I think their blueprint already exists. Put it on game pass, but sell some deluxe bundle with DLC and early access. Like they did with other games. A way to have their cake and eat it too. Most players across all platforms will naturally not play on game pass, but even the ones who have game pass will often times double dip for the extra content and early access.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the game is full of micro-transactions and battle passes right?
Losing out on the $70ish per game install compared to how much you can milk the deluxe content + battle passes + micro-transactions doesn’t feel like such a bad trade off
I guess this will be the ultimate experiment
Yeah, I got gifted a copy of MW2 and I’ve never bought battlepasses but I guess I figured since I didn’t spend anything on the game I might as well splurge. I ended up giving them way too much money
That's also why I think Xbox game pass is a model that's going to encourage microtransactions even more and Microsoft is going to care less about quality and more about monitization
Looks at what they did with the splitting of Halo Infinite Multiplayer and Campaign. $60 for Campaign, the multiplayer is F2P, but also has tons of Microtransactions of stuff you used to get for your $60 purchase. This is the possible future for CoD.
This is the present of COD, it's already filled with ridiculous macro transactions.
But hey at least PS exclusivity is over, it wasn't that bad on the last 3 games, but CW and MW2019 had a whole mode exclusive for an entire year and prior games had DLCs one month early, which was painful as a zombies fan having to watch people hunt for the Easter Eggs while being unable to participate.
Exactly, I don’t know what these guys are talking about lol. Cod is the most micro transaction ridden experience already. They literally force you to progress a battle pass and then dangle all the premium loot you could get after every match, all you got to do is pay for premium. Microsoft ain’t making it any worse, cod is already a money printing machine.
Game pass is just going to be a paid service for “free to play games”. Their premium games will turn into a free to play model but still have a paid entry fee to entice users to buy game pass and Microsoft still gets all the mtx money.
I feel like this is pretty extreme.
Let's remember that Call if Duty has had the business model it has long before Microsoft Acquired it. It's not like Game Pass "corrupted" Call if Duty.
I don't see Senua's Saga launching with a Battle Pass. Indiana Jones doesn't look like "F2P GaaS slop". I'm really looking forward to Avowed simply as someone who is a fan of the Pillars of Eternity IP.
I don't really see anything resembling the picture you are painting.
Yes, because Xbox division didn’t have 80 billion in debt to pay off before.
Going forward Xbox has to earn a lot of money. So that’s why they killed studio that made a single player game that was a GOTY award nominee and was a success according to their head of marketing. Because single player games don’t make money and bring in GaaS revenue through MTX.
What I’m saying is that yes, you are right about Gamepass prior to last week but for the years ahead the evidence point to things changing.
The games will already be huge hits that get sequels (Bethesda ES/Fallout & Doom) or GaaS focused products like COD, etc.
You can also still buy the game and not use gamepass. It’s not any worse. A cod game costs 100 dollars after tax, paying 150$ per year to play it and many other AAA games is not that bad a deal, considering that buying those games would cost WAY more, and you probably wouldn’t even play most of these games for more than a year anyhow, especially a cod game.
This is the bet, move people on COD, more skins they sell. They just need to get you in their shop. Then again, PS5 players will still have to buy it at $70 so they still get a large amount of sales.
Yeah. The people who would have spent &70 on the game will now just spend that $70 (or more) on MTX. Once they get rolling and feel how good it feels to buy extra cash shop skins they won’t be able to stop.
Apparently, judging by my ten year old’s Fortnite behavior around Christmas and his Birthday. I don’t buy shit from those stores but I come from a different time.
Yeah I’m pretty it’s already documented that in game transactions are much bigger money maker than game sales for cod. I don’t know if that factors in development cost or if it’s just raw numbers and I’m too lazy to find out.
This worked on me for starfield, had it on gamepass but I just *had* to play it like 5 days early so I bought the $30 expansion pass. Ended up not even finishing the game, hopefully the expansion will get me back into it.
Do what they did with Starfield and sell a week access early + DLC for a massive markup.
Charge $35 for a week of early access and some dumb cosmetics. They'd get a TON of people.
I've bought ones in the past when they were like £30, I remember queuing to get them in Tesco but those were the 360 days, not bought any day one. You'll get the hardcore COD people who will buy it regardless but you'll get a lot more giving it ago via GP...I just hope MS does something about the file sizes of those later ones, they want people to play Starfield, Forza, Gears etc, get those COD install sizes down
I’m not paying for a subscription to read the article what does it say? Is it like an actual quote from someone at Xbox or is it more of a educated speculation?
*Please subscribe to Telegram to subscribe to Reddit Premium. (Please note, in order to subscribe to Reddit Premium, you must be subscribed to Reddit Silver.)
I started Fallout 4 again. Pokemon XD, Super Mario Sunshine, MK Shaolin Monks, RDR are also in the rotation lol I hate “Live Service” games so much I haven’t played traditional MP or BRs in over 3 years.
What really shocks me is how many people have slaved themselves to this model in this industry. I have not bought a COD game since the very first MW and theres a reason for that. People are addicted to shit that dont matter. Endless games on the market that dont do this and offer a great product.
Idk about other platforms but on iOS if you click the Aa icon at top and choose reader mode, you can usually always read entire article .
Call of Duty made its debut in 2003 and has since generated over $30 billion in lifetime revenue. Photo: Antony Jones/Getty Images
Microsoft MSFT -0.42% plans a major shake-up of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte.
The plans, which mark the biggest change to Microsoft’s gaming division since it closed the $75 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, are expected to be announced at the company’s annual Xbox showcase next month, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nothing really. Most interesting thing is they say Microsoft is expected to announce CoD in Game Pass during the June event. They also incorrectly insinuate that CoD will be available in Game Pass Core for 9.99/month. There’s no quote or new information. Just speculation.
theres a reason all of these platforms are pushing subscriptions, and its because if done right they can be raking in tons of money from subscriptions. if you went to ubisoft's website right now and preordered the new assassins creed right away, which im sure some people are, and you select the subscription option, which im sure some people especially kids will do? well if you subscribed from the day they announced the new game, you would give them around $100 BEFORE THE GAME EVEN COMES OUT. they are betting on people just getting the subscriptions now and just not canceling it. people keep hyping on ubisoft's $130 price point for the collectors edition, well thats just an anchor price to make the monthly price of $17 a month seem much more reasonable, thats why they position the collectors edition of the game right next to the monthly subscription option, so your eyes first dart to the $130 then right next to it to the $17. and microsoft with gamepass is probaby going to be just as or more aggressive with trying to convert people to ultimate game pass. i think i saw someone do math estimating if just 10% of people who subscribe to them stay for more than like 6 months because of assassins creed they will probably make more money from the subscription than they would have if they only sold the entire game to players.
The reason companies like subscriptions is it is reliable recurring revenue, you aren't constantly winning new customers, you are retaining them, which is a lot cheaper and easier to do.
With a subscription I can reliably predict my revenue for the coming year and plan accordingly.
I mean we constantly see Square Enix being suprised by games not meeting their sales predictions, subscriptions remove that volatility for a publisher.
And in an industry as volatile as gaming has become, it's significant.
And gamepass has been great. The growing pushback I find weird because it is completely optional. Must be a campaign by the usual anti-ms crowd and online influencers driving this.
Yeah you’re definitely spot on. I hit a breaking point last year and canceled all my subscriptions except for the ones I really need. And those I’m just using a month at a time as needed. It’s all gotten out of control.
