DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
This can't be true. I really enjoyed the beta
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[GI.biz] Black Ops 6 is make-or-break for the Game Pass strategy
This can't be true. I really enjoyed the beta
mayham2199
Member
I've heard nothing but good things about it. Hell even the way people said was crap did really well so I don't even think it matters.
clarky
Gold Member
Explain?
COD is the top preorder on PS store and top seller on Steam as you'd expect. I didn't check Xbox.
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ShaiKhulud1989
Gold Member
SP footage looked a bit stale to my taste, but MP impressions are actually pretty decent. If anything, BO6 is not a bad CoD to drop with GP.
Kerotan
Member
I've played cod for a long time. Made friends with hundreds of players. Most just play cod daily. You'll get a few with a secondary game like RL or FIFA. Then there's people like me who play a shit load but I feel I'm the exception.Id like to see evidence of that.
While I dont disagree theres a lot of such players I cant see it being the majority.
Edit: Yeah its a lot but nowhere near "most"
"CharlieIntel notes a passage that begins by stating that "more than 13 million unique PlayStation users have played Call of Duty." That's two-thirds of the console's US user base who have dipped into the franchise, but there's also evidence that points out how die-hard some of its fans are.
In 2021, Sony claims that "about 1 million users spent 100% of their playing time on Call of Duty." Additionally, while the average player spent 16 hours per year playing Call of Duty, six million spent 70% of their time on the platform with this specific franchise, amounting to an average of 296 hours a year"
In 2021, more than a million PlayStation players only played Call of Duty
And 6 million spent 70% of their time with CoDwww.gamesradar.com
Orbital2060
Member
A year after buying Activision Blizzard, Microsoft finally has a Game Pass launch exclusive for Call of Duty. How this plays out will weigh heavily on its future strategy
It's just over a year since Microsoft shattered industry records with its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard – and next week, that eye-wateringly expensive deal will face its most important test yet.
The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be a major data point both for Microsoft itself, and for external observers, as they try to puzzle out the value of the deal and the kind of strategy we're likely to see from the company in the coming years. That's because Black Ops 6 will be available to Game Pass' premium tier subscribers at launch – a major coup for Game Pass, but one whose costs and benefits remain pretty much impossible to predict.
It's not unfair to say that Call of Duty was the Activision IP that Microsoft was most desperate to acquire; it was this franchise that justified that extraordinary acquisition price tag, to the extent that it can be justified at all.
However, owning Call of Duty has actually left the company in an odd position, since it now owns a massive franchise that generates a very large slice of its revenues on PlayStation. Fears that Microsoft could make the franchise Xbox-exclusive were never realistic; even if the Xbox leadership wanted to do that, slashing the revenue potential of such an expensively acquired new subsidiary would never pass muster with Microsoft's top management.
Sony's big fear, and the reason it lobbied competition authorities to block the acquisition, was a little more nuanced; it feared that Call of Duty would be a Game Pass exclusive as a subscription title, tilting the competitive landscape by allowing Microsoft to point out that people paying $70 for the game on PlayStation could instead be playing it for 'free' on Game Pass.
That's exactly what has come to pass – and now it's time to run the experiment and test the theory. The performance of this launch, and in particular the impact that the day-and-date availability on Game Pass has on sales on other platforms, will be watched very closely both by Microsoft itself and by its rivals.
Getting to the point of being comfortable with launching Black Ops 6 day-and-date on Game Pass, however, has taken some strategic rearrangements on Microsoft's part, with the balancing act it is performing sometimes being quite public. It needs Call of Duty to be a big deal on Game Pass in order to grow the subscription service, which is seen as a crucial metric of the success of its overall games business. However, it also needs Call of Duty to make a boatload of money, as it always does, since Xbox still effectively has a $75 billion IOU made out to Microsoft's coffers and can't afford to sacrifice the earning potential of Activision's biggest IP at the altar of Xbox' long term growth.
Consequently, we've seen price increases and rebalancing for Game Pass' tiers ahead of this launch. Xbox players will need to be on the most expensive $19.99 per month tier to get CoD on the launch day, although it's still going to be available on the PC's $11.99 tier, presumably a concession to a more price-sensitive market. Microsoft has also suspended the $1, 14-day Game Pass trial it usually runs, although this isn't a new strategy – it did the same thing before the launch of Starfield and will presumably adopt this as a policy for major day-and-date launches in future as well.
The rebalancing act, however, was a tough call; it was unpopular with consumers (naturally enough) and arguably a risky thing to do at a point when Game Pass' growth seems to be struggling to move past a plateau stage. If CoD is going to be a Game Pass title, though, the company needed to be satisfied that Game Pass would be an attractive option for fans of the franchise, without risking sinking launch revenues for the game. I'm not sure that's actually a balance that can be successfully struck, and I suspect that some internal discussions about whether CoD should even appear day-and-date on Game Pass were pretty heated, but there wasn't really a choice here – without the ability to leverage this IP to push Game Pass, the entire value of the Activision Blizzard acquisition to Xbox would be thrown into question.
