Black Ops 6 won’t save Game Pass

When Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard King, the largest acquisition in the video game industry, many simplified it to Xbox purchasing Call of Duty. It would be silly to ignore the influence and income that Blizzard — but especially King — brings to the table, but even Warcraft and Candy Crush don’t carry the same weight in the gaming sphere as Call of Duty.

This entire deal felt like a desperation move on Xbox’s part to try and level the playing field with PlayStation, and CoD was set to be its greatest weapon in that fight. The only question was how Xbox would choose to wield that power.

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After plenty of speculation, rumors, and insider reporting, we know that Xbox is not only keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation, but it is going to honor its promise to bring all of its first-party games day and date to Game Pass. Well, certain tiers of Game Pass now that it has reworked that system to force people to upgrade in order to take advantage of that perk. Game Pass is Xbox’s only shot at clawing its way back as a real player in the game’s business, but so far, it hasn’t been panning out. Black Ops 6 feels like Xbox going all-in one last time on Game Pass, but I don’t believe it can save the service.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Released

October 25, 2024

Developer(s)

Treyarch , Raven Software

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

Game Pass doesn’t appeal to CoD players

They won’t buy a service for one game

With rare exceptions, Call of Duty games have held the best-selling spot every year for close to two decades. Even when the games are middling to poor, fans show up in droves to pick up the latest copy on release. The reason for this is that the vast majority of CoD players aren’t the type like you and me who engross ourselves in the industry reading think pieces, op-eds, or critical previews. They’re the ones who go about their lives as normal, playing the most recent CoD on evenings and weekends, until they see a commercial for the next one and immediately decide to preorder it.

There’s nothing wrong with being that type of player. Not all of us have the time or desire to follow every detail of the games industry and are happy enough grabbing one or two consistent games a year. However, that is the exact opposite market that Game Pass appeals to.

Game Pass is all about volume and variety. That subscription price only makes sense to people who take full advantage of the catalog of games, not someone who sticks with a single title for months at a time. Why would a CoD player pay $20 per month, or $240 a year, for Black Ops 6 when they could just spend $70?

That’s all assuming the majority of CoD players even know about or could access Game Pass. Despite how Xbox seems to be positioning Game Pass as the future for the brand, it does surprisingly little to market it to the masses. Going back to our example of the average CoD player, who may not have heard about Game Pass until now with Black Ops 6 and doesn’t want to bother looking into it. Or, more likely, they are a PS5 player who couldn’t use Game Pass even if they wanted to.

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PlayStation owns the CoD market

Game Pass won’t pull players from their platform

The only way putting Call of Duty on Game Pass could have a chance at making a dent in PlayStation’s lead is if it were available on that platform. Xbox knows it’s lost the console wars, but it also lost the mind share war as a result. The only time we have heard about Xbox since the acquisition is bad news: layoffs, price increases, poor sales performance, delays, and more. PlayStation is by no means without faults (just look at Concord) but it has so much momentum now that it can withstand a few bumps along the road.

Four years into this generation, everyone has more or less made their choice of console. Unless Call of Duty was exclusive on Xbox — Game Pass or not — there’s no single game that will get people to pay for another system. Factor in all those previous reasons for why Game Pass wouldn’t appeal to CoD players in the first place, and you have a lose-lose situation.

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I predict a small spike in Game Pass subscribers in October and November around Black Ops 6’s launch, but this will only be an artificial inflation. A group of PC and Xbox players who want to test out CoD knowing that they will only be playing for a couple of weeks or a month anyway will buy a month of Game Pass (or find a discount deal) and let it lapse right after.

Black Ops 6 will still be a success for Xbox, but only because it will profit from the copies sold on other platforms. I don’t see it breathing any life into Game Pass.