Microsoft will put the next Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass, reveal planned for Games Showcase

[Windows Central]

After much reported internal debate, Microsoft is adding the next Call of Duty game to Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft will put the next Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass, reveal planned for Games Showcase : Read more

 

[Hanley Gibbons]

A previous report suggested Microsoft has been internally discussing whether or not Call of Duty should be added to Xbox Game Pass, with some worried that the revenue driven by sales of the globally popular first-person shooter would be diminished by Game Pass access.

While I get that, I think Call of Duty being on Game Pass would draw in a lot more subscriptions. They only need 4 months of subscription to make it break even assuming a 1 to 1 conversion of all buyers to subscribers.

I assume a ton of people will still buy it, but for those that are on the fence a Game Pass subscription is a lot more attractive than forking over $70 all at once. That would result in more players on Xbox, which is desparately needed.

 

[Ron-F]

I wonder how much money Call of Duty makes from microtransactions. If it is high enough, it would be a non brainer to bring it to Game Pass.

 

[1078mac]

Good news. Now they need to get a bunch of back catalog from Activision onto gamepass. It's weird to only see Diablo available so far. COD would bring in a lot of players and subscriptions I suspect. I assume it will happen at some point

 

[fjtorres5591]

After all the carping over MS "killing" XBOX, Windows, and Surface in a "chase for short term profits", now the handwringing is over leaving short term money on the table by putting COD on GAMEPASS as a long tail play?

Not exactly consistent, is it?

It seems there is a desire to cast every Microsoft move as bad, regardless of the logic and rationale.

For example, take COD sales distribution: XBOX is supposed to be a small part of total sales compared to Sony and the Windows store a fraction of Steam. Well, those sales aren't going to be impacted by COD on Game Pass.

Similarly, at the FTC trial it came out that a significant majority of COD players only play COD. So why would those players choose to pay $120-200 a year for game pass instead of buying COD at $70?

So the tradeoff is added Game Pass subscriptions at $10-20 a month for as long as a *small* fraction of XBOX and PC COD players play the game versus whatever fraction of the $70 retail price goes to activision. (Sony gets 30% reportedly and presumably Steam gets a similar cut.) That would be $50 moved from one pocket to the other per subscription. Best guess would be about $300M for 6M "lost" sales. And that is optimistic (25%).

A more realistic guess is a million or two (less than 10% "lost" sales) versus whatever number of new subs they get.

A gamble worth taking.

 

[fjtorres5591]

Good news. Now they need to get a bunch of back catalog from Activision onto gamepass. It's weird to only see Diablo available so far. COD would bring in a lot of players and subscriptions I suspect. I assume it will happen at some point

Smart money says the first batch will be announced in a couple of weeks.
As they said, getting it right takes time. Expect FPS boost and AutoHDR on a lot of the older games.

While I get that, I think Call of Duty being on Game Pass would draw in a lot more subscriptions. They only need 4 months of subscription to make it break even assuming a 1 to 1 conversion of all buyers to subscribers.

I assume a ton of people will still buy it, but for those that are on the fence a Game Pass subscription is a lot more attractive than forking over $70 all at once. That would result in more players on Xbox, which is desparately needed.

Less.
Remember Activision only gets 70% of list in most cases.
Plus microtransactions, which aren't included in GP.
They should break even in 2 months.

And most COD sales occur on "platforms where Game Pass isn't" to paraphrase Spencer's line on XBOX exclusives.

The risk is minimal, with the reward being anything but.
The only surprise is there was any debate.

 

[Midi_Amp]

A well calculated move and why sony doesn't need to worry about Call Of Duty being exclusive to Xbox. Simply that Microsoft is betting that call of duty will sell well on the PS platform, covering the lost sales on having it available on game pass.