Thus we end up with a bit of a halfway house of compromises. Black Ops 6 goes to Game Pass on day one, a coup for that service; but only to the most expensive tier, and only after a price hike for the service.
If many people subscribe for a month to play the game and then cancel, it'll still end up being a significant loss to the games revenues, which is no doubt a significant fear for some people involved in the planning of this launch. Meanwhile, the odds are that the lion's share of sales of the game will be on PlayStation 5 – revenue that will be very welcome on the bottom line of Microsoft's games business, but of which Sony will also be taking a pretty tasty slice as well.
Another cost that's hard to calculate is that Black Ops 6 will presumably be launching without the marketing support and partnership revenue the franchise has traditionally received from Sony. Depending on how the Game Pass situation shakes out – how many new subscriptions this drives, and how long those new customers stay subscribed – it remains at least marginally possible that Sony ends up being the company that enjoys the most black ink on its financials from this launch, which is a bit of a bum note in what should be a triumphal moment for Xbox.
Part of the issue here is that the strategy around Activision Blizzard's content on both Xbox and Game Pass over the past year has been very, very slow to take shape, and quite weird in the shapes it has eventually assumed.
Browsing Game Pass today gives absolutely no hint that Microsoft spent $75 billion on buying a major publisher to bolster this service. By my count only three Activision Blizzard games have made it to Game Pass; only one of them is a Call of Duty title. I was honestly surprised to discover that the CoD back catalogue isn't up there – that feels like incredibly low-hanging fruit, with the launch of older games (even just their single-player campaigns) on Game Pass being a pretty obvious way to drive interest and enthusiasm ahead of the huge 'event' that is the Game Pass launch of Black Ops 6. 'Get ready for Black Ops 6 by subscribing to Game Pass and playing through the old campaigns' is a straightforward and appealing message, and it's nothing short of weird that it didn't happen.
All of these misgivings will evaporate, of course, if Black Ops 6 really can drive a huge surge of Game Pass sign-ups – and then maintain those subscriptions for at least a few months. If not, though – if grabbing the launch-day exclusive subscription availability for one of the industry's biggest franchises can't move the needle for Game Pass enough to change the sales pattern for the game at least a little – then it will bring to the foreground some questions about Game Pass' content strategy that have been getting harder and harder to ignore over the past year or two.
Either way, this launch is a landmark in the grand experiment that is Microsoft's integration of Activision Blizzard and its catalogue. How Black Ops 6 performs next week – and on which platforms that performance is strongest – is going to play a major part in setting the tenor for Microsoft's overall games strategy for years to come.
Black Ops 6 is make-or-break for the Game Pass strategy | Opinion
It's just over a year since Microsoft shattered industry records with its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzar…www.gamesindustry.biz
Rob Fahey has the dumbest takes on Xbox business. I get it, he lives in Japan and loves PlayStation, and Xbox is the big badaboom. As expected right before CoD on game pass, here comes another insidious opinion piece from gi biz and this guy. Im also expecting similar stuff from Eurogamer on or around launch day, like the hit piece with Schreier on the day Vessel of Hatred launched. On the same fucking day, lmao.
Thing is, they are completely out of touch with where the gaming industry is going. Retail is dead, and subscription services are the future. Call of Duty is a major step towards that future, and the fact that it is on game pass will only bring more players in for the game.
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clarky
Gold Member
See the link. While there are quite a few players who only play COD that number is around 1 million (on PS at least) not even close to being the majority of COD players.
Kerotan
Member
I guess I become friends with the hardcore minority who are an exception.
Topher
Identifies as young
I don't see what he is saying that is so outlandish. He isn't predicting doom and gloom for Xbox because of COD on Game Pass. He is saying this is a major test of that strategy. And he is right.
clarky
Gold Member
Oh yeah a few of my group only play COD im not disputing that, its just not nowhere near *most. If it was then the MS acquisition would make even less sense than it already does.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
- 2021 - "Bethesda's back-catalog will move the needle for Game Pass." -- It didn't.
- 2022 - "Halo Infinite will move the needle for Game Pass." -- It didn't.
- 2023 - "Starfield will move the needle for Game Pass." -- It didn't.
- 2024 - "COD BO6 will move the needle for Game Pass." -- It won't.
COD will not bring many new long-term subscribers to Game Pass. People may sign in for a month ($20) to play COD and then unsubscribe, which won't help Xbox; it will in fact harm Xbox more. The only win for Xbox here is if COD brings subscribers that will stay subscribed for months and even years, and that's not happening.