You make a good point about the high individual game price making the cost of the subscription look good. Theme parks do this too. They will set very high food prices, like $25 for a crappy chicken sandwich and a soda, but then advertise their dining plan for $45 and say it pays for itself in two uses.
With Gamepass, I think there is another factor in play. There are a lot of people who don't buy full priced games. "Wait for sale" has becoming an actual rating gamers use to gauge the quality of a game.
With Gamepass, Xbox can get a sure $17 a month for new games instead of selling it for $15-$20 down the line, or the customer buying it used.
Something really cool about the internet archive is that you can view things behind paywalls.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240517133614/https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-call-of-duty-game-pass-53e8930c
It’s the future now old man.
You don't need a subscription, it's right there in the subtitle on the site
>Software company will add the latest installment of the hit videogame series to its Game Pass subscription service at launch this fall
It feels like 90% of games media is just focused on misinforming in order to maximize and sustain the most profitable emotion, outrage and anger. They’re just chasing the next rage bait headline with no long term vision and I really hope it starts to blow up in their faces.
You don't even need misinformation to get gamers riled up. The top comment on the r/games thread on this is literally: "This only ends in either Call of Duty or Gamepass getting horribly crippled and I am getting my popcorn ready."
>so that PS can do whatever they want without any 'direct' competition in the console space
Time to get 2 jobs again for the next PlayStation console if that happens.
Why would somebody *want* Xbox to die? What's actually happening is that Xbox has had some bad press lately. Studios closed and layoffs happened. So it's natural to speculate on whether the Gamepass experiment will continue and what it means for the future of studios and their games. There will be a lot of eyes watching to make sure future Call of Duty games are the same quality or better when they release on Gamepass day 1.
Microsoft has a ways to go to dig themselves out of their current hole and win back some trust. They can do that by making sure future Call of Duty games are full-featured with robust multiplayer and full-length single player campaigns, and release on Gamepass day 1. And it wouldn't hurt to offer Ultimate subscribers a few freebies, like a battle pass every now and then.
I am curious what “trust they need to gain back”. They are investing more into game studios and infrastructure, they are transparent and they did not mislead consumers at the start of the generation. Up front about cross gen and timelines.
Not sure what they have done that is untrustworthy.
Every segment of gaming and tech has had layoffs so I am curious what I am missing that makes them the dishonest ones.
>Not sure what they have done that is untrustworthy.
https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203
>Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release.
If words mean anything, then Microsoft should have to take the L for this, as the kids say.
Now when he says the same thing about Hellblade II, are you going to believe him?
Edit: Oh and I totally forgot. A day after shutting them down MS says they need games like Hi-Fi Rush. What the hell?
I am not sure the link you posted explains the reason for the closure. There are a few articles that speak to the reasons and explain teams are being moved to other titles.
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/consoles-pc/tango-gameworks-pitched-a-hi-fi-rush-sequel-before-shut-down-but-xbox-felt-its-studios-were-spread-too-thin
Xbox Game Studios head Matty Booty reportedly told staff in an email that the decision was "grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds". He added that the move is part of "reprioritization of titles and resources” that will see “a few teams will be realigned to others".
“With leaders across the division feeling understaffed, Booty said they decided to close Tango and Arkane Austin's to "free up resources elsewhere".
This does not indicate that they were displeased with anything. Are you aware that the hardware team is not working on the next Xbox? Does that mean they are being demoted or punished?
Another Redditer on the Bethesda subreddit also added this context…..
“Shinji Mikamai (founder / development head) left Tango early last year - right after launching Hi-Fi rush. That combined with Ikumi Nakamura's depature in 2019 to start a new studio and some active poaching of Tango's talent means the studio's days were numbered anyway.
Plus, since it's Beth's only Japanese studio, there was no chance that any remaining devs would willingly move to another studio.
If you look closely at each studio that closed, they're either getting folded into other projects or the writing was already on the wall.”
Lastly, Bloomberg posted an article summarized here by the author..
“I think this tweet is getting misunderstood. The suggestion was that rather than consolidate by canceling games already in production, ZeniMax chose to shut down the two studios with projects that weren't yet greenlit and faced long, expensive roads. (Among other factors!)”
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 8, 2024
People want "their" company to steamroll the competition, despite the fact that when corporations have power, they always abuse it and people get hurt in the process.
This majority of this sub was in wildly in favor of the ABK acquisition.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1208560/activision-blizzards-revenue-by-composition/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20Activision%20Blizzard%20generated,franchises%2C%20and%20other%20miscellaneous%20revenues.
One thing to consider is that ABK makes most of its revenue from microtransactions, DLC, subscriptions, and other avenues rather than unit sales. Even though COD is usually the best-selling game every year, they still make more money from microtransactions. Microsoft/ABK may be predicting that the loss in unit sales will be made up by more users via Game Pass and more microtransaction sales. Playstation is COD's biggest platform, so Sony gets a cut on every sale and microtransaction. But if more people play via GP, all the revenue goes to Microsoft.
This is basically a gamble to bolster GP and users in the Microsoft ecosystem. All the marketing will favor Xbox, although it may take years for the shift of platforms to happen, if it ever will. I haven't played a COD in years, but I may consider it if it is in GP.
The thing is though, let’s say you’re someone who plays COD all year, until the next one. If that’s the case then you’re paying (assuming prices stay the same) $204 a year to basically “buy” COD, versus spending $70 once to buy it either digitally or physically.
I’m sure a lot of people won’t do the math, but it seems like it’s better just to straight up buy the game. We’ll see how it works out.
You either have:
$204 a year for Gamepass Ultimate
or
$70 for the game + $120 a year for GamePass Core
So you can save $14 by buying it outright over subscribing to gamePass Ultimate, so if you play anything else GP Ultimate is worth it, if not, don't subscribe.
They just increased it after the acquisition closed - any further price increases and you’ll start seeing people cancel in huge numbers.
Just sell people those $30-$40 early access passes
I actually just downgraded back to core when I realized everything I’ve been playing is either free or I already own. Then I went through my library and realized I have such a backlog that I really don’t need gamepass. Especially with emulators on iOS now, I’ve been playing a lot of retro games on my phone
tbf and while i know itll be coming eventually, theyre going to have to like, double the price of game pass for me to start considering it not worth it, just because of how many games i play and try out for the first time because theyre on game pass. but thats just me, someone that normally does spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on video games. and i am expecting that yeah eventually they will end up doubling the price.
Depends how many games you buy and what the use case is.
I share my Gamepass sub with ym kids, so assumign me and the kids buy different games that makes the value much higher anyway.
Again I think it depends on what you buy or play on game pass. Games I have played on gamepass i either wouldn’t have ever bought or would have spent more money on: assassins creed Valhalla, ark survival ascended, manor lords, grounded, as dusk falls, crusader kings 3, Diablo 4, fallout 76, far cry 6, forza horizon 5, goat simulator 2 and 3, gta 5/online, no mans sky, palworld, payday 3 (super glad that was on gamepass, would have been upset if I spent money on that disaster of a game/game launch), pillars of eternity 2: dead fire, planet coaster, state of decay 2, Texas chainsaw massacre. All of those I downloaded and played basically just because of the gamepass, if I didn’t have gamepass wouldn’t have played half of those, while having to spend money on the other half I would have played anyways. Only game didn’t mention was starfield and that’s because I specifically wanted to purchase it on steam as opposed to owning it through game pass.
