Xbox: Play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Day One with Xbox Game Pass

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Actually they don't even need their own shooter. With this move, most of the sales will be on PS. This means more MTX sales on PS and PS gets their cut. Without spending money, PS gets massive money.

Okay that's great for SIE, but what about PlayStation customers?

If alongside COD there are ever say 4 other AAA games coming out in a given year that are going to be on both platforms, but all 4 would also be in Game Pass Day 1, why would I pay $350 for all 5 separately on PlayStation if I could get all five in a single year's Game Pass sub for $240? Especially if these are games I'm only maybe going to play once through, maybe a second playthrough for some within that same year?

This always seemed like what Microsoft was banking on to make Game Pass take off: appealing to core gamers who aren't necessarily frugal with spending, but want to optimize their spending dollar, and plays a lot of big (and some small) games a year.

In practice MS's output cadence isn't good enough to realize 4-5 AAA releases a year (they can't depend on 3P to put AAA games in GP Day 1, for the most part). So for now yeah, most core gamers who know those 4 or so AAA bangers are coming to PlayStation in a given year (most of which won't be in Game Pass Day 1 or within 3/6/12 months from release) still make out good here and be better off buying on PlayStation assuming they want to play a game like COD online year-round.

But at some point that could start looking different, especially if SIE don't introduce any other means of accessing games on their platform (i.e like the per-game subscription/pay installment for PS Store model I had talked about a while back). They don't want to get caught in a situation where something like Game Pass actually does start delivering consistent quality of big AAA and smaller AA/indie games at a price that starts looking really appealing vs. buying those games each Day 1 at $70 or so bucks on PlayStation.

This is even more a potential sour point considering SIE's 1P (aside from Insomniac) haven't necessarily been delivering a ton of 1P releases annually so far, SIE have been making a (IMO) bad move porting virtually all of their current-gen games to PC (well before the PS5 Pro even launches), and the potential for certain 3P timed exclusives might be dwindling (future mainline FF games, for example).

Like, I've seen people joking that MS going 3P are bringing more games to PlayStation than SIE studios are. Well, this is the potential downside (for SIE) in that scenario, if indeed Xbox as a console is dead/dying (or at least very weak) but Game Pass as a service lives on. Who have been the ones saying it's a "platform war" now, btw?

 

[ethomaz]

Delusional. Lol

Not sure if I get that pic...

But going outside to party and buy things you like to eat is vastly better than staying at home eating any trash you have on your refrigerator.
Not even talking about the health, obesity, etc that that pic hints too.

I think him sharing this pic didn't do the effect he thought it should

 

[Evilnemesis8]

EXCLUSIVE - XDefiant Hits Around 8 Million Unique Players in 1 Week

Insider Gaming has learned that XDefiant has hit just shy of 8 million unique players in its first week of release.

insider-gaming.com

This is what happens when you make a COD clone. MS will be praying this game dies soon

There's a few pressing issues with the game, but if they're able to quickly fix some of the them, could be a second very successful GaaS for Ubisoft just like Rainbow Six Siege.

 

[Infinity]

EXCLUSIVE - XDefiant Hits Around 8 Million Unique Players in 1 Week

Insider Gaming has learned that XDefiant has hit just shy of 8 million unique players in its first week of release.

insider-gaming.com

This is what happens when you make a COD clone. MS will be praying this game dies soon

Xdefiant is brand new and it's free to play....let's see the player count in like a month or 2. Even Battlefield couldn't kill cod.

 

[Petekilla]

 

[Petekilla]

Not sure if I get that pic...

But going outside to party and buy things you like to eat is vastly better than staying at home eating any trash you have on your refrigerator.
Not even talking about the health, obesity, etc that that pic hints too.

I think him sharing this pic didn't do the effect he thought it should

I think he meant that they’re eating good with content. Lol

 

[Sunrise Ninja]

Delete

 

[laynelane]

I'm more interested in how MS will fuck up CoD. Game Pass price and tier increases have already been mentioned, but there's a lot more they could do. Things like increasing microtransactions, DLC, season passes, etc. in the games are options. Shortening development times and introducing cost-cutting measures that directly impact the quality of the games. There's more too and, considering MS' history with how they handle studios and game development, I expect to see a downgrade in quality and experience for CoD players - perhaps even as soon as the next game releases.

 

[BarrierIslandZilla]

Destiny 2 is still great, pity it's not exclusive though.

