Ten Call of Duty games mysteriously taken offline for "maintenance" all at once

I know it has a bad reputation. I know it's largely remembered for being the CoD game that nobody really liked. But the Call of Duty Ghosts campaign is fantastic. And when I say fantastic, I mean it's probably the second-best one after the original, 2007 Modern Warfare. As of today, Wednesday July 2, Activision is taking ten Call of Duty games temporarily offline. The pessimist in me says this is just routine maintenance. The optimist in me wants to believe there is a bigger reason behind all of this. What I'm saying is, with Black Ops 7 on the way, it might be time to consider giving Call of Duty Ghosts - and the similarly underloved Black Ops 3 - another try.

Between 3am and 7am PST on Wednesday July 2, ten Call of Duty games will go offline and be unavailable to play. Both versions of Modern Warfare 2, both Modern Warfare 3s, WW2, Advanced Warfare, Ghosts, and the original Black Ops trilogy are all on the list, representing some of the best FPS games in Activision's monolithic series. But why ten games, and why all at once?

Ahead of the Black Ops 7 release date, the remakes of Modern Warfare 2 and 3, Black Ops 6, and Warzone are all playable via Game Pass. But two days ago, on Monday June 30, Call of Duty WW2 was also added to Microsoft's subscription service, becoming the first 'legacy' CoD in the entire Game Pass catalogue.

Given that Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard, it seems possible that, eventually, the whole CoD series will be available via a monthly membership. That's what happened after the Bethesda buyout - by March 2021, six months after the acquisition was completed, 20 old and new Bethesda games were on Game Pass.

So, if I were feeling positive, I would argue that this bulk "maintenance" period for Call of Duty is also linked to Game Pass, and that Activision is doing some work in the backend to prepare Black Ops, Ghosts, et al for their debut on the subscription platform.

That optimism is complicated slightly by the fact that the Modern Warfare remakes and WW2, which are already available on Game Pass, are also on the temporary takedown list. Then again, maybe this maintenance is targeted specifically at Game Pass Call of Duty games, and Activision is tweaking the ones that are currently available and that will be available at the same time.

Or maybe it's nothing - perhaps it's just an update for the anti-cheat system, or something even more minor. We'll have to see. But if Call of Duty Ghosts really does arrive on Game Pass, seriously, it's a lot better than you may remember.

Otherwise, try some of the other best multiplayer games, or prepare for Black Ops 7 by picking up one of the best graphics cards for 2025.

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