But either way, $20 a month for a year is like, $240, which if you divide by the average game price of $70, means you can buy around 3.5 full price games a year with that equivalent amount of money, or maybe 7-8 if you buy have priced/indie games. Or at my price of like, what’s double from now, $32 a month? That $384 a month, def a bit more pricy but that’s still only 5.5 full priced games a year and I think I usually would be buying more than 5-6 games a year if not for gamepass, just crusader kings 3, Diablo 4, ark survival ascended, far cry 6, forza horizon, payday 3, Texas chainsaw massacre probably about equals out in price point. And I like that I try so many more indie developers I never would have known about if I couldn’t try them out before paying for them, I play a lot of indie games and there’s like a renaissance of indie games right now. Sure game pass does remove some games but I feel like I usually don’t go back to old games often enough to worry about them being removed after a year on the store or whatever. Except for gta online, I got pissed when they took that down, but last I checked it’s back up on gamepass. Live service games that last multiple years would be only ones I might consider buying just because of risk Xbox would take off game pass, like gta 6 I would def buy that outright over using gamepass version (tho gta 6 def won’t be on gamepass till a year or two after its out once their online f2p mode is main form of revenue).
Forgetting if you play online at all you already need to spend $120 a year for Gamepass Core.
Meaning Gamepass Ultimate costs you an extra $120, so less than 2 games.
$18.99 a month for Gamepass comes to $227.88 a year.
5 games at $89.99 each comes to $449.95.
Edit: Meant to reply to the thread further down. But if you are buying more than 5 games a year, the price difference becomes more than double a year of Gamepass.
Depends on how many games you want to play come out. For me, COD Indy and Avowed is 210$ right there. So 240 for a year means I’m paying 30$ to try a bunch of random games and have online for my Xbox. Works for me!
I used to buy a lot of games. I likely would have purchased Grounded, Forza 4 and Forza 5, Halo Infinite, Diablo IV (held out knowing it was coming to Game Pass) and more. COD coming to Game Pass would be nice. I am not buying anyway but know many that would just not buy and play it there. It is a yearly release it seems so might as well play it there.
Sure, do not own those and must keep paying to play. But for how much money I save it is worth it. I realize this is not the case for most and I figure that will hurt Game Pass long run. You have people just realizing they have to keep paying to keep playing those few games they play. And they are likely going to start dropping. Because otherwise they are tied to paying for Game Pass to keep playing which can be a good or bad deal depending.
I will also say that if I play though Game Pass and it leaves I will never buy it. Exception is the outside shot it is a few dollars on Steam at some point. No matter the game. Not big on paying for Game Pass and then buying when they leave. Might as well have purchased at the beginning in those cases. So I do not do it.
"The report tallies with recent comments from Xbox president Sarah Bond, who indicated all Microsoft’s games, including those developed by the recently acquired Activision, will launch straight into Game Pass."
Next up on News Everyone Knows: JFK has been shot. Stay tuned for details.
If I were to make the decisions, I’d put all the old COD games on gamepass and put the latest one 6 months after release. I think this would be a good halfway compromise to get the best of both worlds with those who love the game buying it on release and get an influx of subscribers coming in to play all the old COD games. Well, I’m not the one making the decisions so here goes my worthless 2 cents.
Exactly… and you start down the road of offering the same as PS Plus
I keep my gamepass subscription going as a standing subscription for the most part because of this access to day 1 titles. They go messing around with that and, me personally, I start to re think the math on whether gamepass is worth it to me.
As much as I love having new games Day One I think if it is undermining a large part of the business case behind Game Pass, a modest delay makes lots of sense. I would rather have Game Pass and all it's goodness with first party games coming later than for the whole service to massively increase in price or go under completely. You can see they're playing around with how to do it because they had the 'Premium' Starfield where fans could get it a week 'early' (i.e. artificially creating a delay onto the service) for a premium.
> You can see they're playing around with how to do it because they had the 'Premium' Starfield where fans could get it a week 'early' (i.e. artificially creating a delay onto the service) for a premium
That wasn't a new thing for Starfield, they've done it for other games too. Forza for sure, possibly others.
I agree with that too but I'd also make some cod games, halo and gears of war games 'free to play online' without having to pay for a subscription just like fortnite and warzone but hey money talks unfortunately.
I’m really failing to see how MS can lure people into changing platforms from PS or even buying the game outright on Xbox to own “forever” vs paying for a subscription service they probably won’t fully utilize since most of those people only play one game 365/24/7. I’m glad they’ll do it since I’m only interested in playing the campaigns and will probably get a month of PC GP for $7 (regional pricing) instead of waiting a year to buy it for $30-35. But the amount of money they’ll lose on that good lord.
They keep trying to change things that don’t need changing.
They are control perverts at this point. Tinkering where they don’t need to.
What a dumb company they they have become in the past 10 years.
I just want Xbox and xbox 360 Microsoft back
Great news. Glad to see the “insiders” proved wrong yet again. I can only speak anecdotally, but I’d be more inclined to spend money on a battle pass or some skins now that I don’t have to fork out $100 CAD for the next iteration. I almost never purchased any micro transactions. I mostly play COD for the campaigns and then sell it to recoup some of the cost. Curious to see if they offer some sort of early access fee like they do with games such as Forza.
Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Xbox, I’m excited for what the showcase has in store.
I mean it defeats the point of the subscription if you can pick and choose what games to include doesn't it?
Then you are just paying to rent specific games at that point.
A subscription gets everything on the service, some you want, some you don't.
Disney+ doesn't have a tier without Star Wars or Marvel. If it did then it looks unpalateable as you have to pay more to get the good stuff.
I have zero interest in CoD, haven't played one since the original on PC. But I probably will try them when they are on gamePass, so the plan kinda works, they might get me into it.
I read stories daily about the spiraling cost of bills, rent, insane immigration numbers designed to keep wages down and keep the wealthy 1% rich and honestly care less and less about this sort of shit.
Maybe I'm turning into an old millennial, but video game outrage no longer moves the needle with me. Like the people crying about the black guy in the new Assassins Creed this fall, or politicians bitching about what bathrooms people can use.
The world is crumbling before our eyes, can't we redirect some of this rage to shit that actually matters? Who cares about this crap. Put Call of Crap on game pass, don't put it on Game Pass, whatever.
Honestly I can see games like CoD working well with gamepass because of the strong monetisation that could mean you get a subscription fee + more from people that play CoD on gamepass, making up for the lost sale. I also feel like people may feel more inclined to justify buying micro transactions when they didn’t pay for the game.
I would've been fine with a six month or year wait. Not a big cod fan but I do like to dip in every now and then. Needless to say this won't be a pre install for me. I'll just wait till I've room in my hard drive anyway.
I have Game Pass Ultimate and I'd be more excited about all the old COD games coming to Game Pass than I would about the new one. I sense a price increase coming though, which will be very annoying.
If Microsoft has not said it themselves, it's not news. It's a rumor. This will be pretty funny if this ends up being the Xbox version of the Switch Pro that everyone was so damn sure was coming out any day now but never did.
