Let me start by saying I play a lot of Call of Duty. I've been here since the beginning, and since the release of Black Ops 6 (according to the Xbox app), I've spent over 54 days of my life on it.
I also like Black Ops 7, even if I'm taking a little burnout-induced break right now. But following the news that future Call of Duty games won't be added to Xbox Game Pass, I feel like a lingering opinion of mine is being solidified.
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Xbox Game Pass helped Black Ops 6 to the biggest launch in Call of Duty history
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the first new game in the franchise to launch day one in Xbox Game Pass following Microsoft's acquisition.
It was an immediate success. Well, that doesn't really describe it properly. Black Ops 6 was the most successful launch in Call of Duty history. Number one for total players, hours played, and total matches.
Game Pass, of course, wasn't the only reason for all of this. After a couple of frustrating years of Modern Warfare releases, going back to Black Ops definitely helped get players more interested again.
Black Ops 7 didn't fare so well but hardly terrible in the grand scheme of things. It also launched day one, before the round of Game Pass changes that both increased the price and restricted Call of Duty to the most expensive tiers.
Microsoft obviously wants to make a ton of money from Call of Duty, and putting up the price to play on Game Pass was obviously a step to try and recoup that not made from people paying full price for the game. It was reported that the company 'lost' $300 million in revenue.
Yes, it's a business. But Microsoft seems to be hell-bent on continuing to extract the most revenue without actually doing anything about the game. Surely attracting more players should be the priority?
Call of Duty should be a DRAW to Xbox Game Pass
There's still much negativity overall around Call of Duty. Warzone is still pretty painful (Black Ops Royale aside), the constant battle with cheaters never truly goes away, players are fatigued, and above all, I don't think it's a franchise set up for player enjoyment as the primary goal.
Call of Duty feels like it's built to extract every last dollar from its players. The Game Pass experiment has failed in that regard, and so we're back to paying full price.
But for players, we've now lost the easy way to even try the new Call of Duty. Let's face it, with all the negativity out there online, there's got to be a sizeable chunk of players who won't want to part with $80 in the hope that it's fun to play. Call of Duty should be a flagship for Game Pass, something to draw people in.
The Game Pass price cut is a win, sure, but it's also a cut to the quality of the service. People who don't play Call of Duty win, hands down; those of us who do, well, we win a little less.
Now, we'll only get Call of Duty when nobody cares about it. When a new game drops, nobody's going to invest in the old one, are they? And that includes the developers, because new content stops when a new game drops.
Is Modern Warfare 4 going to be good enough to drop out of Game Pass and take on GTA 6?
Here's another thing that looks concerning to me: the timing. This year has a Godzilla-sized monster looming large: GTA 6.
Without Game Pass, Microsoft is now willing to take on Rockstar's goliath head-on in pursuit of both your money and your attention with (the rumored) Modern Warfare 4.
Yeah. Doesn't sound great when you say it. They're different types of game, but GTA 6 isn't just any old game. Rockstar's track record for dropping epics speaks for itself.
By contrast, is Modern Warfare 4 even going to be a good Call of Duty? The trouble is that the franchise looks like remaining on the same path under Microsoft ownership. It's treated like a free-to-play game (yes, Warzone is free-to-play.)
Different players will have different opinions on how they think it should be improved, and I've written in the past about how I think Call of Duty needs to stop being a yearly release.
While I've enjoyed Black Ops 7 myself, I'm a realist, and I appreciate the frustrations of the community. The live service model requires your constant attention, but in many cases, those games aren't $80 plus the additional purchases.
Playing Call of Duty is expensive, and unless something happens in the future, I don't think Game Pass is going to be why revenue continues to drop. Microsoft really does need to figure out what it wants to do with one of gaming's biggest hitters.
Ultimately the Game Pass price cut isn't really a price cut, because Microsoft has made the service worse in the process. There's a bigger discussion to be had about it, like do players really want Fortnite Crew, or other add-ons, in place of big-name day-one releases?
But specifically to Call of Duty, what exactly does the future look like? I don't think Microsoft knows, and I'm not sure the leadership is taking enough of an active role in its development to actually figure it out.
What we need is some clear direction. Messaging from the top that's going to get players excited again and engagement with the people that will truly help get it back to its glory days.
My biggest worry is that it's going to keep going down the road of "how do we make more money" rather than "how do we make it a better game." Microsoft needs to figure it out and make that call.
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