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Is MS is going to Kill Game Pass Before CoD releases?

Is Game Pass dead by the end of the year?


  • Total voters
    442
  • This poll will close: .

Shut0wen

Member
Why when you can dump cod onto it, personally i reckon there best plan would be to dump the last cod onto the platform before the new one releases and then dump that game onto game pass a year later, seems to work for EA
 

yurinka

Member
It wouldn't make sense at all to shut down GP, it's the main USP MS has regarding gaming.

What I think would make more business sense would be:
  • To don't include CoD and other top AAA 1st party games at launch on GP, wait for a year or two after release to include it as Sony does, once they sold most of their units
  • If they continue including them day one there, include them only in the GPU tier, after increasing again its pricing
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Not putting new CoD day one on GamePass is “killing GamePass”? 😆
Ask someone what makes Game Pass better than Plus, and the vast majority will say exclusives day one.

Change that and Game Pass is more similar to PS Plus vs different.

I agree with those saying it won't be dead, but it will be different.

MS painted themselves into this corner. Such a massive self own.
 

Fredrik

Member
there is not growth. that's the issue.. Game Pass is not growing.
Still better to keep it alive than kill it, it’s a lot of $$$ per month even if people starts to drop off, and subscription services is likely where the industry is heading so they need something in that space.
and I think day one games are not even coming to game pass core, right?
Yeah as far as I know Gamepass Core is just a renamed Xbox Live, I think it has a small number of included games but don’t quote me on that.
Not even jez corden believes this is going to be a success. think about it.
It’s not about believing it’ll be a success, it’s about understanding what they will likely do. How else would they reach every screen? Watch the Sarah Bond Bloomberg interview and have that thought in your mind. And never underestimate the greed there, exclusives will happen there sooner later, it’s going to be awful but they’ll still do it. More publishers will do the same thing. Enjoy what we have is all I can say, things won’t get better anytime soon 😔
 

Topher

Gold Member
Bobby Kotick said flatly that he wouldn't put COD on a subscription. ABK is the gaming cash cow at Microsoft. Xbox is lanquishing and Microsoft Gaming would be in the red last quarter were it not for ABK.

So ABK has the right business plan for making money for Microsoft and it is centered on selling games.

But Microsoft is going to force ABK to adopt the Game Pass business model?

Matthew Broderick GIF
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Bobby Kotick said flatly that he wouldn't put COD on a subscription. ABK is the gaming cash cow at Microsoft. Xbox is lanquishing and Microsoft Gaming would be in the red last quarter were it not for ABK.

So ABK has the right business plan for making money for Microsoft and it is centered on selling games.

But Microsoft is going to force ABK to adopt the Game Pass business model?

Matthew Broderick GIF
Kobe Bryant Yes GIF
 
It wouldn't make sense at all to shut down GP, it's the main USP MS has regarding gaming.

What I think would make more business sense would be:
  • To don't include CoD and other top AAA 1st party games at launch on GP, wait for a year or two after release to include it as Sony does, once they sold most of their units
  • If they continue including them day one there, include them only in the GPU tier, after increasing again its pricing
that's would be a nuanced answer. but of course If I had written:

"is Game Pass going to change before CoD releases?"

It wouldn't be as spicy.

If I commit to the bit:

if CoD is not day one on game pass.... GP is effectively dead.

Now, I don't think people really get the severity of the Xbox situation.

I think the experiments are over, wait and see is off the table. Money has to be made NOW.

COD on games pass is not going to save a flawed business model

ARXVMvB.jpeg


even if we slash that number to half... I don't think MS has the patience to wait (especially when projections are not encouraging) and Xbox is bleeding money
 

Gambit2483

Member
They've been training their userbase for YEARS to not buy games...and I highly doubt they are going to kill Gamepass after they've just reportedly downsized their physical marketing team a few months ago.

MS is clearly pushing for a digital future, which is Gamepass.
 

Fredrik

Member
Bobby Kotick said flatly that he wouldn't put COD on a subscription. ABK is the gaming cash cow at Microsoft. Xbox is lanquishing and Microsoft Gaming would be in the red last quarter were it not for ABK.

So ABK has the right business plan for making money for Microsoft and it is centered on selling games.

But Microsoft is going to force ABK to adopt the Game Pass business model?

Matthew Broderick GIF
COD may be doing alright now but imagine what will happen once they stumble on a release… Then it’s all coming down.

Meanwhile everybody seems to say that AAA quality and $70 per copy with longer and longer dev time isn’t working. Greed always finds a way though, I’m prepared for $100+ games, more microtransactions, episodic releases and in-game ads.

