Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” released on Friday and all eyes are on the title as the first real test of how Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of the company could pay off.
Critics review scores aren’t up on Metacritic yet, but audience reviews stand at 7.6/10 at time of writing, which is one of the best scores for the franchise in years.
On Steam, several thousand reviews are in and the reaction is mixed which is an improvement on the ‘Mostly Negative’ reception of the two most recent “Modern Warfare” titles but not quite as good as the ‘Very Positive’ reception to the last Black Ops title.
GamesIndustry.biz reported this week that according to leading analysts, having the new game debut on Day One on Microsoft Game Pass could result in up to 6 million copies lost in direct sales, but also could result in 3-4 million sign-ups to Game Pass.
Another says they expect less subscribers with a 2.5 million increase in Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, a ‘good chunk’ of which will be those upgrading from Game Pass Core and Game Pass Standard to ‘Ultimate’ (the only tier COD is Day One on) as opposed to new subscribers.
That second analyst also suggests that lost premium sales could be alleviated by other forms of monetisation and, as the title is “increasingly a live-service game first and foremost,” monetising in-game will be key to its fortunes.
All the analysts for the piece also say one thing is essential – it all depends on whether Xbox can retain the new subscribers it brings in beyond the game’s launch period.
Growth of game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus have been stalled for some time, a problem for Xbox in particular where Game Pass has been a cornerstone of their strategy. If “Call of Duty” can’t deliver new growth, what could?
