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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will not use a season pass

It's been a very long time for the Call of Duty franchise, but Modern Warfare will skip the season pass model and instead focus on free post-launch content.

Ozzie Mejia

May 30, 2019 10:10 AM

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Of all of the gaming trends that seem to be gaining momentum, there seems to be movement on major blockbuster games simply forgoing the idea of season passes entirely. Now for the first time in many years, the latest Call of Duty will move away from what's been accepted as a traditional model. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will not utilize a season pass model, with the implication that all post-launch content will be offered free of charge.

"The team is eliminating the traditional season pass, so that they can deliver more free maps and content as well as post-launch events to all players," reads the official Activision statement.

The last Call of Duty game to forego the traditional season pass model was 2011's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. However, that's a bit of a misnomer, since that game relied on the old Call of Duty Elite program to issue out DLC to users on a monthly basis. That program has since been discontinued. Prior to that, the last Call of Duty game that did not utilize the season pass was 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops. However, Activision looks to have taken note from one of its closest competitors, Electronic Arts' Battlefield V. Almost a year ago, EA and DICE unveiled their WWII shooter with the promise that post-launch content would be free, formally ending that franchise's use of the season pass model.

Specifics about post-launch content were not revealed. In fact, nothing about Modern Warfare's multiplayer element was revealed on Thursday, with Activision and Infinity Ward only focusing on the game's single-player campaign. Look for more information about multiplayer to come at a later date, possibly as early as E3 2019.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is set to release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?