Orbital2060
Member
NickFire
Member
COD is definitely the type of game that could tip the scales if people were already on the fence. The problem is they haven't provided sufficient content to get more people looking over the fence in the first place. One or two big games per year does not justify 20 per month IMO, especially when the last big game that mattered IMO (Starfield) isn't even a multiplayer game (less benefits to paying for online tax).
Honestly, I think the jury will still be out on the potential of subscriptions regardless of what happens with Gamepass post-BLOPS release. I say this because I've yet to see anyone actually release several must have games in a single year on it.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
Isn't that the end goal for any business is to stack cash?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Maybe they should have made him an ambassador.Ive read what this guy is writing for the last 5 + years, thank you very much.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Yes, I agree with that.
And that's the issue, right? People may subscribe for BO6 for a month or two, but what will keep them on?
- People who want to play COD for 6+ months, they'd rather buy the game.
- People who wanted and have played COD for 1-2 months on GP, what's the next big game (big like COD) that'd keep them on?
Agreed. As the author mentioned in the GI article, the results - whatever those will be - will drastically change the perception of gaming subscription services, either positively or negatively.
Topher
Identifies as young
sainraja
Member
The issue with this is statement is, when COD releases, the other games named won't be available on Game Pass at that time. It's a future promise, yes in 4 months but MS probably has to make people care for what is there now. The other thing is, do people who play COD care for those other games and were they dependent on GP prior to COD to play those? I dunno.
MS has certainly updated their pricing and tiers for game pass but if someone just plays COD, then with game pass, their cost went up...
This is a good point and likely what MS is hoping for and it very well could happen this way.
As for MTX, well, before they had game sales + MTX on Xbox and now they have replaced that with subscription + MTX. So, it will depend on people on who have been on the sidelines with COD to make the growth for MTX show for it to be worth it. On the PC side, I guess it comes down to steam availability and store front choice. Do people still buy on steam (is it available there?) or get it via Windows store through Game Pass?
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Kerotan
Member
I guess they're still the most important players as they're the whale's who buy MTX all year long and the black cell pass.
clarky
Gold Member
I buy those items, and I play lots of other games games. I find the content they provide over the course of the season is worth a bone or two every now and again.
KungFucius
King Snowflake
Then why are you getting a PS5 Pro and not a PC?
Topher
Identifies as young
Many people prefer consoles. Come on. You know this.
XXL
Gold Member
twilo99
Gold Member
twilo99
Gold Member
100%
I had no idea before the whole MS buying Activision drama but apparently a large number of PlayStation consoles are just CoD or FIFA boxes for the most part
Kerotan
Member
While players like you exist the guys who only really played cod and buy MTX are the real profit drivers.
clarky
Gold Member
Starfield and Halo where huge misses for them for sure. Even if i did personally like both of those titles.
Looks like they are lining up Indy and Stalker to fill that big game gap then Avowed (ok not so big). Will it work? Probably not.
If those games are 8/10 or better(wishful thinking I know) then any new subs will certainly have a good impression of Gamepass.
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clarky
Gold Member
Lots of assumptions your making there mate. Got anything to back all this up?
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Thanks for being a smart ass hole . Do you not think I have googled it ? It's all very vague and I trust people on here have correct info .
Global Release Times Black Ops 6
For those who think it's easier to annoy you than to Google 'Global release times black ops 6' themselves.letmegooglethat.com
Kvally
Member
clarky
Gold Member
Its not vague if you can tell the time.
"For console players on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One, you'll be able to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 from the moment it hits midnight (12am) on 25th October 2024 in your regional timezone"
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Kerotan
Member
Just common sense. The most hardcore players are generally those who play all year and buy the most MTX. This goes for any game.
clarky
Gold Member
Obviously. But we started this by you saying that most COD players only play COD which is false as demonstrated in the link i provided. Other than that we don't seem to be getting anywhere, nor is it very interesting, so best if we just move on.
Kerotan
Member
I already agreed I was wrong on that. My most recent take isn't arguing my first point.
semiconscious
Member
agreed. starfield was the first major test. cod is the second, & just might be the last...
XXL
Gold Member
Orbital2060
Member
Its not going to make or break game pass. What do you expect to happen, in any case? And what are the parameters for success or failure? As you said in another thread, the Rubicon has been crossed. There is no undoing of what has been put into motion, a long time ago. The rules for game pass - that all 1p are day 1 on the service - is the same for CoD as for everything else. How that affects CoD doesnt really matter, but some people want to put their own goalposts up for how to measure how well or bad it does after also launching on game pass, in addition to every other platform in the market. It should mean that more people get to play the game, like I did with MW3 after not playing the game for 10 years.
Its not like the gaming industry is in a good shape already, with asking 70-80-90 dollars for a new game now. And although Im not an Xbox ambassador, I still think it is praiseworthy of Xbox to facilitate this service, and what it means for a lot of people that cant buy all these expensive games all of the time. I wonder what the narrative would be if Sony were to one to champion their first party day 1 on their PS+ service. And put Call of Duty on PS+ day 1.