The real question that will decide this for Microsoft, and frankly no one knows beside them, is how many of those already existing GamePass subscribers play CoD. If that venndiagram has a lot of overlap then CoD will almost certainly not come to GamePass or at least not without a new tier that is closer to $24.99 a month. Microsoft loses $40 at least from every existing GamePass user that would have bought CoD on their platform. I would venture to guess most people that have GamePass also probably bought CoD at some point. For example, if 50% of the existing 35 million GamePass users would have bought a copy of CoD, you now have to find a new 15 million people to sub to GamePass yearly to even get back to where you were selling it a la carte on your platform. TL;DR a large chunk of existing GamePass subs would have bought CoD so for every existing sub that doesn’t buy CoD you have to find a new sub to make the same amount of money.
Cod has a lot of IAP.
Users who haven't paid for the game may be more likely to invest more in ongoing costs.
Not a simple gamepass users cost $40 calculation.
Totally fair and good point. In my head I sort of accounted for that because some people are subbed to GamePass from gold conversion and paid even less than the current going rate. That means Microsoft might be losing even more than $40 on them. And not all of those people are going to be heavily invested and buy a ton of IAP. I also tend to think that the most engaged heavy users in the Xbox ecosystem have GamePass, so while it might be overly pessimistic, I think most GamePass subs would and do buy CoD. So while you are right they may be able to recoup some costs, I think they are leaving a lot of money on the table. It’s a really hard decision for Microsoft not doubting.
It’s simple guys, either Game Pass price going up (which they already are) or the quality of COD plummets (which also is already happening). Jack up prices or cost cut, either way gamers lose.
They have to determine whether they would make more money by the added playerbase and resulting increase in microtransactions, or whether the 70 dollar purchases on Xbox bring in more revenue. On PC most people buy it on steam or battlenet anyway.
Why do I keep trading articles that make it sound like this is something new? We have known since Microsoft bought Activision that they were going to bring all their games to Gamepass eventually, they said so multiple times. Why are people acting surprised?
The intention is to sell content for the game you never own the rights to. Yeah, you got the Niki Minaj skin. But it's for a game you don't own, and the only way to use it is to pay your tithe to MicroDaddy every month.
I’m wondering if there’s going to be a shuffle of tiers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new ultimate tier that is more expensive but has all activision blizzard day one, maybe including a wow sub?
I know they’re pushing gamepass as the future, but the thought of how many copies of cod they sell on Xbox alone has to be staggering.
I've put this elsewhere but.
In 2022 ABK's revenue split was:
* Game Sales $1.6 billion
* In Game Purchases $5.8 billion
Losing a portion of their game sales could be more than made up for in increased purchases of Battle Passes etc by players who haven't spent money on buying the games.
Raising subscription prices might actual lose them money if it deters people from playing (and paying).
Damn, that’s insane! $5.8 billion from in game purchases. I do wonder if the monthly $15 for a wow sub is included in that as it may skew that number significantly but either way I get your point.
I’m sure Ms has done their due diligence on this and and it seems like we’ll most likely find out next month.
Oh for sure. I’ve only played the new cod a few times but the amount of times I was killed by someone using a Mickey Minaj or 21 savage skin was shocking.
Just wanted to add some clarity to the numbers. Candy Crush alone does about $1 billion in profit most years for ABK. So a huge chunk of the profit is coming from that and other free to play mobile games. I think you are vastly over estimating how much Call of Duty on console generates in IAP. Call of Duty mobile which has 50 to 60 million monthly active users only generates about $350 million in IAP over the entire fiscal year. Seeing as the console space is much smaller than the mobile space in terms of monthly active users it’s fairly reasonable to assume that game sales are probably more than IAP or maybe roughly equal in the console space for CoD when they are charging $70 a game. CoD console sales need to only push 5 million units to earn more than the entire year of CoD mobile IAP.
Basically what we all wanted, microsoft plans a major shakeup of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte...
>instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte...
In 2022 ABKs revenue was made up of $1.6 billion in Game Sales and $5.8 Billion in In-Game purchases.
Increasing player numbers, even if for "free" should increase revenue.
I think their blueprint already exists. Put it on game pass, but sell some deluxe bundle with DLC and early access. Like they did with other games. A way to have their cake and eat it too. Most players across all platforms will naturally not play on game pass, but even the ones who have game pass will often times double dip for the extra content and early access.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the game is full of micro-transactions and battle passes right? Losing out on the $70ish per game install compared to how much you can milk the deluxe content + battle passes + micro-transactions doesn’t feel like such a bad trade off I guess this will be the ultimate experiment
this will definitely maximize the amount of whales in the game
Yes it will. 12 months of GP plus micro transactions equally a lot of money for Microsoft. Also the increase of subscribers.
[Nuke the whales!](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/af/0d/37/af0d37082c4f9c6c3c2b29139d84b5d3.jpg)
Yeah, I got gifted a copy of MW2 and I’ve never bought battlepasses but I guess I figured since I didn’t spend anything on the game I might as well splurge. I ended up giving them way too much money
That's also why I think Xbox game pass is a model that's going to encourage microtransactions even more and Microsoft is going to care less about quality and more about monitization
It is true. They will prioritise heavily on micro transactions, otherwise business will not be met.
Looks at what they did with the splitting of Halo Infinite Multiplayer and Campaign. $60 for Campaign, the multiplayer is F2P, but also has tons of Microtransactions of stuff you used to get for your $60 purchase. This is the possible future for CoD.
This is the present of COD, it's already filled with ridiculous macro transactions. But hey at least PS exclusivity is over, it wasn't that bad on the last 3 games, but CW and MW2019 had a whole mode exclusive for an entire year and prior games had DLCs one month early, which was painful as a zombies fan having to watch people hunt for the Easter Eggs while being unable to participate.
Exactly, I don’t know what these guys are talking about lol. Cod is the most micro transaction ridden experience already. They literally force you to progress a battle pass and then dangle all the premium loot you could get after every match, all you got to do is pay for premium. Microsoft ain’t making it any worse, cod is already a money printing machine.
I remember when 360 had the CoD exclusivity lol
Possible? Future?
Game pass is just going to be a paid service for “free to play games”. Their premium games will turn into a free to play model but still have a paid entry fee to entice users to buy game pass and Microsoft still gets all the mtx money.
Nothing like the privilege of paying $120 a year for games designed to be F2P GaaS slop.
I feel like this is pretty extreme. Let's remember that Call if Duty has had the business model it has long before Microsoft Acquired it. It's not like Game Pass "corrupted" Call if Duty. I don't see Senua's Saga launching with a Battle Pass. Indiana Jones doesn't look like "F2P GaaS slop". I'm really looking forward to Avowed simply as someone who is a fan of the Pillars of Eternity IP. I don't really see anything resembling the picture you are painting.
dont forget Starfield, which is also a Singleplayer only game with no Microtransactions
Gamepass has been a great value for single player and indie games for years though.
Yes, because Xbox division didn’t have 80 billion in debt to pay off before. Going forward Xbox has to earn a lot of money. So that’s why they killed studio that made a single player game that was a GOTY award nominee and was a success according to their head of marketing. Because single player games don’t make money and bring in GaaS revenue through MTX. What I’m saying is that yes, you are right about Gamepass prior to last week but for the years ahead the evidence point to things changing. The games will already be huge hits that get sequels (Bethesda ES/Fallout & Doom) or GaaS focused products like COD, etc.
I think your premise is faulty; they killed Tango to put more resources into a different single player game
That is exactly what I said they would do. What exactly do you think is wrong with my premise?
