Microsoft is crazy for not putting these 6 games on Game Pass yet

I don’t know about you, but if I were to spend $69 billion on something, I’d want to get the most out of that purchase. Especially if I wanted to have any hope of making that money back in some way.
$69 billion is what Microsoft spent on its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, including all the studios and games in the ABK portfolio. Games that can, and should, be added to Xbox’s Game Pass service, which is meant to provide a library of games for players, but especially a library of first-party Xbox titles.
To Microsoft and Xbox’s credit, there are plenty of games from Activision Blizzard King already on Game Pass. But it’s still absolutely wild to me, crazy, even, that there are some huge games absent from the Xbox Game Pass library.
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6 Call of Duty 1-3
Respect the games that came before.
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You may not be hankering to play the original three Call of Duty games. I’ll admit that I’d only really be interested in revisiting Call of Duty 3 without having to buy it digitally on my Xbox or pull out my old PS3 copy. But my own individual tastes don’t change the fact that it’s insane for Microsoft and Xbox to continue to leave these games off Xbox Game Pass.
These three games were the foundation upon which grew the franchise that Microsoft is probably the most excited to have in their own portfolio, right next to Candy Crush. Call of Duty is arguably the biggest shooter in the world, and the franchise has had an immense impact on the games industry that will continue to be felt for decades, even if the franchise were to actually end one day, as unlikely as that seems.
Also, this next point is one I’ll bring up again in this list, but, there’s absolutely no way Microsoft is making enough money on the sales of Call of Duty 1 (only available on PC), Call of Duty 2 (available on PC and console) and Call of Duty 3 (only available on console), that it’s worth keeping them off Game Pass. I don’t see the logic in keeping them off Game Pass, but then again, this whole list is about the illogical decisions Microsoft and Xbox continue to make.
5 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops 1-2
Respect the games that took over the world.
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The first three Call of Duty titles laid the foundation. Then, starting with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the franchise began to take over the world of FPS games, like no other individual franchise had before. The Modern Warfare series and the Black Ops series set the stage for Call of Duty to reach never-before-seen heights in popularity, so much so that when Activision was flubbing the franchises’ success after a few years of misfires, the Modern Warfare series was rebooted.
Even the Black Ops series was given a new lease on life because of the Modern Warfare series reboot. If the series never went to a modern setting, or at least if it had waited a little longer to make that transition, and Call of Duty 4 was another shooter set in either WWI or WWII, then there’s a fair chance the series doesn’t keep up with the competition, and dies out before it can really take over.
There are even remastered versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that would be potentially better to add than the original versions. The first two Black Ops games were also incredibly iconic in their own ways, equally deserving of a permanent spot in the Xbox Game Pass library.
I’m not trying to say that Microsoft should have added every single game in the Call of Duty franchise. It’s more than welcome to do that, of course, but not having these specific releases is insane to me. Including the next (and last) Call of Duty entry on this list.
4 Call of Duty: World at War
Respect zombies.
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Following up 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with a return to a historical setting wasn’t what I wanted to hear from the series at the time, and I know I wasn’t alone in that feeling. But everyone changed their tune with the original zombies mode.
Killing zombies isn’t anything new in video games. World at War wasn’t even the best zombie shooter you could play at the time. But the zombies mode in World at War was as infectious as the Element 115 concoction that made the dead Nazis living dead in the first place. Right after Call of Duty had its first major moment with the first Modern Warfare game, World at War introduced the game mode that would keep the momentum Call of Duty 4 started going even stronger.
As the only console maker that can say every Call of Duty game is a first-party title, it’s once again bonkers to me, that the whole franchise, but specifically these 8 titles, aren’t on Xbox’s flagship service, Game Pass.
3 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2
At least get this remaster on there.
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Now, there are plenty of Tony Hawk games I could add to this list in a similar fashion to the Call of Duty games above, but unfortunately for Tony Hawk, there’s no original Xbox or Xbox 360 version of the older games in this series that could easily just be added to Game Pass. Which is why I turned to the wonderfully made Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 remaster from the studio formerly known as Vicarious Visions, now called Blizzard Albany.
Unlike the previous Call of Duty entries, at least in the case of this remaster, there’s a chance it will be coming to Game Pass soon. That chance comes from the fact that the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 will be coming to Game Pass when it launches. That game is due out on July 11, 2025, so it could be the case that THPS1+2 is added to Xbox Game Pass the same month, or just a little ahead of the launch of THPS3+4, to get Xbox players hyped up.
Even with the fact that it might soon be on Game Pass, it is still a bit crazy to me that it’s not already there, in one of the permanent slots reserved for Xbox’s first-party titles. I can understand the argument that this is at least a newer game players are still likely to buy themselves, but it’s been almost 5 years since it arrived. It’s been nearly 3 years at time of writing since Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. The arrival of THPS1+2 was officially overdue the day after the acquisition closed, in my eyes.
2 Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo III
Time to round out one of the biggest ARPG series ever.
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You can download the original Diablo on Game Pass and take a trip back in time to the game that started one of Blizzard’s biggest franchises. You can download the latest game in the franchise, Diablo IV, and jump into the latest from the franchise. What about Diablo II and Diablo III?
Both games remain off Game Pass, and it’s high-time that Microsoft round-out the franchise by including the Diablo II remaster, Diablo II: Resurrected, and Diablo III. Action RPG’s are still incredibly popular, and while Microsoft and Xbox might want everyone to just jump into the latest in the franchise with Diablo IV, having the whole franchise on Game Pass would help satiate, while growing the appetite, players have for these games.
Diablo is also a giant franchise now, and jumping into Diablo IV could be more than a bit daunting to newcomers. Jumping into an older release is likely a lot more palatable to people that might not know where to begin if they tried getting on the Diablo train now with Blizzard’s latest release.
1 World of Warcraft
What did Microsoft even buy, if not this game?
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I know that Call of Duty was the hot-button topic when Microsoft’s acquisition of ABK was being challenged, but that’s not the only world-conquering franchise Activision Blizzard King had in its portfolio. World of Warcraft continues to be one of the most popular games worldwide, with one of the greatest legacy’s in the history of the video game industry.
The fact that there’s no special tier of Game Pass or option within your Xbox Game Pass subscription to also include a pass to play World of Warcraft is absolutely ludicrous to me. If Game Pass is supposed to be the best deal in games, with the most value for what you get out of the service, why is one of Microsoft’s biggest games still absent from the service?
What was this acquisition for, if not to add value to Microsoft and Xbox’s services?
I understand that there are plenty of reasons as to why Microsoft wanted to acquire Activision Blizzard King that go far beyond just adding games to Game Pass. But it’s still crazy to me, that Microsoft has been so slow in capitalizing on adding some of Activision Blizzard King’s key games to Game Pass.
Especially since it’s clear that Game Pass and Xbox’s service offerings are what the company wants to prioritize to consumers over its hardware offerings.