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Published Oct 16, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
Missing but not forgotten
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The franchise has slipped from its lofty perch in recent years, but there was a time when the launch of a new Call of Duty game was a huge event. The anticipation was never quite on the level of Grand Theft Auto 6, but the series reliably mattered in a way that many other games did not.
When Microsoft purchased Activision, some of us assumed we wouldn’t have to wait long before being able to play all of those classic games on Xbox Game Pass. Why else would Microsoft drop that kind of money on the company, if not to leverage its library of classics? But Call of Duty has made only a weak showing on the subscription service since then, with many of its most iconic games still available only for purchase. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launching Oct. 23, here are eight Call of Duty games somehow still missing from Game Pass. We’d love to see them get added soon.
8 Call of Duty: Black Ops
Image: Treyarch/ActivisionReleased: Nov. 9, 2010
After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it was unclear how the franchise might top itself. Then came Call of Duty: Black Ops, with an energetic campaign that included outrageous moments such as an attempted assassination of Fidel Castro. Some of the most memorable characters in the franchise experienced a thrilling campaign, and that was just for starters. Without Black Ops, we never would have been introduced to the Nuketown map so many of us know and love from multiplayer deathmatch. The game’s absence from Game Pass is an injustice.
7 Call of Duty: World at War
Image: Treyarch/ActivisionReleased: Nov. 10, 2008
World at War once again told a compelling story set in World War 2, like most of the franchise entries up to that point, but that’s not why most players remember it fondly. Rather, they recall the zombies mode, which developer Treyarch introduced to the overall franchise with sufficient success that it quickly became a standard component in future titles. Players worked to cooperate against increasingly powerful waves of invading zombies, rushing from one site to another and struggling to survive against the endless horde. If you love fighting zombies in Call of Duty, you owe that mode to this one great game, which is sadly missing from Game Pass. And if you want more World War 2 action of a more recent vintage, there’s always 2017’s Call of Duty: WW2.
6 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Image: Sledgehammer Games/ActivisionReleased: Nov. 4, 2014
There’s a popular meme you might have seen: “Press F to pay respects.” The familiar line comes from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Early in the campaign, wounded during a recent military operation and now missing one arm, you attend the funeral of a fallen comrade. As you look over the coffin, text prompts you to press a button to grieve. Also present at that funeral: Jonathan Irons, the father of the slain soldier. Voiced by Kevin Spacey, Irons plays a pivotal role in a story that explores the contentious relationship between private enterprise and the United States government. It’s an intriguing tale, over-the-top in the way some of the best Call of Duty campaigns so often were, even if it occasionally feels contrived. Modern players are missing out on an experience that’s still worth having.
5 Call of Duty: Ghosts
Image: Infinity Ward/NeverSoft/Raven SoftwareReleased: Nov. 4, 2013
Many players associated Infinity Ward with the best Call of Duty had to offer, even though there were three studios working on the series. Following the very noisy exit of Vince Zampella and Jason West in 2010, the remaining team had to work hard to prove they still had the creative juice necessary to build something special. Call of Duty: Ghosts was the result of their effort. Co-developed with Neversoft (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) and Raven Software, the game suffered from slower pacing and less interesting maps, but still managed to pack in some of the high-octane sequences for which the franchise is known. Although it’s not remembered as a high point for the series, it provided a solid experience that today’s players can still enjoy a great deal, provided they keep their expectations in check.
4 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Treyarch/ActivisionReleased: Nov. 13, 2012
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 remains one of the most ambitious games in the series to date, offering spectacular multiplayer modes that gave players better control of their loadouts. Its maps were some of the very best, including Raid, Hijacked, and Slums, which players happily ran through time after time. The zombies mode was more ambitious than before, with Mob of the Dead and Origins DLC providing additional zombie maps on top of the ones that shipped on the disc. Black Ops 2 featured a branching narrative with multiple endings, allowing players to decide who lived and died as the team went up against Raul Menendez, one of the most believable villains in franchise history. It also imagined life in 2025, more than a decade after the game’s release date. Overall, the title is a high point for the franchise. It’s a minor tragedy that newer players have no idea what they’ve been missing.
3 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Infinity Ward/ActivisionReleased: Nov. 4, 2016
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare had massive battles. In space. It had advanced technology and the firefights you know and love, this time with zero gravity. In space. And it had a compelling, surprisingly intimate plot featuring the voice talents of Brian Bloom and Kit Harington. They probably didn’t record them in space, even if it sounded like it. Besides all of that, some copies of the game shipped with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered as a bonus, which made a good thing even better. For me and some other players, it was the last time a new Call of Duty game felt like a proper event that was not to be missed. The game’s continued absence from the Game Pass lineup is a real disappointment.
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2 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered
Image: Infinity Ward/Activision via Synhart/Call of Duty WikiReleased: Apr. 30, 2020
If you say “No Russian” to Call of Duty players of a certain age, they’ll immediately know just what you mean, perhaps even if they didn’t play the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The scene where that pivotal phrase was uttered ranks among the most memorable ever featured in a first-person shooter. At the time, it was preceded by a warning to let players know they were about to go to a very dark place. But that scene – and the game as a whole – were a welcome gut-punch in a campaign that pushed harder than its predecessor had dared. Besides the campaign, the multiplayer featured a big swing for the fences in the form of a tactical nuke the player could summon after earning 25 kills without dying, which naturally became nearly everyone’s goal in every match. What’s more, the main theme was composed by Hollywood legend Hans Zimmer, and the game added a cooperative mode known as Special Ops. Simply put, the game had everything. It’s a real shame Game Pass is missing such a classic, especially when it would be so easy to make Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered available and let players experience the story with touched up visuals.
1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
Image: Microsoft, Infinity WardReleased: June 27, 2017
With 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward proved the franchise had legs that could carry it far beyond World War 2. Set in the present time, the game imagined horrifying events that astonished players at each turn. You never knew what might happen next, and the twists kept you playing alongside a group of heroes that began to feel almost like family. Not only that, but the multiplayer mode was astonishingly compelling, providing tight corridors reminiscent of GoldenEye in some places, but more open in others. There wasn’t anything else quite like it at the time, and players spent hundreds of hours in deathmatch, practicing until they knew every tile on every ruined floor, every brick in each pile of rubble. Ten years later, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered brought much of that back, first as part of a special edition bundle for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and then as a standalone release the next year. It brought along a fresh coat of paint so the aging game didn’t look so old on newer monitors, providing the best way to play the game many consider to be the finest in the series. It totally belongs on Game Pass.
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