OK, here’s my take on this as a layperson and consumer who doesn’t know/care much about Call of Duty, leaving aside other properties (for all intents and purposes, please assume that by “Xbox” I mean the Xbox ecosystem):
- This doesn’t take anything away from me
- It’s cool that people who can’t get an Xbox won’t get locked out of games
I think that there are a few differences between this and the Zenimax acquisition and that part of the uproar here is due to the fact that we made assumptions based on how MS are handling that one. It’s super hard to dissociate what we know with what we think we know, especially if we read a lot of discussion about the subject, and it’s jarring when reality doesn’t end up matching our expectations.
The main difference is of course the price tag. I think it was Grubb who said on a Giant Bombcast that the folks at MS ran the numbers on multiple scenarios and decided that the amount of money they lost from exclusivity was worth it. I’m guessing that they did the same thing here and came up with a different answer since the variables are on another level entirely.
The number one thing to remember as a result of this acquisition (aside from this being - hopefully - a lifeline to employees in terrible working conditions, which is much more important than software exclusivity) is that this is a massive boon to MS in several ways, some of which won’t affect us as consumers. But setting that aside here are some positives for consumers off the top of my head:
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Many more developers for first-party titles means more day one (and, ostensibly,) quality Game Pass releases
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Sharing of new tools and know-how among first-party developers leading to more polished/innovative games
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I’m no economist but I think this move will be a big factor in increasing Xbox marketshare which is a win for us because it makes the platform harder to skip for third-party developers, and how competition is usually beneficial to consumers.
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I’m no lawyer but I think this will make the acquisition oversight go more smoothly and (admittedly wishful thinking) might open the door for more acquisitions in the near future. This post is already long enough without my going into why I feel more Xbox acquisitions is good for us as primarily-Xbox consumers.
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I’m no software developer but I think it will essentially guarantee that the Xbox versions of future games will be held to a higher standard than currently. I don’t know anything about Minecraft or its relative performance across platforms so I could be way off base here.
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If you prefer playing on a different box, you don’t have to have a foot in two ecosystems to keep playing this series you like, which is great. I don’t like playing the whataboutism game but I think this is cool and also what is going to happen with Destiny? Don’t care about Destiny so I didn’t look too closely.
If your concern is that this means a primarily PS player won’t have to get Game Pass or an Xbox to play these games then I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t think of a reason to be upset about that. Charitably I guess you could see it as “More people would have to get Xboxes and that’s good for us.” to which I’d answer that I really believe more people will get Xboxes even without exclusivity.
There are plenty of ways Call of Duty: World War Ten could be more appealing on Xbox than PlayStation (better performance, exclusive game pass perks, earlier release) and there’s one we know will be happening no matter what: guaranteed day one release on Game Pass. Yes, MS could just slap down tons of money each year but at one point buying the farm makes more financial sense than buying the milk, you know?
I’m going to assume most people in this thread have a GP subscription or have at least tried it. I think it’s a great service but the biggest malus is the uncertainty. Oh this game looks cool but will it hit game pass, oh such-and-such game hit game pass a year after release so maybe the sequel will too. Not an issue ever again in this case.
I keep seeing in enthusiast circles that Game Pass is the best deal in gaming, but I hardly ever see it mentioned outside of these circles. I have friends who are very hardcore about gaming but only vaguely know about it and never looked into it, thinking it’s like GameFly or whatever.
MS need a huge shift in perception here and having CoD day 1 for ten bucks a month is surely going to catch some eyes if the alternative is seventy bucks. The goal isn’t to make people have to get an Xbox, it’s to make people want or even need to have a GP subscription. Step one is to make people aware of it, and providing a contrast between the two value propositions here is an excellent tool. And every new first-party game they put on there just makes the deal harder to ignore. This will get people TALKING because the vast majority of people who walk into an electronic retailers don’t go in with an allegiance in place, they go in looking to get the most bang for their buck.
Sure, MS are competing with Sony, and converting a user from PS to Xbox means more money in their pockets. So how do they do that? Making the Xbox the best place to play. Better services, better hardware, great software, full stop. When the last generation was drawing to a close, I looked at what both sides offered and decided that Xbox was the way to go for most of my needs. And they just keep getting better, it seems.
At the end of the day, it comes down to this: nobody is immune to making boneheaded decisions; who could forget the attempt at the Gold price hike? We have neither the acumen nor the data Spencer and his team have access to. Given the terrific job they’ve done righting the ship, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Also it’s just games lol
