Just days after joining Game Pass, the Xbox PC edition of Call of Duty: WW2 is taken offline for "an issue"

If you were looking to play Sledgehammer Games' 2017 title, Call of Duty: WWII, via PC Game Pass or the Microsoft Store this holiday weekend, you're sadly out of luck. The Call of Duty team has confirmed that the PC edition of WWII has been taken offline following "reports of an issue."

"An issue" is a bit of an understatement as to what is currently plaguing the Windows edition of Call of Duty: WWII. The game has become infested with RCE hackers, disruptive players who can utilize the exploit to execute code on another player's PC remotely without permission. This allows the hacker to install malware and malicious code that could result in data breaches and other security vulnerabilities.

Players began reporting the exploit on social media around July 2, shortly after the servers for the game went live, following maintenance on multiple Call of Duty titles. Players affected by the exploit began sharing videos and screenshots of their PCs being taken over by remote hackers.

The hacking of older titles is an open-air secret among the Call of Duty community, with players often avoiding the games on Steam. While Activision has taken a unique approach of keeping mainline Call of Duty titles servers open indefinitely, the teams do little to maintain the safety of those servers once they move on to the next premium release.

However, the move to include these older COD titles on Xbox and PC Game Pass has led to an injection of new and returning players to the franchise. Many of them felt lured in by the perceived safety of older titles being backed by Microsoft (who now owns Call of Duty's publisher, Activision).

The RCE exploits are only a problem for the sector of Game Pass subscribers who are logging into the Windows edition of Call of Duty: WWII. Xbox consoles operate on a modified Windows kernel that is more limited than its Windows 11 cousin, and therefore prevents RCEs from being as effective as a hacking tool.

Taking the Windows PC edition of Call of Duty: WWII offline seems to have done little to soothe the game's community, however, as players voiced frustration with the Call of Duty team's lack of transparency about the RCE.

Got this message while playing COD WWII from r/WWII

The team's post from the official Call of Duty Updates social media accounts only reported that the game was being taken offline to "investigate reports of an issue." There was no acknowledgment of the RCE exploit or the potential harm to players who had already launched the game over the last few days while it was available.

With Xbox expected to add more of Call of Duty's catalog to the Xbox and PC Game Pass libraries over time, there is concern from the community that additional older games' ongoing exploitation will not be patched before those titles join the service. This could potentially expose large swaths of new players to hackers with no warning.

Call of Duty: WWII remains available to install on Xbox PC and the Microsoft Store despite being offline. Sledgehammer Games, the developer of WWII, was among the studios affected by Microsoft's most recent layoff spree, along with other Call of Duty supporting studios, Raven Software and High Moon. Exactly how many team members were laid off from these studios exactly is unknown at this time, and it remains to be seen if the layoffs will affect the process of supporting older Call of Duty titles once they have launched onto Game Pass.

Thankfully, if you absolutely can't wait to play Call of Duty: WWII, you can still do so on Xbox. Or, maybe just enjoy some double XP on Black Ops 6.

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