Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Could Drive Millions Of Subscriptions To Xbox Game Pass
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 would be made available on Xbox Game Pass upon release, along with both Modern Warfare III and Warzone titles. While the news may be good for both gamers and Microsoft, other platforms are probably not as thrilled about it. That’s because many believe the move will hurt overall sales, mainly on platforms such as PlayStation and Steam.
As Wedbush CEO Michael Pachter remarked in a recent interview, “Good overall for Microsoft and for consumers. But the headlines will say ‘Call of Duty sales are down’.”
While Pachter and others believe the move will result in three to four million new Game Pass subscriptions, others are not as optimistic. Ampere’s chief games analyst Piers Harding-Rolls thinks it will only result in a 10% increase in Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, or roughly 2.5 million new sign-ups. This is because Harding-Rolls thinks many COD players had already purchased the game on their preferred platform, and will also include others who had a lower tier Game Pass subscription and simply upgraded.
The move by Microsoft may also seem very lucrative out of the gate for the company on the surface, but Harding-Rolls doesn’t think so. He remarked, “There is no doubt that adding the latest Call of Duty will be expensive, at least initially, for Microsoft.”
However, he doesn’t believe it will take long to become a moneymaker for the tech giant, noting, “Call of Duty is increasingly a live-service game first and foremost that monetises strongly in-game. Microsoft will be trading premium full-game sales in exchange for a bigger audience that can be monetise in-game instead.”
Others in the industry point out that while adding Black Ops 6 to Game Pass will drive more Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions initially, it won’t last. This is because of players who will simply cancel, or downgrade their subscription, once they tire of the game. When asked how long he thinks players will stick around, Pachter remarked, “I think the average is closer to six months and a lot play year-round. The year-round players will sign up and stay.”