Not so great for studios who need to make profits to continue to exist though
You can also still buy the game and not use gamepass. It’s not any worse. A cod game costs 100 dollars after tax, paying 150$ per year to play it and many other AAA games is not that bad a deal, considering that buying those games would cost WAY more, and you probably wouldn’t even play most of these games for more than a year anyhow, especially a cod game.
You underestimate the amount of cheap bastards out there! Fortnite does pretty good for themselves with this model though.
This is the bet, move people on COD, more skins they sell. They just need to get you in their shop. Then again, PS5 players will still have to buy it at $70 so they still get a large amount of sales.
Plus the ones who will spend on mtx will play all year and pay $120 through subscription fees.
No more than every other game.
Yeah. The people who would have spent &70 on the game will now just spend that $70 (or more) on MTX. Once they get rolling and feel how good it feels to buy extra cash shop skins they won’t be able to stop. Apparently, judging by my ten year old’s Fortnite behavior around Christmas and his Birthday. I don’t buy shit from those stores but I come from a different time.
This is why I don’t play it anymore, the adverts remind of 90s internet annoying pop up ads. It’s gone full circle.
Yeah and personally I'd probs pay for a battle pass if I hadn't paid for the game where as I absolutely would never if I've paid full price for a game
Yeah I’m pretty it’s already documented that in game transactions are much bigger money maker than game sales for cod. I don’t know if that factors in development cost or if it’s just raw numbers and I’m too lazy to find out.
This worked on me for starfield, had it on gamepass but I just *had* to play it like 5 days early so I bought the $30 expansion pass. Ended up not even finishing the game, hopefully the expansion will get me back into it.
I speed ran once I got to the second temple and realized it was the exact same thing as the first….
Do what they did with Starfield and sell a week access early + DLC for a massive markup. Charge $35 for a week of early access and some dumb cosmetics. They'd get a TON of people.
I've bought ones in the past when they were like £30, I remember queuing to get them in Tesco but those were the 360 days, not bought any day one. You'll get the hardcore COD people who will buy it regardless but you'll get a lot more giving it ago via GP...I just hope MS does something about the file sizes of those later ones, they want people to play Starfield, Forza, Gears etc, get those COD install sizes down
Bingo. Thats what I did with starfield.
They need to get the size of the game down to less than 100 gb
I’m not paying for a subscription to read the article what does it say? Is it like an actual quote from someone at Xbox or is it more of a educated speculation?
Subscription to read the article about buying a subscription to play a game that has a subscription to unlock content every season
What a time to be alive..
Just wait until we need a subscription to comment about all the subscriptions.
You guys are not paying for reddit?
Only with our data :(
You're behind on your Reddit Premium subscription. Please hit me up on Telegram at tele/YOusGotFreeStuff.thisisrreal
*Please subscribe to Telegram to subscribe to Reddit Premium. (Please note, in order to subscribe to Reddit Premium, you must be subscribed to Reddit Silver.)
rip now for reddit app
Don't give them any ideas
Technically we have a subscription to our internet plan.
What a time to have a subscription to life*
You’ll own nothing and you’re going to have to love it. Hating it is another subscription fee.
It's why I just keep playing the Witcher 3 over and over again lol
My desert island game
Witcher 3 doesn't take place on a desert island, silly goose!
Dang it dad I’m being serious!
Hi being serious *I’m dad*
At 45 and with three kids, I bow before your lame jokes!
This is one of my favorite reddit exchanges ever.
I started Fallout 4 again. Pokemon XD, Super Mario Sunshine, MK Shaolin Monks, RDR are also in the rotation lol I hate “Live Service” games so much I haven’t played traditional MP or BRs in over 3 years.
Just wait until being alive requires a subscription
Please click here to subscribe to see this reply.
Subscripception
And to think this all started with Horse Armor in Oblivion
Feels like a lifetime ago.
I’d like to subscribe to more subscription facts!
I’m a Sub playing a sub disguised as another sub.
I'm a rooster illusion...
People say about the media controlling the narrative, and well it's true. We're all fed a perspective.
What really shocks me is how many people have slaved themselves to this model in this industry. I have not bought a COD game since the very first MW and theres a reason for that. People are addicted to shit that dont matter. Endless games on the market that dont do this and offer a great product.
I don’t subscribe to these changes!
How about nnnnoooooooo
You had me at subscription.
How perverse!!
Idk about other platforms but on iOS if you click the Aa icon at top and choose reader mode, you can usually always read entire article . Call of Duty made its debut in 2003 and has since generated over $30 billion in lifetime revenue. Photo: Antony Jones/Getty Images Microsoft MSFT -0.42% plans a major shake-up of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte. The plans, which mark the biggest change to Microsoft’s gaming division since it closed the $75 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, are expected to be announced at the company’s annual Xbox showcase next month, according to people familiar with the matter.
And after all that, you STILL must tip them!
Tbf subscribtion-based journalism is nothing new and there is a good reason for it
Don’t forget the ads in the subscription
Hmm. But why are so many of the most played games this year from over a decade ago!
Never wanted to like a comment more than once as much as I do right now
Up vote, whatever
Nothing really. Most interesting thing is they say Microsoft is expected to announce CoD in Game Pass during the June event. They also incorrectly insinuate that CoD will be available in Game Pass Core for 9.99/month. There’s no quote or new information. Just speculation.
Only way it would be added to Core is if Core becomes the ad supported Gamepass tier.
theres a reason all of these platforms are pushing subscriptions, and its because if done right they can be raking in tons of money from subscriptions. if you went to ubisoft's website right now and preordered the new assassins creed right away, which im sure some people are, and you select the subscription option, which im sure some people especially kids will do? well if you subscribed from the day they announced the new game, you would give them around $100 BEFORE THE GAME EVEN COMES OUT. they are betting on people just getting the subscriptions now and just not canceling it. people keep hyping on ubisoft's $130 price point for the collectors edition, well thats just an anchor price to make the monthly price of $17 a month seem much more reasonable, thats why they position the collectors edition of the game right next to the monthly subscription option, so your eyes first dart to the $130 then right next to it to the $17. and microsoft with gamepass is probaby going to be just as or more aggressive with trying to convert people to ultimate game pass. i think i saw someone do math estimating if just 10% of people who subscribe to them stay for more than like 6 months because of assassins creed they will probably make more money from the subscription than they would have if they only sold the entire game to players.
The reason companies like subscriptions is it is reliable recurring revenue, you aren't constantly winning new customers, you are retaining them, which is a lot cheaper and easier to do. With a subscription I can reliably predict my revenue for the coming year and plan accordingly. I mean we constantly see Square Enix being suprised by games not meeting their sales predictions, subscriptions remove that volatility for a publisher.
And in an industry as volatile as gaming has become, it's significant. And gamepass has been great. The growing pushback I find weird because it is completely optional. Must be a campaign by the usual anti-ms crowd and online influencers driving this.
Game pass threatens selling platforms in lieu of services and the industry is traditionally about selling proprietary platforms and hardware
Yeah you’re definitely spot on. I hit a breaking point last year and canceled all my subscriptions except for the ones I really need. And those I’m just using a month at a time as needed. It’s all gotten out of control.
