”

Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will require users to have a persistent internet connection in order to play the game.

This applies to Black Ops 6’s campaign, as well as to its online multiplayer and Zombies modes.

The news was confirmed at the bottom of a support article published on Sunday, which details the game’s different editions.

“To deliver the highest-quality visuals while also reducing the game’s overall storage space on your hard drive, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will use texture streaming across all game modes,” it said.

“This means you’ll need a continuous internet connection to play any game mode, including Campaign. If you’re on a console, Campaign can be played without a premium subscription service such as Game Pass Core or PlayStation Plus.”

The article also confirmed that Black Ops 6 will support split-screen gameplay on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. “To ensure performance integrity”, the feature won’t be available on Xbox One or PS4.

Activision announced today that Black Ops 6 will be released on October 25, 2024, for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC.