What I mean is that Xbox will report it’s revenue and Activision will too - they aren’t the same thing.
There’s high potential for plenty of scrutiny of what call of duty made per platform, especially with Xbox flirting with releasing first party titles on other platforms, somebody will definitely want to know what it did for Gamepass, and engagement and everything else.
Xbox won’t get a pass to do whatever because activision sells a lot of games on other platforms.
For anyone worried about a potential price increase, CDKEYS is currently selling worldwide GPU 3-month codes for $30.49. I just bought some to make sure they are legit. Topped my subscription off for 3 years.
https://x.com/bossshawnx/status/1792114414252171490?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
If this were to believe to be due to WSJ, Xbox, you MUST capitalize this with CoD like it’s Super Bowl, World Cup, Olympics, Thanksgiving Weekend spectacular, and New Year Countdown combined! If you have to throw a parade that just advertising CoD, so be it! This is your shot.
Take it! IT’S YOURS!
I could swear there was something in the trial about them not increasing the cost of game pass for call of duty but I’d have to look.
I can see additional tiers, I’d love one with dlc included somehow, and I’d not be shocked to see a standalone cloud tier or one supported by ads. But I just don’t see them increasing prices again when it’s been less than a year since they increased. Give it a couple of years and sure maybe but I don’t see it right now.
This would be a bit more impressive if it wasn’t just number one in Xbox consoles, the PS5 and portal and meta quest are all higher on the list than it is, even though honestly its current spot at number thirty in video games isn’t bad. A lot of gift cards and stuff in that list.
They’ll never roll MTX, expansions or season passes into Game Pass. That would be leaving way too much money on the table.
Consider how Activision Blizzard revenue in FY2021 was 61% microtransactions.
Read: nearly the majority of $8 billion in revenue was from MTX.
^ That is why they’re putting CoD in Game Pass. They want more people to give it a spin because those are more potential MTX purchases.
And that’s why they’re making the new mobile store, leading with discounted MTX to draw people in. Regardless of where someone plays CoD, in game stores leave them a workaround from having to transact on MTX, battlepasses and expansions through stores run by Playstation, Steam, Epic, etc.
That’s how Microsoft can put the 30% cut from the Xbox store on the line by allowing console sales to stagnate. Because they stand to make way more by having a store to more directly transact with in game stores, regardless of device where the full game was bought, without having to give up a 30% cut on all those follow on transactions to Playstation, Steam, Epic, etc.
And that’s why they’re willing to put their live service games everywhere possible. Microtransactions are a faster growing source of revenue across mobile, console and PC.
TL; DR Game Pass and multi-plat approach draws people in, in game stores monetize more gamers and play time.
Found this from a filing with the CMA in regards to prices and why increases would be counterproductive
Yeah the MTX/dlc is where the money is
I don’t see them rolling that into GP, even as a higher tier
Yup. And that model is something they extend to other publishers and developers as well, enabling more creators and publishers to reclaim more of their monetization revenue.
And recall the open store app policies they announced back in early 2022 when they announced their mobile store initiative and why they bought ABK. The policies were to offer vendors the ability to transact directly with their customers, without having to go through the Microsoft payment system. That could be highly disruptive if more pubs and devs take an approach of building in-game stores and ways to circumvent Steam, Playstation, Epic and others for all the follow-on MTX transactions.
What’s the upside for Microsoft if a pub/dev wants to transact directly, without letting Microsoft get a cut of those transactions? In an industry moving towards live services, streaming and mobility it all has to be built on the cloud. Every compute cycle and service is an opportunity make money with Azure.
Putting expansions/DLC into a GP tier I think is a good idea, no reason to put MTX in there though like battle passes. DLCs are once every 6 months unlike stuff like BP/cosmetics that come out on a weekly basis and are always there in the store. DLC are part of the hype cycle and are more like new game drops with less of the fuss of an actual game. They don’t have to stop selling the premium upgrades either so they get to double dip like they do now with game purchases.
Ubisoft and EA both have premium versions of their games in subs which includes everything and I sure as hell think XGS/ABK/Bethesda have way more titles and way more worthwhile having a tier than both of those two. Ubisoft+ is $23.95 (Aussie dollars) and EA Play Pro is $24.95 (Aussie dollars) so I could easily see them having a tier like that. Game Pass Ultimate is $18.95 here so it’ll be a $6 increase per month if they went with $24.95 which I would be ok with considering the value for myself. $25 a month is probably the upper limits for me anything more then I’d be starting to question it but for $25 a month with all DLC/premium upgrades it’ll be a slam dunk for myself.
Just out of interest. How’s the conversion trick holding up to that offer? I heard the conversion rate isn’t as great anymore but still saves you money. My 3 year sub runs out in december so I’m unsure whether to buy some of those 3 month subs.
You had me feeling very upbeat for a moment there. I bet it’s the number one seller in “consoles called Xbox Series X” and “Black, rectangular gaming systems with 1TB of storage”
3:2 - Max out your subscription to 3 years, then convert to ultimate and you’ll get 2 years.
Is I believe the current status quo.
Yes I think so too, I just had a look at the PC & Video Games category on the UK page and the first console to appear is the PS5 Slim at #46, Switch OLED at #50 and Series X at #67.
#1 is a PS gift card, followed closely by the Roblox gift card at #2.
EDIT: I just checked the USA and it has PS5 at #25 followed by the Series X at #30.
Its at a 3:2 ratio in most countries, so after it expires, if you get 3 years of Gold (GamePass Core) then 1 month of GamePass Ultimate, you will have 2 years of GamePass Ultimate.
If you have an active GPU sub, then 3 months of Gold (GP Core) will add 50 days of GPU. In Canada, this was the cheapest MS Reward way of extending GPU. The costs were different in the US, so it didnt work for me.
I like the sound of it as a subscriber.
Perhaps it could happen for expansions at the right price, or maybe it would be for select games. I imagine things like WoW and ESO, where an expansion can be the full price of a stand alone game, makes that trickier unless they determine it could drive in a lot of long-term subscribers at a higher tier.
What exactly are you implying here?
We’ve just had a negative shit storm with the recent studio closures. Microsoft proper is holding Xbox accountable for their own finances and all I’m saying is that I’m (as in me) am willing to pay an extra $3 a month for a service that I enjoy and find it to give you an extreme bang for your buck of entertainment.
But if you want to find out if I’m an “actual consumer and/or fan” I guess you could have just looked up my profile with same name. 