In some kind of worst case scenario, or if things go bad in some way for CoD - which it might have considering the bad press given to MW3 which turned out to be a damn great shooter - they should consider putting the whole CoD package on PS+, too, somehow. I think thats the worst case, that CoD loses its audience to such a degree that the only monetisation lies in selling currency and skins for warzone and other MP modes. But then that might happen anyway, its not necessarily related to it being on a subscription service.
Regarding what he wrote here:
"Depending on how the Game Pass situation shakes out – how many new subscriptions this drives, and how long those new customers stay subscribed – it remains at least marginally possible that Sony ends up being the company that enjoys the most black ink on its financials from this launch, which is a bit of a bum note in what should be a triumphal moment for Xbox"
How exactly? If it sells well on PlayStation, thats a 70 / 30 split MS / Sony, isnt it? Or am I missing something. Are they counting an assumption of mtx sold on PS as well?
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Topher
Identifies as young
Below is my take on it....
Either way, COD on Game Pass is going to be heavily scrutinized and it should be.
Probably referring to the fact that Sony has nothing invested now that they are no longer buying the marketing rights. I don't think he means Sony is going to make more money overall from COD, just less overhead. He could have worded it better.
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Shrap
Member
Man, stop with the tribal BS. Xbox has consistently failed to deliver on exclusives for a long time now. It's a chronic problem thanks to Phil Spencer who thinks great games don't move hardware.
If it was 3 exclusives at the level of the first couple of Halo games, early Gears and Forza then they'd get way more support.
The reason people are so on board with Playstation is because they have delivered consistently enough that they have build up a wealth of trust. Xbox obliterated that thanks to Phil giving up on regular high quality exclusives and letting unfinished shit come out way too often.
If you blame consumers you're a lost cause. You should be blaming Xbox as this situation is all of their own doing.
XXL
Gold Member
They have already modified that rule this year....prior to COD even launching.
PC Game Pass - Day 1
Xbox Ultimate - Day 1
Xbox Game Pass Standard - Not Day 1
They were previously all day 1 on all tiers of Game Pass.
Not to mention they also eliminated the $1 sign up prior to COD launching, which is understandable. Lol.
What most people are saying is that more changes (like the one I noted) will happen if COD fails at reaching their internal metrics.
That doesn't seem that unreasonable.
As I've stated earlier in the thread if COD can't move the needle, nothing will. It's the ultimate (no pun intended) test of the service.
Sushi_Combo
Member
every release is the same honeymoon type of attitude, wait a few weeks post launch for anger to ensue lol
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
clarky
Gold Member
Just looking at that graphic Game pass standard seems like a terrible deal. Never seen that before lol.They have already modified that rule this year....prior to COD even launching.
PC Game Pass - Day 1
Xbox Ultimate - Day 1
Xbox Game Pass Standard - Not Day 1
They were previously all day 1 on all tiers of Game Pass.
Not to mention they also eliminated the $1 sign up prior to COD launching, which is understandable. Lol.
What most people are saying is that more changes (like the one I noted) will happen if COD fails at reaching their internal metrics.
That doesn't seem that unreasonable.
As I've stated earlier in the thread if COD can't move the needle, nothing will. It's the ultimate (no pun intended) test of the service.
They should just have Gamepass ultimate and thats it. Then run heavy discounts on PC if you must.
Orbital2060
Member
They have already modified that rule this year....prior to COD even launching.
PC Game Pass - Day 1
Xbox Ultimate - Day 1
Xbox Game Pass Standard - Not Day 1
They were previously all day 1 on all tiers of Game Pass.
Not to mention they also eliminated the $1 sign up prior to COD launching, which is understandable. Lol.
What most people are saying is that more changes (like the one I noted) will happen if COD fails at reaching their internal metrics.
That doesn't seem that unreasonable.
As I've stated earlier in the thread if COD can't move the needle, nothing will. It's the ultimate (no pun intended) test of the service.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Profitable and growing platforms don't need to constantly restructure with such measures.They have already modified that rule this year....prior to COD even launching.
PC Game Pass - Day 1
Xbox Ultimate - Day 1
Xbox Game Pass Standard - Not Day 1
They were previously all day 1 on all tiers of Game Pass.
Not to mention they also eliminated the $1 sign up prior to COD launching, which is understandable. Lol.
What most people are saying is that more changes (like the one I noted) will happen if COD fails at reaching their internal metrics.
That doesn't seem that unreasonable.
As I've stated earlier in the thread if COD can't move the needle, nothing will. It's the ultimate (no pun intended) test of the service.
Kvally
Member
They do if they want to be even more profitable.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Kvally
Member
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