Xbox just dropped one of the strangest day-one additions Game Pass has seen in a while: Kiln, a multiplayer brawler from celebrated studio Double Fine Productions. It lands the same week Microsoft confirmed new Call of Duty games won’t hit Game Pass at launch anymore—making Kiln feel like both a reminder of what Game Pass still does brilliantly and a sign of how the service is being reshaped in real time.
A “pottery party brawler” from Double Fine, available right now
Kiln is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and PC, and it’s a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as of April 23 (launching at 11 a.m. EDT). It’s published by Xbox Game Studios and developed by Double Fine Productions, the award-winning Microsoft-owned team behind Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Broken Age, and Costume Quest—a studio with a long history of taking big creative swings.
This time, the hook is delightfully unhinged: you play as pots—and not just pre-made characters wearing a “pot” skin. The game’s core loop is built around making your own vessel, and the shape and size you craft directly affects what you can do in the fights that follow. In other words, the “create” phase isn’t a throwaway lobby activity; it’s effectively your build-crafting system.
Double Fine also seems aware that not everyone wants to spend their night perfecting a ceramic masterpiece before throwing hands. The pottery step is designed to be accessible and quick to move through for players who just want to get to the brawling.
From a Game Pass perspective, Kiln is exactly the kind of day-one release the service was built to champion: weird, social, instantly playable, and easier to try when it’s included in your subscription.
Pricing, editions, and what Game Pass subscribers actually get
If you’re not on Game Pass, Kiln is priced at $19.99.
There’s also a $29.99 “Fired Up Edition”, which includes two cosmetic DLC packs. Those packs can’t be purchased separately—they’re exclusive to that edition—though Game Pass subscribers can pay to upgrade beyond the standard version (as is typical for many Game Pass launches).
A key detail for anyone wary of modern multiplayer monetization: Kiln has no microtransactions. Even though it’s multiplayer-only and includes unlockable cosmetics, the currency used to unlock them is earned through gameplay only.
That’s a meaningful stance in 2026’s live-service-heavy landscape, and it’s also a smart fit for Game Pass. When a multiplayer game launches into a subscription, it needs to win players fast—and “no microtransactions” is a powerful way to lower the barrier to sticking around.
Where Kiln fits in a packed April (and what’s next)
Microsoft’s April cadence has been relentless. With Kiln arriving April 23, it becomes the 12th new title to join Xbox Game Pass in April 2026, and the 66th catalog addition since the start of the year.
It’s also part of a broader “Wave 2” stretch that still has several unreleased games lined up for the end of the month, including multiple day-one launches:
- Apr 28: Aphelion (Ultimate, PC) — Cloud, Handheld, PC, Series X|S (day-one)
- Apr 29: Trepang2 (Ultimate, PC; Premium) — Cloud, PC, Series X|S
- Apr 30: Sledding Game (Ultimate, PC) — Cloud, PC, Series X|S (day-one)
- Apr 30: Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (Ultimate, PC) — PC (Game Preview; day-one)
- Apr 30: TerraTech Legion (Ultimate, PC) — Cloud, PC, Series X|S (day-one)
May is already starting to take shape too, with Final Fantasy V (May 5) and Forza Horizon 6 (May 19) confirmed for Game Pass tiers including Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
But there’s a catch to all this good news: nine games are scheduled to leave Game Pass on April 30, including NHL 24, Revenge of the Savage Planet, Endless Legend 2, and Citizen Sleeper, among others. That constant churn is the trade-off of the model—Game Pass giveth, and Game Pass absolutely taketh away.
The bigger context: Game Pass is still doing day-one… but Call of Duty is changing the rules
It’s impossible to talk about a day-one first-party Game Pass release this week without addressing the elephant in the room: Microsoft’s newly announced shift for Call of Duty.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma recently announced two major changes:
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is now cheaper.
- New Call of Duty games will no longer be day-one releases on Game Pass.
Instead, Sharma’s statement indicates that new Call of Duty titles will arrive on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season—roughly a year later—while existing Call of Duty games already in the library will remain available.
That’s a seismic change, not just because Call of Duty is huge, but because it was the clearest proof-point of Microsoft’s “blockbusters in a subscription” ambition. Black Ops 6 hit Game Pass day one in 2024; Black Ops 7 followed in 2025. Now that era is over—at least for Call of Duty.
