Update:
Since the trailer dropped it has been viewed over 71K times. Here are what some viewers had to say.
We’d love to see more of this type marketing.
Maruf Hasan – YouTube Comment
The best game subscription! Huge number of new titles to play.
Nick Ran Toymaker – YouTube Comment
Needs to be brought to steam deck natively.
Kieran Briggs – YouTube Comment
Original Story…
Microsoft recently had a ton of online chatter because of their massive bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. They hoped this deal would go through within 2023, but after the CMA regulator blocked it, we’re looking at appeals. For Xbox gamers, in particular, this deal would have meant a ton of new exciting games hitting the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Unfortunately, since that didn’t go through, we are still getting some marketing material drops for Xbox Game Pass in hopes of persuading more players to subscribe.
One of the biggest franchises players were watching with Microsoft’s bid to acquire Activision Blizzard was Call of Duty. This deal initially had plenty of attention on this franchise by regulators, but Microsoft convinced the regulators that this IP wouldn’t be taken away from competitor platforms. Instead, it would actually reach more players as Microsoft wrote up contract deals to several competitor platforms, such as Nintendo, that guarantee them Call of Duty games for ten years. But again, this deal would have meant Call of Duty, among other IPs owned by Activision Blizzard, would eventually land on Xbox Game Pass.
In fact, we learned today that the latest CMA report revealed the Call of Duty IP wouldn’t have made it onto the Xbox Game Pass subscription service until 2025 if the deal was approved. Still, there were likely plenty of marketing materials to hype up what was to come into the subscription service soon. Instead, since Microsoft is trying to appeal this deal, a new marketing video trailer dropped showing off why players should be subscribing to their Xbox Game Pass service.
The video includes titles that have already dropped or are coming soon, including games like Starfield and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. At any rate, these games might help sway some players onto the subscription service platform, but if you were holding out on getting a subscription until Call of Duty would likely start showing up, you’re going to be out of luck for quite a while.
For those that might not be completely familiar with Xbox Game Pass, this is a subscription service for Xbox consoles along with the PC platform. Players would gain a massive catalog of video game titles to download and play for a monthly fee. This includes all of Microsoft’s first-party video game titles at launch. Additionally, while you can gain these games from the basic tier, there is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This grants you access to both Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold, which means online multiplayer access.
