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Black Ops 6 physical launch sales are 10% lower compared with Modern Warfare 3 in the UK. This is due to a drop in sales on Xbox.

Mr Moose

Member
Remember, they already seeded the new narrative™
But Cultural Awareness
5108b297585a2a4821b616f0af09bdf9_w200.gif

I don't want to give them a click to find out wtf they are talking about.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Yea it doesn't really matter how much GP grows initially. Even the Taketwo CEO said it will cause a temporary bump. Temporary being the key word their.

“People who will join GamePass to play a live service game will suddenly stop subscribing and will magically still be able to keep playing the game they subscribed for”

Family Feud Lol GIF by Steve Harvey
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
5108b297585a2a4821b616f0af09bdf9_w200.gif

I don't want to give them a click to find out wtf they are talking about.
COD CULTURE, BABY!

*looks in a CoD lobby*

Run Away Shiba Inu GIF by Justin


I think they mean cultural awareness, like recognizable pop culture through the years. Mickey Mouse, Mario, etc..

Still, sales/revenue matter most to the board, hence why they tied the CEO's bonuses to Xbox revenue/sales growth.
 

Kupfer

Member
Don't know if someone already mentioned, but 10% down from former 20% is just 2%
So, only 2% of physical game buyers have switched to GP, not 10% as the title might initially suggest.
 
“People who will join GamePass to play a live service game will suddenly stop subscribing and will magically still be able to keep playing the game they subscribed for”

Family Feud Lol GIF by Steve Harvey

This is true WTH would the taketwo CEO know about this industry. I'll trust random poster on GAF who has much more experience and knowledge of how this industry works.
 

Astray

Member
It's a zero sum. Whatever revenue CoD was making before the ABK buyout is the same now. Game Pass cannibalizing into that revenue is only worth it if growth is significant. Else, people will fixate on the lost revenue.
No it likely won't be. If it was then they would have never done it.

They're banking on this to change the way they get money from their consumer with the hopes that they get more money out of it. But there's also the possibility that you get less money too.

It's a calculated gamble essentially.

I think everyone is aware of that mate, most people seem to think that answer is no.
I personally lean towards no too (Kotick is probably the shrewdest operator in gaming and he wasn't for this at all).

But I'm honestly fascinated by the way entertainment execs are generally trying hard to disrupt their existing decent to good businesses to get less money.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I personally lean towards no too (Kotick is probably the shrewdest operator in gaming and he wasn't for this at all).

But I'm honestly fascinated by the way entertainment execs are generally trying hard to disrupt their existing decent to good businesses to get less money.
There were others who said no to Activision games coming to Gamepass as well and butted heads (often) with Phil Spencer and now are no longer in gaming after dedicating their life to it

But that's for a book one day :)
 

Brucey

Member
With those employees, Activision alone makes over a half billion dollars per quarter in profit (on 2.2 billion in revenue). Like Minecraft (which paid for itself in less than a year), this is printing money for Xbox as well.
It will print money once the acquisition price is paid for or it came from Mother Microsoft fairy and no need to worry about that?
 

Kvally

Member
It will print money once the acquisition price is paid for or it came from Mother Microsoft fairy and no need to worry about that?
Microsoft moved $69 billion from short term assets to long term assets. They didn't touch liabilities. Now their $69 billion that they added to long term assets are generating revenue which is being added to their short-term assets. Had they borrowed the money, that would have been a journal entry into liabilities, which then they would have needed to worry about that. You always want Assets >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Liabilities. This transaction grows their assets and has no impact on liabilities.

I don't know if MS is considered a monopoly still, but with $3.18 trillion, it seems they can buy their way into anything. Maybe time to break up MS into multiple companies.
 