Getting people onto a subscription plan for a monthly tick is probably nice and personally I have nothing against subscription libraries, I like cheap gaming. But at this point I would like a way to keep using Steam. The GP versions can be older and mods might not work and betas are always up on Steam first. I think they need to do more there, no idea what can be done though without breaking things for Valve.
 

rm082e

Member
I don't see how they could possibly think they will get to even 50 million GP subs at this point. Growth has been flat for multiple quarters. If the service isn't making them enough money, why keep investing in it?

On top if that, if they put COD games on it (not just the new on this year), they're just going to lose out on the sales from exising GP subs who would have bought it.

I think it's more likely they just stop putting new games on it. This year's COD is a standard $70 release, and GP just withers away over time getting older titles that aren't going to sacrifice sales.
 
They're more likely to raise prices in the hope that people will pay regardless to cover the cost of CoD. The most telltale sign is the 3:1 ratio if registered 3:2 if not. It means they expect a bunch of people to run out at a specific time at which point a price hike is expected. I'd give it till August /September.
This is what Nintendo did. Went from free to $25 a year due to Smash Bros.
 

Gojiira

Banned
No, after all the gaslighting they did to convince everyone and themselves about how successful its been, how great a deal it is etc etc etc. No they wont scrap it but they will change it.
 

bender

What time is it?
that's would be a nuanced answer. but of course If I had written:

"is Game Pass going to change before CoD releases?"

It wouldn't be as spicy.

If I commit to the bit:

if CoD is not day one on game pass.... GP is effectively dead.

Now, I don't think people really get the severity of the Xbox situation.

I think the experiments are over, wait and see is off the table. Money has to be made NOW.

COD on games pass is not going to save a flawed business model

ARXVMvB.jpeg


even if we slash that number to half... I don't think MS has the patience to wait (especially when projections are not encouraging) and Xbox is bleeding money

Slash which number in half?
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
GP is what put Xbox in this situation
Dropping the ball with lackluster games with massive IPs is what put Xbox in this situation

GP didn't cause failures like Redfall or let downs like Halo Infinite or Starfield, those games had every chance in the world to be good if not great but lack of leadership to identify great games is killing Xbox
 

GHG

Gold Member
Bobby Kotick said flatly that he wouldn't put COD on a subscription. ABK is the gaming cash cow at Microsoft. Xbox is lanquishing and Microsoft Gaming would be in the red last quarter were it not for ABK.

So ABK has the right business plan for making money for Microsoft and it is centered on selling games.

But Microsoft is going to force ABK to adopt the Game Pass business model?

Matthew Broderick GIF

If they put COD on gamepass then judging by their recent actions, all of the COD dev studios come under threat.

Insane if you ask me, but I'd like to see them do it for science. The subsequent fallout could be a sight to behold. If people think the last week has been drama, then they haven't seen anything yet.
 
But Microsoft is going to force ABK to adopt the Game Pass business model?
that's where the internal politics get spicy.

if I'm an ABK executive, I'm just laughing at the sheer incompetency of Xbox executives. and I would ask.... why the fuck should I answer to Xbox, when we are the ones making the money?

and we know, there are bonuses based on MC scores and sales milestones.

Dropping the ball with lackluster games with massive IPs is what put Xbox in this situation

GP didn't cause failures like Redfall or let downs like Halo Infinite or Starfield, those games had every chance in the world to be good if not great but lack of leadership to identify great games is killing Xbox
oh no, no, no, no, no. I would put it in this way:


this is MS trying to make games:
Mx1akHe.gif



Then you throw this, (Game Pass) to the whole operation:
66jZ0yE.gif



The idea of GP gave the green light for Xbox to spend around 100B over a span of 5 years.

we know GP killed the economy of gaming inside the Xbox's ecosystem.

So, you have an incompetent team and a division that can't sustain itself in the first place, and then you throw this "life saver" that ended up being a massive anchor.

without game pass, MS would have given up with Xbox 6-7 years ago.
 

GHG

Gold Member
if I'm an ABK executive, I'm just laughing at the sheer incompetency of Xbox executives. and I would ask.... why the fuck should I answer to Xbox, when we are the ones making the money?

This is the thing, Activison Blizzard is the only thing holding the whole operation afloat right now, and they want to risk it all? They want to risk their 75 billion acquisition that they fought oh so hard for and even threatened governments over?