I think Marathon will be massive too but again.. xbox will get it.

We still need to see Concord though, very curious to see how it plays.

Destiny pve is great, the pvp has been horrible and the matchmaking is not great and long, and that’s with crossplay on Xbox and PC.

If they made it exclusive you would be waiting forever for a pvp match.

 

[Infinity]

I'm more interested in how MS will fuck up CoD. Game Pass price and tier increases have already been mentioned, but there's a lot more they could do. Things like increasing microtransactions, DLC, season passes, etc. in the games are options. Shortening development times and introducing cost-cutting measures that directly impact the quality of the games. There's more too and, considering MS' history with how they handle studios and game development, I expect to see a downgrade in quality and experience for CoD players - perhaps even as soon as the next game releases.

Blizzard is operating like they always do. All Xbox is doing is putting cod on game pass

 

[ethomaz]

I think he meant that they’re eating good with content. Lol

Yeap... but I found it a bad way to show it.
At least it gave me the opposite feeling

IMO the first pic is eating good
You can see the happiness in their faces... while the second pic lol they are really not happy at all.

 

[Dabaus]

I have to wonder how many xbox gamers that already have gamepass also already buy COD? Id imagine the overlap on a venn diagram is probably almost overlapping. So MS not only needs to make up for those 30 or so million that probably are somewhat engaged with COD, but now need to convince people to buy an xbox AND subscribe to gamepass just to play COD, which is also available on playstation.

 

[Darth Vader]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, which is likely considering I'm not 100% sober, but didn't Microsoft use the argument that it would not be financially beneficial to have COD on Gamepass, and thus Sony should not be concerned by the cost they would incur to also have it on PS Plus? I believe something like this was in the CMA documents.

 

[Say1nMan]

I have to wonder how many xbox gamers that already have gamepass also already buy COD? Id imagine the overlap on a venn diagram is probably almost overlapping. So MS not only needs to make up for those 30 or so million that probably are somewhat engaged with COD, but now need to convince people to buy an xbox AND subscribe to gamepass just to play COD, which is also available on playstation.

I suspect the hardcore COD base are going to buy the game as usual and ignore Game pass. Trying to convince a base of casual that play only one game a year to come over to a subscription service full of games is not going to move the needle. More importantly, the most played mode in Call of Duty is Warzone, a free to play mode that has been pretty much its own separate game in a way. COD remaining on PlayStation also hurts any huge migration over to Xbox. When it comes to video games so far we've seen that people are continuing to buy games outright and are contempt with that form of consumption.

 

[BLAZE]

What is MS's strategy with this? I can't believe they're just going to put the game on Game Pass without making some changes to the service

 

[BLAZE]

Its been over 20 years and no one have been able to make a better shooter.
Good luck to sony and their unicorn shooter.

Destiny, Apex Legends, PUBG, Valorant, CS:GO and XDefiant have managed to compete with CoD, I imagine that Sony can create a new ip that competes with CoD (let it be Concord).

 

[Sunrise Ninja]

I have to wonder how many xbox gamers that already have gamepass also already buy COD? Id imagine the overlap on a venn diagram is probably almost overlapping. So MS not only needs to make up for those 30 or so million that probably are somewhat engaged with COD, but now need to convince people to buy an xbox AND subscribe to gamepass just to play COD, which is also available on playstation.

Because you need game pass to play online, this whole situation looks so stupid right now its going to be so interesting to see how it plays out.

 

[laynelane]

Blizzard is operating like they always do. All Xbox is doing is putting cod on game pass

I don't believe that will be the end result. Game Pass itself has greatly helped in the stagnation and weakening of Xbox first-party (and hardware sales, software sales, etc.) over the years. Kotick, a man who knows how to run a successful gaming company, stated that MS' strategy of putting games on a multi-game subscription service is value destructive. And it is. This will not magically change because the IPs are bigger and more popular. If anything, it will increase the effect. And under the incompetent guidance of Xbox/MS gaming leadership, it will be increased even further.

 

[Nhomnhom]

MS announces the same thing 10 times to get positive PR and coverage.

Sony hides every secret they can to get unnecessary negative PR and dooming.

 

[Dabaus]

What is MS's strategy with this? I can't believe they're just going to put the game on Game Pass without making some changes to the service

We still dont know all the details'. For all we know MS could wait until the day before launch before hiking prices.