Darsxx82

Member
The "and rising" is the only relevant part of your post because you're talking about a decline in sales, not in comparison to other platforms. If physical has declined 10% then digital is likely to have declined even more.
And the only thing relevant in your answer is your always obvious opportunity to demonstrate your "quality" of prejudging and understanding things only in one way when you feel that what you read is not what you want even if that is not even what is said🤷🏻🤷🏻

The fact is that I have not entered or given an opinion on the real effects on sales, I was simply saying that to draw proper and fair conclusions you have to wait to have the final data. Especially the digital ones when you assume close to 90%

But hey, I wish you a nice day....😉
 

Darsxx82

Member
So it sold about 55k total or something in its first week? I am shit at maths.
I don't understand. I think you've confused what I was saying.

I meant that the digital % on Xbox IN GENERAL makes physical data irrelevant today to draw sales conclusions. Likewise, to know the extent of the effects of Gamepass on COD revenues, not only sales are interesting but also subscriptions, spending on microtransactions...
 

jm89

Member
None of this salty nonsense is of any relevance to this conversation. Starfield underperformed critically and landed with a much more muted performance with users than I’m sure they expected, but even so it’s a single player title. A lot of The people who were going to put 500 hours into it were more likely to buy it for modding purposes.

Call of Duty is an entirely different sort of game, and play habits and duration for a live service MP game with constant content drops is very different from an RPG. Using Starfield as an analogy for long term impact on GP subscription is quite brainless.

Hope this helps
Only thing it helps is your excuses.

Starfield was setup to be a long term subscriber gainer with content drops to bring in subscribers.

My original point was people dancing about players number now means nothing like it did for starfield when long term effects will be known later, but obviously that went over your head.

Hope this helps.
 

Three

Gold Member
And the only thing relevant in your answer is your always obvious opportunity to demonstrate your "quality" of prejudging and understanding things only in one way when you feel that what you read is not what you want even if that is not even what is said🤷🏻🤷🏻

The fact is that I have not entered or given an opinion on the real effects on sales, I was simply saying that to draw proper and fair conclusions you have to wait to have the final data. Especially the digital ones when you assume close to 90%

But hey, I wish you a nice day....😉
No, I just think it's ridiculous to shout out "but digital" or even attribute the decline to the digital percentage unless you think 10% is the shift to digital from physical in a year. That's all.
 

Darsxx82

Member
No, I just think it's ridiculous to shout out "but digital" or even attribute the decline to the digital percentage unless you think 10% is the shift to digital from physical in a year. That's all.
Ahh alright??, tell that to someone else then......

No one has said "but digital", no one has said that the reduction in digital sales may or may not be greater. NO ONE has hinted that at the end of it all bringing COD to Gamepass isn't going to be a big blow to COD sales figures on XBOX...... That is what you have wanted to interpret for the common of your prejudices when you read something that does not sound like what you want.

I have only made the innocent objective mention that to draw conclusions, for better or worse, it is better to wait for the complete data and more so when the percentage of digital sales on XBOX is approaching 90% and when the bet is up Gamepass subscriptions numbers.

In the end, with the full results, the situation may be the same or worse than what the physical figures in the UK show.... or not so much. Because, among other things, the % between digital and physical is not usually linear.

It's as simple as that. Sometimes it's amazing the stories that some of you need to create:pie_invert:
 

Three

Gold Member
Ahh alright??, tell that to someone else then......

No one has said "but digital", no one has said that the reduction in digital sales may or may not be greater. NO ONE has hinted that at the end of it all bringing COD to Gamepass isn't going to be a big blow to COD sales figures on XBOX...... That is what you have wanted to interpret for the common of your prejudices when you read something that does not sound like what you want.

I have only made the innocent objective mention that to draw conclusions, for better or worse, it is better to wait for the complete data and more so when the percentage of digital sales on XBOX is approaching 90% and when the bet is up Gamepass subscriptions numbers.

In the end, with the full results, the situation may be the same or worse than what the physical figures in the UK show.... or not so much. Because, among other things, the % between digital and physical is not usually linear.

It's as simple as that. Sometimes it's amazing the stories that some of you need to create:pie_invert:

"Physical game sales data....... Thinking that XBOX is 81% digital (and rising) that tells you how irrelevant the data is to draw conclusions about the "Gamepass effect".


