Modern Warfare 4 Ad Turns Off-Game-Pass Access Into a Selling Point
Xbox has been stacking one questionable move on top of another, so its April Game Pass price cut already feels like it happened ages ago. The company managed to lower the subscription cost by removing the next Call of Duty from the service, at least for day one access—and the new Modern Warfare 4 advertisement appears to be making that point very loudly.
Not on Xbox Game Pass This Year
A Modern Warfare 4 ad has reportedly been spotted on Facebook by a ResetEra user, and it quickly spread because of how directly it calls out the absence of the next Call of Duty from Game Pass day one. The message, set in oversized bold lettering, reads “Not on Xbox Game Pass this year,” with the text taking up more ad space than the game’s own name.
That kind of reaction makes sense in context: last year’s Game Pass price increase apparently landed badly, to the point where millions reportedly unsubscribed.
At the same time, the ad’s authenticity hasn’t been fully verified. Still, the willingness to advertise a major downside—especially for what is, regardless of your preferences, the biggest franchise under the Xbox umbrella—does say a lot about where Xbox messaging stands right now. Plenty of people have seen the ad and immediately assumed it would go for something like this.
Is This “Good Guy” Xbox Or “Silly Goose” Xbox?
If the ad is genuine, there’s a case to be made that Xbox is acting more like “the good guys” than the “tricksters.” Hiding a statement like this in the fine print would normally trigger accusations that the company is trying to pull casual Call of Duty fans into subscribing—or keeping their subscription—without them realizing Modern Warfare 4 wouldn’t actually arrive on Game Pass until a year after launch.
That said, it’s hard to blame anyone for skepticism. Even with Game Pass priced higher, it’s still widely considered an excellent deal—it’s often described as the Netflix of video games. The sticking point is that Xbox hasn’t done enough to clearly explain what Game Pass is, how players can get it, and what’s included.
The confusion isn’t hypothetical. The writer notes that people in their circle who own an Xbox didn’t even know what Game Pass was—or that it existed—until they were told personally.
With Xbox now putting a negative about Game Pass front and center, it seems like the company wants that message to reach everyone. Dropping future Call of Duty releases from Game Pass day one in order to make the price cut happen is framed as a sensible move. But turning the ad buy into a megaphone for the subscription’s downsides is described as a less impressive choice.
