Call of Duty: World War II Returns to Microsoft Store and Xbox PC App After Mysterious Removal

Call of Duty: World War II (Credit: Activision)

After mysteriously disappearing for over a month, Call of Duty: World War II is finally back on the Microsoft Store and Xbox PC App — but Activision still hasn’t explained what happened.

The World War II–themed shooter, originally released in 2017, was confirmed to be back on August 27 and is once again playable for PC Game Pass subscribers.

The mystery stems from the game’s removal on July 4, along with 9 other COD games, when Activision stated only that it had been pulled due to “an issue.” No further details were provided, leaving fans speculating about what exactly went wrong. According to community reports, many players believe the removal was linked to Remote Code Execution (RCE) attacks that compromised PC users. These attacks, if exploited, can allow hackers to take full control of a player’s system. A similar problem previously affected Dark Souls III in 2022, which forced developers to take the trilogy’s PC servers offline while the vulnerability was fixed.

Interestingly, the removal only affected the PC version of Call of Duty: WWII — the Xbox edition remained available on Game Pass without interruption since its June Wave 2 addition to service.

Developed by Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII marked the franchise’s return to its roots after nearly a decade of futuristic and modern combat settings. The campaign follows Ronald “Red” Daniels and his squad through iconic missions, including a harrowing D-Day landing and tense undercover operations in occupied Paris. The lack of automatic health regeneration in the campaign added a layer of difficulty that many players still remember.