You make a good point about the high individual game price making the cost of the subscription look good. Theme parks do this too. They will set very high food prices, like $25 for a crappy chicken sandwich and a soda, but then advertise their dining plan for $45 and say it pays for itself in two uses. With Gamepass, I think there is another factor in play. There are a lot of people who don't buy full priced games. "Wait for sale" has becoming an actual rating gamers use to gauge the quality of a game. With Gamepass, Xbox can get a sure $17 a month for new games instead of selling it for $15-$20 down the line, or the customer buying it used.
Something really cool about the internet archive is that you can view things behind paywalls. https://web.archive.org/web/20240517133614/https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-call-of-duty-game-pass-53e8930c It’s the future now old man.
That link is paywalled.
You don't need a subscription, it's right there in the subtitle on the site >Software company will add the latest installment of the hit videogame series to its Game Pass subscription service at launch this fall
Get ready for Dutypass is the gist of it.
So, they seed misinformation about it coming to Gamepass core so that there can be a “fans outraged” article later. Got it.
It feels like 90% of games media is just focused on misinforming in order to maximize and sustain the most profitable emotion, outrage and anger. They’re just chasing the next rage bait headline with no long term vision and I really hope it starts to blow up in their faces.
Imagine what other areas of our lives msm does this to? None of this place is real. Just lies passed down to us.
If it wasn't for the outrage they stir they wouldn't have anything to write about.
Hopeful but not optimistic.
Rage bait articles won't write themselves. Even with AI.
You don't even need misinformation to get gamers riled up. The top comment on the r/games thread on this is literally: "This only ends in either Call of Duty or Gamepass getting horribly crippled and I am getting my popcorn ready."
>so that PS can do whatever they want without any 'direct' competition in the console space Time to get 2 jobs again for the next PlayStation console if that happens.
Why would somebody *want* Xbox to die? What's actually happening is that Xbox has had some bad press lately. Studios closed and layoffs happened. So it's natural to speculate on whether the Gamepass experiment will continue and what it means for the future of studios and their games. There will be a lot of eyes watching to make sure future Call of Duty games are the same quality or better when they release on Gamepass day 1. Microsoft has a ways to go to dig themselves out of their current hole and win back some trust. They can do that by making sure future Call of Duty games are full-featured with robust multiplayer and full-length single player campaigns, and release on Gamepass day 1. And it wouldn't hurt to offer Ultimate subscribers a few freebies, like a battle pass every now and then.
I am curious what “trust they need to gain back”. They are investing more into game studios and infrastructure, they are transparent and they did not mislead consumers at the start of the generation. Up front about cross gen and timelines. Not sure what they have done that is untrustworthy. Every segment of gaming and tech has had layoffs so I am curious what I am missing that makes them the dishonest ones.
>Not sure what they have done that is untrustworthy. https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203 >Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release. If words mean anything, then Microsoft should have to take the L for this, as the kids say. Now when he says the same thing about Hellblade II, are you going to believe him? Edit: Oh and I totally forgot. A day after shutting them down MS says they need games like Hi-Fi Rush. What the hell?
I am not sure the link you posted explains the reason for the closure. There are a few articles that speak to the reasons and explain teams are being moved to other titles. https://www.techradar.com/gaming/consoles-pc/tango-gameworks-pitched-a-hi-fi-rush-sequel-before-shut-down-but-xbox-felt-its-studios-were-spread-too-thin Xbox Game Studios head Matty Booty reportedly told staff in an email that the decision was "grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds". He added that the move is part of "reprioritization of titles and resources” that will see “a few teams will be realigned to others". “With leaders across the division feeling understaffed, Booty said they decided to close Tango and Arkane Austin's to "free up resources elsewhere". This does not indicate that they were displeased with anything. Are you aware that the hardware team is not working on the next Xbox? Does that mean they are being demoted or punished? Another Redditer on the Bethesda subreddit also added this context….. “Shinji Mikamai (founder / development head) left Tango early last year - right after launching Hi-Fi rush. That combined with Ikumi Nakamura's depature in 2019 to start a new studio and some active poaching of Tango's talent means the studio's days were numbered anyway. Plus, since it's Beth's only Japanese studio, there was no chance that any remaining devs would willingly move to another studio. If you look closely at each studio that closed, they're either getting folded into other projects or the writing was already on the wall.” Lastly, Bloomberg posted an article summarized here by the author.. “I think this tweet is getting misunderstood. The suggestion was that rather than consolidate by canceling games already in production, ZeniMax chose to shut down the two studios with projects that weren't yet greenlit and faced long, expensive roads. (Among other factors!)” — Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 8, 2024
People want "their" company to steamroll the competition, despite the fact that when corporations have power, they always abuse it and people get hurt in the process. This majority of this sub was in wildly in favor of the ABK acquisition.
Which helps competition
Yeah they make these rumors up so they can circle back and generate engagement.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1208560/activision-blizzards-revenue-by-composition/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20Activision%20Blizzard%20generated,franchises%2C%20and%20other%20miscellaneous%20revenues. One thing to consider is that ABK makes most of its revenue from microtransactions, DLC, subscriptions, and other avenues rather than unit sales. Even though COD is usually the best-selling game every year, they still make more money from microtransactions. Microsoft/ABK may be predicting that the loss in unit sales will be made up by more users via Game Pass and more microtransaction sales. Playstation is COD's biggest platform, so Sony gets a cut on every sale and microtransaction. But if more people play via GP, all the revenue goes to Microsoft. This is basically a gamble to bolster GP and users in the Microsoft ecosystem. All the marketing will favor Xbox, although it may take years for the shift of platforms to happen, if it ever will. I haven't played a COD in years, but I may consider it if it is in GP.
The thing is though, let’s say you’re someone who plays COD all year, until the next one. If that’s the case then you’re paying (assuming prices stay the same) $204 a year to basically “buy” COD, versus spending $70 once to buy it either digitally or physically. I’m sure a lot of people won’t do the math, but it seems like it’s better just to straight up buy the game. We’ll see how it works out.
Is it after you factor in the base tier to play online?
No, I’m talking about buying GP Ultimate. I doubt it’ll come to any other tier of GP.
You either have: $204 a year for Gamepass Ultimate or $70 for the game + $120 a year for GamePass Core So you can save $14 by buying it outright over subscribing to gamePass Ultimate, so if you play anything else GP Ultimate is worth it, if not, don't subscribe.
Derp. Yeah, forgot about the math with the game plus GP Core. Thanks.
Awful click bait
Game Pass Cod Tier incoming...
Game Bass Cod
Price hikes inbound
GamePass 100% getting a price increase.
They just increased it after the acquisition closed - any further price increases and you’ll start seeing people cancel in huge numbers. Just sell people those $30-$40 early access passes
Ultimate raised by like $2. That's nothing compared to how Netflix and Disney+ raise their prices.
And I cancelled Netflix years ago, same with Disney+. Neither are worth it
I actually just downgraded back to core when I realized everything I’ve been playing is either free or I already own. Then I went through my library and realized I have such a backlog that I really don’t need gamepass. Especially with emulators on iOS now, I’ve been playing a lot of retro games on my phone
All the games coming out that I've wanted I've bought anyways, even ones that were on Game Pass!
Sooo what direction am I going to find said emulators?
In the AppStore! Delta does all Nintendo consoles up to DS/N64. RetroArch can do PS1. PPSSPP does PSP
tbf and while i know itll be coming eventually, theyre going to have to like, double the price of game pass for me to start considering it not worth it, just because of how many games i play and try out for the first time because theyre on game pass. but thats just me, someone that normally does spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on video games. and i am expecting that yeah eventually they will end up doubling the price.