That's exactly what you did though. My only point is that the rate of the percentage shift to digital is the only thing that would be relevant there not the digital ratio on xbox. Yet you want to dismiss perfectly good data points as "irrelevant" because it doesn't fit what you want 😉. Chris has even told you "This is almost entirely due to a drop in sales on Xbox" but you want to stick your fingers in your ears saying la-la-la-la "xbox is 81% digital" . The only way your argument would make sense is if xbox became more digital in the past year, not what its ratio is.
 
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Ozriel

M$FT
This is true WTH would the taketwo CEO know about this industry. I'll trust random poster on GAF who has much more experience and knowledge of how this industry works.

Surely even you can see the difference between TakeTwo CEO putting his games on another person’s subscription service and a platform holder putting their own games on their own subscription service where they get to keep a healthy chunk of the revenue?

EA puts their own games on their subscription service. Ditto for Ubisoft. Those are random posters, I guess?

Between the comments comparing Starfield to COD and now this one, you guys come up with truly baffling takes.

Only thing it helps is your excuses.

Starfield was setup to be a long term subscriber gainer with content drops to bring in subscribers.

My original point was people dancing about players number now means nothing like it did for starfield when long term effects will be known later, but obviously that went over your head.

Hope this helps.

Starfield was never set to have frequent content drops or MTX like a live service game, and you’re disingenuously dodging the fact that Starfield underwhelmed with users and critics, dampening its ability to engage players for months.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the best reviewed COD in years* and is a game that historically engages players over months and months of multiplayer gaming. When people buy call of duty, many tend to play it until the next one comes out in a year.
So you guys making up an imaginary scenario where someone wants to play COD MP, gets the game on GamePass and then stops subscribing and stops playing it…that’s just inane.

Where’s the sense in comparing play habits to Starfield when you can simply compare this to older COD games that retain an active playerbase?


Baffling, clown tier arguments indeed.


* Reviewed so well that the review thread set up by adamsapple adamsapple is a single page ghost town…unlike last year’s thread 😀
 
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Darsxx82

Member
"Physical game sales data....... Thinking that XBOX is 81% digital (and rising) that tells you how irrelevant the data is to draw conclusions about the "Gamepass effect".


That's exactly what you did though. My only point is that the rate of the percentage shift to digital is the only thing that would be relevant there not the digital ratio on xbox. Yet you want to dismiss perfectly good data points as "irrelevant" because it doesn't fit what you want 😉. Chris has even told you "This is almost entirely due to a drop in sales on Xbox" but you want to stick your fingers in your ears saying la-la-la-la "xbox is 81% digital" . The only way your argument would make sense is if xbox became more digital in the past year, not what its ratio is.
LOL. When I said that the need for some to create stories where there are none was incredible....... I fell short. It's very ridiculous

Let's see, it's very easy, physical data today is next to irrelevant if you want to draw accurate conclusions, whether for better or for worse. There is NO more. Xbox is near 90% digital, don't you think it's better to wait to know the total figures?? Well, that's just what I said and the rest is you interpreting based on prejudices as is common in you here only in one direction.

From there, if you want to express something different from what I say, point to someone else before pressing the button automatically.:messenger_winking:
 

Three

Gold Member
LOL. When I said that the need for some to create stories where there are none was incredible....... I fell short. It's very ridiculous

Let's see, it's very easy, physical data today is next to irrelevant if you want to draw accurate conclusions, whether for better or for worse. There is NO more. Xbox is near 90% digital, don't you think it's better to wait to know the total figures?? Well, that's just what I said and the rest is you interpreting based on prejudices as is common in you here only in one direction.
Better to draw accurate sales as more information comes? sure. Attributing the decline of CoD sales on xbox to "xbox being 81% digital", absolutely not. That information by you is what's actually irrelevant to draw any conclusions from because it means nothing. You dismissing actual useful data with "irrelevant because digital" is just poor form.
 
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jm89

Member
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the best reviewed COD in years* and is a game that historically engages players over months and months of multiplayer gaming. When people buy call of duty, many tend to play it until the next one comes out in a year.
So you guys making up an imaginary scenario where someone wants to play COD MP, gets the game on GamePass and then stops subscribing and stops playing it…that’s just inane.
😀
Reading comprehension is hard for you that much is obvious.

