The Call of Duty game that dared to be different is confirmed for PS Plus Essential in July

UPDATE 16:40 BST: The official PlayStation social media accounts have now confirmed the earlier leak, meaning Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered and Endling Extinction Forever will indeed be the three games available on PS Plus Essential.

As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be available for subscribers to the PS Plus base subscription tier from July 4 until July 31.

ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS: It looks as though PlayStation Plus owners are in for a treat next month, as next month’s PS Plus games look set to include 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

According to PS Plus leaker billbil-kun, July’s PS Plus games will include the Call of Duty with one of the best campaigns in recent memory as the game leads the charge on the Essential tier. What’s more, it’ll be the Cross Gen version of the game, for both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Alongside the shooter, the other two games are nothing to be sniffed at either, with Alan Wake Remastered and Endling Extinction is Forever as the other two games that’ll be made available on July 4, 2023.

While the games are yet to be confirmed by PlayStation at the time of writing, billbil-kun is an old hand at leaking the games often just hours before the official announcements, with an almost flawless success rate, so we’re inclined to believe they’re accurate again here.

It’s an exceptionally interesting time for Call of Duty to be made available on the PS Plus service, as the series is currently a huge focal point for the ongoing Xbox versus FTC court case in the US over the former’s desire to purchase publisher Activision. The series has been a big sticking point, particularly when it comes to its possible inclusion on the similar Xbox Game Pass service. In fact, Jim Ryan took to the stand yesterday (as per The Verge) to claim that “I talked to all publishers they unanimously do not like Game Pass, because its value destructive.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft countered that Call of Duty wasn’t that important to the deal, with one witness – economics expert Dr Elizabeth Bailey – called to the stand on their behalf saying that “Call of Duty is an important game and it’s a popular game, but there’s nothing to suggest it’s… uniquely important,”

We’ll find out if Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is indeed one of the PS Plus games for July in due course, likely before the end of the day – and we’ll update this story as soon as we do.

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