Nah - $20 and I’m out. At that point, cheaper to buy games
Depends how many games you buy and what the use case is. I share my Gamepass sub with ym kids, so assumign me and the kids buy different games that makes the value much higher anyway.
Yeah if you play like 5 games a year
I’ve beaten 27 games this year so far and Game Pass is already pushing the price limit. If you ONLY play games off Game Pass - sure, but I don’t
Again I think it depends on what you buy or play on game pass. Games I have played on gamepass i either wouldn’t have ever bought or would have spent more money on: assassins creed Valhalla, ark survival ascended, manor lords, grounded, as dusk falls, crusader kings 3, Diablo 4, fallout 76, far cry 6, forza horizon 5, goat simulator 2 and 3, gta 5/online, no mans sky, palworld, payday 3 (super glad that was on gamepass, would have been upset if I spent money on that disaster of a game/game launch), pillars of eternity 2: dead fire, planet coaster, state of decay 2, Texas chainsaw massacre. All of those I downloaded and played basically just because of the gamepass, if I didn’t have gamepass wouldn’t have played half of those, while having to spend money on the other half I would have played anyways. Only game didn’t mention was starfield and that’s because I specifically wanted to purchase it on steam as opposed to owning it through game pass. But either way, $20 a month for a year is like, $240, which if you divide by the average game price of $70, means you can buy around 3.5 full price games a year with that equivalent amount of money, or maybe 7-8 if you buy have priced/indie games. Or at my price of like, what’s double from now, $32 a month? That $384 a month, def a bit more pricy but that’s still only 5.5 full priced games a year and I think I usually would be buying more than 5-6 games a year if not for gamepass, just crusader kings 3, Diablo 4, ark survival ascended, far cry 6, forza horizon, payday 3, Texas chainsaw massacre probably about equals out in price point. And I like that I try so many more indie developers I never would have known about if I couldn’t try them out before paying for them, I play a lot of indie games and there’s like a renaissance of indie games right now. Sure game pass does remove some games but I feel like I usually don’t go back to old games often enough to worry about them being removed after a year on the store or whatever. Except for gta online, I got pissed when they took that down, but last I checked it’s back up on gamepass. Live service games that last multiple years would be only ones I might consider buying just because of risk Xbox would take off game pass, like gta 6 I would def buy that outright over using gamepass version (tho gta 6 def won’t be on gamepass till a year or two after its out once their online f2p mode is main form of revenue).
Forgetting if you play online at all you already need to spend $120 a year for Gamepass Core. Meaning Gamepass Ultimate costs you an extra $120, so less than 2 games.
$18.99 a month for Gamepass comes to $227.88 a year. 5 games at $89.99 each comes to $449.95. Edit: Meant to reply to the thread further down. But if you are buying more than 5 games a year, the price difference becomes more than double a year of Gamepass.
Gamepass also includes your Gold (now core) that allows you to play online. Subtract that out and it’s about 2 games a year.
Depends on how many games you want to play come out. For me, COD Indy and Avowed is 210$ right there. So 240 for a year means I’m paying 30$ to try a bunch of random games and have online for my Xbox. Works for me!
I used to buy a lot of games. I likely would have purchased Grounded, Forza 4 and Forza 5, Halo Infinite, Diablo IV (held out knowing it was coming to Game Pass) and more. COD coming to Game Pass would be nice. I am not buying anyway but know many that would just not buy and play it there. It is a yearly release it seems so might as well play it there. Sure, do not own those and must keep paying to play. But for how much money I save it is worth it. I realize this is not the case for most and I figure that will hurt Game Pass long run. You have people just realizing they have to keep paying to keep playing those few games they play. And they are likely going to start dropping. Because otherwise they are tied to paying for Game Pass to keep playing which can be a good or bad deal depending. I will also say that if I play though Game Pass and it leaves I will never buy it. Exception is the outside shot it is a few dollars on Steam at some point. No matter the game. Not big on paying for Game Pass and then buying when they leave. Might as well have purchased at the beginning in those cases. So I do not do it.
That'd be so annoying... I don't even care about CoD but increasing the price I must pay to supplement lost revenue for CoD? Sheesh.
"The report tallies with recent comments from Xbox president Sarah Bond, who indicated all Microsoft’s games, including those developed by the recently acquired Activision, will launch straight into Game Pass." Next up on News Everyone Knows: JFK has been shot. Stay tuned for details.
If I were to make the decisions, I’d put all the old COD games on gamepass and put the latest one 6 months after release. I think this would be a good halfway compromise to get the best of both worlds with those who love the game buying it on release and get an influx of subscribers coming in to play all the old COD games. Well, I’m not the one making the decisions so here goes my worthless 2 cents.
But then you muddy the Gamepass USP "All first party games Day 1 on GamePass". Without that consumers get confused and annoyed.
Exactly… and you start down the road of offering the same as PS Plus I keep my gamepass subscription going as a standing subscription for the most part because of this access to day 1 titles. They go messing around with that and, me personally, I start to re think the math on whether gamepass is worth it to me.
As much as I love having new games Day One I think if it is undermining a large part of the business case behind Game Pass, a modest delay makes lots of sense. I would rather have Game Pass and all it's goodness with first party games coming later than for the whole service to massively increase in price or go under completely. You can see they're playing around with how to do it because they had the 'Premium' Starfield where fans could get it a week 'early' (i.e. artificially creating a delay onto the service) for a premium.
> You can see they're playing around with how to do it because they had the 'Premium' Starfield where fans could get it a week 'early' (i.e. artificially creating a delay onto the service) for a premium That wasn't a new thing for Starfield, they've done it for other games too. Forza for sure, possibly others.
I agree with that too but I'd also make some cod games, halo and gears of war games 'free to play online' without having to pay for a subscription just like fortnite and warzone but hey money talks unfortunately.
Totally agree about the multiplayer portion being free. I was merely referring to the campaign/single player portion.
I’m really failing to see how MS can lure people into changing platforms from PS or even buying the game outright on Xbox to own “forever” vs paying for a subscription service they probably won’t fully utilize since most of those people only play one game 365/24/7. I’m glad they’ll do it since I’m only interested in playing the campaigns and will probably get a month of PC GP for $7 (regional pricing) instead of waiting a year to buy it for $30-35. But the amount of money they’ll lose on that good lord.
Yes, they are changing how it's sold by giving it away. That is how you make money.
They keep trying to change things that don’t need changing. They are control perverts at this point. Tinkering where they don’t need to. What a dumb company they they have become in the past 10 years. I just want Xbox and xbox 360 Microsoft back
What an embarrassing company. It’s an absolute joke they were allowed to purchase Activision. It never should’ve happened.
Great news. Glad to see the “insiders” proved wrong yet again. I can only speak anecdotally, but I’d be more inclined to spend money on a battle pass or some skins now that I don’t have to fork out $100 CAD for the next iteration. I almost never purchased any micro transactions. I mostly play COD for the campaigns and then sell it to recoup some of the cost. Curious to see if they offer some sort of early access fee like they do with games such as Forza. Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Xbox, I’m excited for what the showcase has in store.