Here's what i replied to someone with when you butted in and took the discussion where you wanted.
Remember when starfield had those "amazing" player numbers?

And it did jack shit for gamepass growth long term.

Peperidge farm remembers.

We need to see if those numbers convert to gamepass growth, or it's game over for gamepass.

Cod doesn't grow it, nothing else will.

See that? I replied saying those player counts right now don't mean much for growth, as we don't know how many people subbed. No one can predict how many people will stay subbed either, yes that includes you.

These numbers could be a a combination of existing subs playing, sales and some growth. We don't know.
 
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Darsxx82

Member
Better to draw accurate sales as more information comes? sure. Attributing the decline of CoD sales on xbox to "xbox being 81% digital", absolutely not. That information by you is what's actually irrelevant to draw any conclusions from because it means nothing. You dismissing actual useful data with "irrelevant because digital" is just poor form.


...
Stop It Paramount Network GIF by Yellowstone
Mamma Mia What GIF by LLIMOO
 

Pandawan

Member
Why no Silent Hill 2 in this chart? Not even at 30th place? Every copy is sold out, thats why? Or it is selling sooo bad?
 

pasterpl

Member
Microsoft moved $69 billion from short term assets to long term assets. They didn't touch liabilities. Now their $69 billion that they added to long term assets are generating revenue which is being added to their short-term assets. Had they borrowed the money, that would have been a journal entry into liabilities, which then they would have needed to worry about that. You always want Assets >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Liabilities. This transaction grows their assets and has no impact on liabilities.

I don't know if MS is considered a monopoly still, but with $3.18 trillion, it seems they can buy their way into anything. Maybe time to break up MS into multiple companies.
Great post, except the last part. I am opposed any government intervention in how company is structured or decided if it is too big, it grew to this size because customers voting with their wallets (less retail, more B2B, Enterprise, Governments, Military etc.) deciding to give their money to MS. I hate when governments are butting in because company is too big/successful. No one is stopping other mobile phone companies to grow to size of Apple, no one is stopping other chip manufacturers to go against nVidia in providing AI hardware, no one is stopping (probably 100s) AI startups to go and compete with OpenAIs ChatGPT or look at Tesla how it became leader in its category competing with likes of Ford, VW etc.
 

Brucey

Member
The most that I could find was after Modern Warfare 2 launched and it was 2:1 in favor of the 360. So, unless something from those years confirms otherwise, no, it was never like this.
Interesting, after Dennis left Xbox/IEB he worked for Activision:


"From 2012 until his retirement from the company in May 2021, Durkin served in a variety of senior roles for Activision Blizzard (Ticker: ATVI), including more than 7+ years as Global Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, he led all the company’s financial operations encompassing everything from accounting/internal audit/taxation to M&A/corporate strategy, IT and investor relations."
 
It kinda looks like most COD players still prefer to buy the game. Wonder if there is a similar percentage in the US.

So for the sake of the conversation, if 10% of COD players on Xbox chose to play the game through Gamepass instead of buying the game, are those good enough numbers for Gamepass?
 

HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
It kinda looks like most COD players still prefer to buy the game. Wonder if there is a similar percentage in the US.

So for the sake of the conversation, if 10% of COD players on Xbox chose to play the game through Gamepass instead of buying the game, are those good enough numbers for Gamepass?
Depends on what it is 10% of and what percentage of those folks actually are new subscribers. Unless it's 10% of 100 (which we know is highly highly unlikely), I'd bet the number is good. If no one new invested in Game Pass (also highly highly unlikely), I'd call it a good result. Even without the full picture, I'm still willing to give Game Pass the benefit of the doubt here. It doesn't get bigger than CoD for the service.
 

phant0m

Member
I'm not kidding when I say the last physical copy of a COD game I bought at launch was Black Ops II. Since then I've either gotten it on PC (no physical option) or just buy on PSN because used copies of COD aren't worth shit so no point in keeping for trading.
 
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