And yet, on the very next day, Microsoft is also putting Double Fine’s brand-new game into Game Pass at launch, like clockwork. The message is complicated but clear: day-one isn’t dead, but it’s being rationed—and the biggest franchises may no longer fit the math.
Rumor mill: more classic Call of Duty games may be coming in 2026
While new Call of Duty releases are being pushed out of the day-one slot, there’s growing smoke around Microsoft backfilling the catalog with older entries.
A report says Activision is planning to bring more classic Call of Duty titles to Xbox Game Pass in 2026, though which games and when hasn’t been specified.
Right now, there are six mainline Call of Duty games on the service:
- Call of Duty: WWII (2017)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) — recently added
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (2025)
Notably absent are games like Black Ops Cold War (2020) and Vanguard (2021). There’s also renewed speculation around Vanguard specifically, after fans noticed it appearing on Xbox PC—fueling the idea that it could be headed to Game Pass soon, though nothing has been confirmed.
The bigger dream, of course, is the true “history lesson” lineup: the original Call of Duty (2003), Call of Duty 2 (2005), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), World at War (2008), and the classic Modern Warfare 2 (2009) / Black Ops (2010) era. Those games remain culturally foundational—and in many cases still priced surprisingly high for their age—so dropping them into Game Pass would be an easy win for subscribers.
But again: the timing, the specific titles, and the tiers they’d land in are all still up in the air.
Analysts are openly questioning whether more day-one releases could be “windowed”
The Call of Duty change also cracked open a bigger conversation: if Microsoft is willing to delay Call of Duty by a year, what else might get “windowed”?
Industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls has argued that the move looks like a course correction after subscription price increases became unsustainable—and that a 12-month window before adding a Call of Duty game to Game Pass would likely generate significantly more revenue than the subscriber spike day-one inclusion might bring. He also noted that this approach supports sales on PlayStation and other platforms.
Crucially, he doesn’t say day-one releases are going away entirely. In fact, he calls day-one first-party releases “a core piece of the offer,” while also warning that this decision “opens the door” to similar windowing for other first-party games.
That uncertainty is amplified by Microsoft’s own messaging. A Microsoft blog post about the Game Pass changes reportedly promised Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers “major day-one releases,” but did not explicitly guarantee that all first-party games will continue to launch day one on those tiers.
And then there are the persistent rumors about new Game Pass tiers and configurations—like a cheaper, first-party-focused tier codenamed “Triton”, potential cloud gaming limits for that tier, and even internal discussions about a “pick your own plan” approach. None of that has been officially confirmed, but it all points to the same reality: Microsoft is experimenting with what Game Pass is supposed to be.
Why Kiln matters right now (even if you don’t care about pottery)
On paper, Kiln is a small game compared to the blockbusters dominating the subscription conversation. In practice, it’s a perfect stress test for where Game Pass still shines.
Game Pass is at its best when it:
- gives you a reason to try something you’d never buy outright,
- makes multiplayer frictionless by putting the game in a big pool of players on day one,
- and spotlights creative studios that don’t fit neatly into the “$70 mega-sequel” machine.
Double Fine has always been a studio that thrives on personality and oddball premises, and Kiln feels like it’s proudly continuing that tradition—except now it’s doing it as a multiplayer-first project with a genuinely novel “build your fighter” twist.
And in a week where Microsoft is essentially admitting that the biggest franchise in gaming might be “too big for a subscription,” Kiln is a reminder that Game Pass doesn’t need every release to be a Call of Duty-sized event. It needs a steady stream of games that are fun because they’re different—and that are easy to jump into with friends.
What Remains Unknown
- Whether Kiln will expand beyond its current multiplayer-only design (no additional modes have been announced).
- Exact details on how Kiln’s pottery-created shapes translate into abilities beyond the general concept (full breakdowns haven’t been confirmed here).
- Which older Call of Duty games are planned for Game Pass in 2026, and when they’ll arrive.
- Whether future Microsoft first-party releases beyond Call of Duty could lose day-one Game Pass launches (no official confirmation yet).
- Whether rumored new Game Pass tiers like “Triton” (and any cloud gaming limits) will actually materialize, and what content they would include.