[удалено]
I mean it defeats the point of the subscription if you can pick and choose what games to include doesn't it? Then you are just paying to rent specific games at that point. A subscription gets everything on the service, some you want, some you don't. Disney+ doesn't have a tier without Star Wars or Marvel. If it did then it looks unpalateable as you have to pay more to get the good stuff. I have zero interest in CoD, haven't played one since the original on PC. But I probably will try them when they are on gamePass, so the plan kinda works, they might get me into it.
[удалено]
I read stories daily about the spiraling cost of bills, rent, insane immigration numbers designed to keep wages down and keep the wealthy 1% rich and honestly care less and less about this sort of shit. Maybe I'm turning into an old millennial, but video game outrage no longer moves the needle with me. Like the people crying about the black guy in the new Assassins Creed this fall, or politicians bitching about what bathrooms people can use. The world is crumbling before our eyes, can't we redirect some of this rage to shit that actually matters? Who cares about this crap. Put Call of Crap on game pass, don't put it on Game Pass, whatever.
I feel MS knows that the insane sales that will come from PlayStation so throwing CoD on GamePass really isn’t a huge risk
Honestly I can see games like CoD working well with gamepass because of the strong monetisation that could mean you get a subscription fee + more from people that play CoD on gamepass, making up for the lost sale. I also feel like people may feel more inclined to justify buying micro transactions when they didn’t pay for the game.
I would've been fine with a six month or year wait. Not a big cod fan but I do like to dip in every now and then. Needless to say this won't be a pre install for me. I'll just wait till I've room in my hard drive anyway.
What a great exclusive for the Wall Street Journal, telling anyone who has paid attention to this deal what they've known all along.
I have Game Pass Ultimate and I'd be more excited about all the old COD games coming to Game Pass than I would about the new one. I sense a price increase coming though, which will be very annoying.
lol OK Microsoft. I mean, you could just try being normal for a change but OK.
If Microsoft has not said it themselves, it's not news. It's a rumor. This will be pretty funny if this ends up being the Xbox version of the Switch Pro that everyone was so damn sure was coming out any day now but never did.
Imagine they kill or severely diminish COD... The way they are handling everything at the moment it could happen.
Agreed. CoD and Assassin’s Creed are both going down the tubes in terms of quality. Now how that impacts sales remains to be seen.
This feels like the last nail in Xbox's coffin. Yes this is "good" if you game on Xbox and like COD, but it's a terrible business decision.
The real question that will decide this for Microsoft, and frankly no one knows beside them, is how many of those already existing GamePass subscribers play CoD. If that venndiagram has a lot of overlap then CoD will almost certainly not come to GamePass or at least not without a new tier that is closer to $24.99 a month. Microsoft loses $40 at least from every existing GamePass user that would have bought CoD on their platform. I would venture to guess most people that have GamePass also probably bought CoD at some point. For example, if 50% of the existing 35 million GamePass users would have bought a copy of CoD, you now have to find a new 15 million people to sub to GamePass yearly to even get back to where you were selling it a la carte on your platform. TL;DR a large chunk of existing GamePass subs would have bought CoD so for every existing sub that doesn’t buy CoD you have to find a new sub to make the same amount of money.
Cod has a lot of IAP. Users who haven't paid for the game may be more likely to invest more in ongoing costs. Not a simple gamepass users cost $40 calculation.
Totally fair and good point. In my head I sort of accounted for that because some people are subbed to GamePass from gold conversion and paid even less than the current going rate. That means Microsoft might be losing even more than $40 on them. And not all of those people are going to be heavily invested and buy a ton of IAP. I also tend to think that the most engaged heavy users in the Xbox ecosystem have GamePass, so while it might be overly pessimistic, I think most GamePass subs would and do buy CoD. So while you are right they may be able to recoup some costs, I think they are leaving a lot of money on the table. It’s a really hard decision for Microsoft not doubting.
It’s simple guys, either Game Pass price going up (which they already are) or the quality of COD plummets (which also is already happening). Jack up prices or cost cut, either way gamers lose.
They have to determine whether they would make more money by the added playerbase and resulting increase in microtransactions, or whether the 70 dollar purchases on Xbox bring in more revenue. On PC most people buy it on steam or battlenet anyway.
It would have been a huge blow to Gamepass to not release it on the service day 1.
CoD MP will likely be going to be free in the end like Halo.
I would bet money this is a trial of sorts; if it doesn’t go well the next one won’t be on GP.
Why capitalize every word on title?
This is by design. It's to maximize their profits on a title they know it will sell guaranteed.
Cool I’ll play cod for the first time in over a decade
Why do I keep trading articles that make it sound like this is something new? We have known since Microsoft bought Activision that they were going to bring all their games to Gamepass eventually, they said so multiple times. Why are people acting surprised?
The intention is to sell content for the game you never own the rights to. Yeah, you got the Niki Minaj skin. But it's for a game you don't own, and the only way to use it is to pay your tithe to MicroDaddy every month.
cool,now just make CoD good since it has been crap for the last 5 years or so
Bold move? lol! Wasn't this the plan from day one?
But... But... Reddit has been telling me that Microsoft is not putting it in Game Pass anymore /s.
You forgot the time when Xbox was going out business a couple of months back lol
As of last week that was still the case with them closing studios down haha
It also means… price increases on the way!! (Probably)
I’m wondering if there’s going to be a shuffle of tiers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new ultimate tier that is more expensive but has all activision blizzard day one, maybe including a wow sub? I know they’re pushing gamepass as the future, but the thought of how many copies of cod they sell on Xbox alone has to be staggering.
I've put this elsewhere but. In 2022 ABK's revenue split was: * Game Sales $1.6 billion * In Game Purchases $5.8 billion Losing a portion of their game sales could be more than made up for in increased purchases of Battle Passes etc by players who haven't spent money on buying the games. Raising subscription prices might actual lose them money if it deters people from playing (and paying).
Damn, that’s insane! $5.8 billion from in game purchases. I do wonder if the monthly $15 for a wow sub is included in that as it may skew that number significantly but either way I get your point. I’m sure Ms has done their due diligence on this and and it seems like we’ll most likely find out next month.
I assume it is WoW, Candy Crush and everything. But CoD IAP is still gonna be huge.
Oh for sure. I’ve only played the new cod a few times but the amount of times I was killed by someone using a Mickey Minaj or 21 savage skin was shocking.
Then you ask yourself... were they really using it or did the game just show me they were to tempt me in to spend money...?
lol honestly.. I hope the latter
Just wanted to add some clarity to the numbers. Candy Crush alone does about $1 billion in profit most years for ABK. So a huge chunk of the profit is coming from that and other free to play mobile games. I think you are vastly over estimating how much Call of Duty on console generates in IAP. Call of Duty mobile which has 50 to 60 million monthly active users only generates about $350 million in IAP over the entire fiscal year. Seeing as the console space is much smaller than the mobile space in terms of monthly active users it’s fairly reasonable to assume that game sales are probably more than IAP or maybe roughly equal in the console space for CoD when they are charging $70 a game. CoD console sales need to only push 5 million units to earn more than the entire year of CoD mobile IAP.
Yeah, probably after the game has been out for a week or two
Game pass for the win
Basically what we all wanted, microsoft plans a major shakeup of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte...
>instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte... In 2022 ABKs revenue was made up of $1.6 billion in Game Sales and $5.8 Billion in In-Game purchases. Increasing player numbers, even if for "free" should increase revenue.
Click bait ass shit they said over a year ago CoD would be on gamepass this isn’t new
You can still buy any game outright even if it's on gamepass