You might recall it was a big deal when Microsoft announced it would spend $69 billion to buy Activision Blizzard. After all, the company had some of the biggest IPs in gaming, including the industry-leading FPS that continually sold tens of millions of units every year. The latest entry, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, would be a key entry for a basic reason: there would be a bunch of focus on the Xbox side of the equation this time around. Yes, the game was still multiplatform, but the inclusion of the title as a “Day One” entry on Xbox Game Pass was meant to help shift things back to Microsoft’s side of the coin.
While we know that the game has had good sales, as predicted by pretty much everyone, the “finer details” are still left to be determined in full. Enter Mat Piscatella, a gaming analyst who provides accurate data about the gaming industry in the United States, and on BlueSky, he made a multi-tier post about what has been going on since the game’s launch on Xbox and PlayStation.
Here is the main statement from his analysis of the game’s launch:
“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Game Pass did a few things in the US… it resulted in a subscription spending boost, shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware.”
Mat went on to note that things regarding the “success” or “failure” of this gambit is still “open,” as it’s not something that can be answered within the first month of release.
However, this points to a recurring issue/problem with the Xbox Game Pass as a whole. As a service, it’s a boon to gamers, as they can get gamers at a MUCH lower cost and have access to numerous titles after they’re done with one title, thus making the service cost-effective…for gamers.
On the flip side, Microsoft often pays out the nose to get games as “Day One Exclusives” for the Game Pass, which means if they don’t get steady increases in subscription numbers, the company loses money. Sure enough, that’s been a serious problem for them, especially thanks to the stagnant Xbox Series X hardware sales.
The fact that people are buying the game in full more on PlayStation 5 shows where “loyalties lie” in many respects, so what happens next on both sides will be curious to watch.
