Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is out now on Xbox Game Pass, following multiple reports that initially leaked a July 24 release. And in another major Modern Warfare development, Deadline reported that “plans” for a fourth entry in the new Modern Warfare series are in the works. [Update: The new season is live, and you can check out the full CoD Season 5 patch notes.]
The MW3 Game Pass release date originally surfaced during the XboxEra podcast. Leaker eXtas1s backed this up, and then Insider-Gaming corroborated the date as well. Microsoft is known to make Game Pass announcements on Tuesdays, and that’s exactly what happened here. On Tuesday, July 23, Microsoft announced that Modern Warfare 3 is coming to Game Pass on July 24. And on July 24 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, Modern Warfare III was released on Game Pass.
Subscribers to Game Pass for Console, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate can play Modern Warfare III beginning today, July 24. It’s not available on any other Game Pass tier, however.
Modern Warfare III is the most recent Call of Duty game, having launched in November 2023. It is the first Call of Duty game to come to Game Pass since Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.
July 24 is also the day that Call of Duty’s newest season, Season 5, arrives for Modern Warfare III, Warzone, and Warzone Mobile, so this is shaping up to be a huge week for Call of Duty. Ahead of the launch, you can see all the new Season 5 battle pass items and BlackCell DLC.
Looking further out, the Black Ops 6 beta begins in August ahead of the game’s release at the end of October. Black Ops 6 will launch into Game Pass right away, but only for the higher-priced tiers. People who subscribe to the new Game Pass Standard tier won’t get Black Ops 6 at launch.
As for the fourth Modern Warfare game mentioned by Deadline, there is not much more to go on. The source of the information was an interview piece with Barry Sloane, who plays Price in the Modern Warfare series. The interview never mentions Modern Warfare 4, however. But it would not be surprising at all for Activision to make another game considering the huge success of the series.