If they do then me joking that the following summarises Phil Spencer's attitude becomes 100% true:

Money GIF
 
without game pass, MS would have given up with Xbox 6-7 years ago.
agreed. which's why they're now stuck not only with the ramifications of bailing on their console & going third-party publisher, but also with somehow dealing with the 'day 1 game pass' conundrum. the infamous 'double-whammy', & basically all self-inflicted...
 

nosoynadie22

Gold Member
Dropping the ball with lackluster games with massive IPs is what put Xbox in this situation

GP didn't cause failures like Redfall or let downs like Halo Infinite or Starfield, those games had every chance in the world to be good if not great but lack of leadership to identify great games is killing Xbox
they certainly can't identify great games
 
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Stooky

Member
let’s see. cod day one on gp. microsoft closes more studios and lays off ppl to make up for the loss in revenue.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Microsoft just launches stuff with no regard (zune, Kinect, game pass etc.) you got to have intention behind these things.
 

DeepSpace5D

Member
A large portion of the Xbox base is conditioned to wait for Gamepass for day 1 releases from their first-party. So the question I’m thinking is, if they killed Gamepass would those people just accept it and go back to buying games en masse? That is doubtful to me. Instead, I think you would see blowback and criticism on a level that would make the recent studio closures seem trivial by comparison.

So I think they are still all in on Gamepass. As for Call of Duty, I can see them do things like a full month of early access sales or even longer before it’s put on the service, increasing the tier of Gamepass where CoD can be accessed, or something along those lines to increase their revenue without having to abandon the model.

Killing Gamepass entirely would cause a damn riot I’d imagine.
 

N1tr0sOx1d3

Given another chance
I think they will go for a 2 tier subscription. Higher tier will include AAA games like COD.
Could be wrong……..watch this space I suppose.
 
A large portion of the Xbox base is conditioned to wait for Gamepass for day 1 releases from their first-party. So the question I’m thinking is, if they killed Gamepass would those people just accept it and go back to buying games en masse? That is doubtful to me. Instead, I think you would see blowback and criticism on a level that would make the recent studio closures seem trivial by comparison.
there are Xbox influencers saying this:
106CGAp.jpeg

and after the closure of studios people are saying this:
rAJc4Cj.jpeg
D9kDqxh.jpeg
rH4LgEL.jpeg
SIw332p.jpeg
U2OxbiU.jpeg

people are realizing that Game Pass is too good to be true (that's the the kind way of put it). others say Game Pass is killing devs.

The brand is in such shitty state that they killing game pass only will signify the death of xbox altogether.

So I think they are still all in on Gamepass.
they will be all in on gamepass if they can make money.... so far this is not the case. that is the issue.

and growth projections are not encouraging



As for Call of Duty, I can see them do things like a full month of early access sales or even longer before it’s put on the service
that's Killing game pass.

, increasing the tier of Gamepass where CoD can be accessed, or something along those lines to increase their revenue without having to abandon the model.
they are going to increse prices no matter what.

but again, the urgent matter is for Xbox to actually make money now. otherwise it dosen't make sense to kill any studio in a Game Pass future. (where they need a constant cadence of game releases)


Killing Gamepass entirely would cause a damn riot I’d imagine.
absolutely. But I think you'd be surprised that there will be a lot of "important" people having a positive reaction to this news.

The drama will be on the fanboys side...and the Xbox cummunity already had their Armageddon... only some are clinging to their love for the brand...but is damn close to be over.
 

DeepSpace5D

Member
there are Xbox influencers saying this:
106CGAp.jpeg

and after the closure of studios people are saying this:
rAJc4Cj.jpeg
D9kDqxh.jpeg
rH4LgEL.jpeg
SIw332p.jpeg
U2OxbiU.jpeg

people are realizing that Game Pass is too good to be true (that's the the kind way of put it). others say Game Pass is killing devs.

The brand is in such shitty state that they killing game pass only will signify the death of xbox altogether.
That might be what the influencers are saying, but I’m not sure if what they say has enough of an effect to change the spending habits of the Gamepass user base. Some of them are even admitting their opinion is an unpopular one.
 

DrFigs

Member
I think putting COD on gamepass would basically ruin xbox as a company. It's such a horrifically bad idea. I think xbox is probably reconsidering adding all first party games on gamepass day 1. not sure if that constitutes as killing it tho.
 
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That might be what the influencers are saying, but I’m not sure if what they say has enough of an effect to change the spending habits of the Gamepass user base. Some of them are even admitting their opinion is an unpopular one.
i think influencers, fanboys and media are kind of an extension of marketing/PR. they will inform or set a narrative to "normies"

while consumer behavior is not going to change (and is not really the point)

it informs them that things are not really working.

something similar happened to movie pass.
 
💯 % not happening. Game Pass has become the cornerstone of their whole gaming business. It’s replacing consoles for them. As well as traditional game sales. The price of the subscription, like any subscription, will slowly increase over time.

They view Game Pass as their market differentiator that allows someone on any device they own to play Xbox games whenever and wherever they are, which is their entire goal.
 
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