Microsoft’s ambition to become the “Netflix of video games” faces a huge test this week with the release of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” on Friday.
The US software giant bought the game’s publisher Activision-Blizzard a year ago for $69 billion in the sector’s biggest takeover.
Activision’s prized asset was the “Call of Duty” franchise, one of the world’s best-selling games, and Friday’s release will be the first in the series to be available from day one on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
The game will also be available to PlayStation users — as well as on PC.
Mat Piscatella from analyst firm Circana told AFP it was “the biggest push” anyone had made to bolster a subscription platform.
Video game companies once made their money from selling hard copies of their games to players who were plugged into consoles.
But the industry now gets its profits from in-game sales and subscriptions on a model like Netflix or Disney+.
“How consumers react may result in a dramatic industry shift to — or away — from the subscription model,” said Piscatella of the “Call of Duty” release.
Microsoft is not messing about with its ambitions for Game Pass.
It has a target of 100 million customers by 2030.
But the industry has slowed since the boom-time of the pandemic when much of the world spent time confined to their homes.
As of February this year, Game Pass had around 34 million subscribers.
For Friday’s release, Microsoft has rejigged its pricing and only subscribers to the most expensive “Ultimate” tier will get the game as it launches.
Despite the vital importance of the game to Microsoft’s business, the makers were keen to promote the strengths of the game itself.
“There’s really something for everyone with Black Ops 6,” Stephanie Snowden, communications head at Call of Duty Studios, told AFP on the sidelines of a promotional event in London.
Players are plunged into an alternate reality of conspiracy and paranoia during the 1991 Gulf War.
But she insisted the game was not saying anything about contemporary divisions in the United States, or the forthcoming presidential election.
“We consider it like a giant blockbuster moment and entertainment moment of the year,” she said. “But we’re not sending any kind of political message.”
The saga has generated more than $30 billion in revenue worldwide in a little over 20 years.
But Brian Comiskey of the Consumer Technology Association, an industry group, said Microsoft got more than just a straightforward gaming title when it bought Activision.
“It’s not just a game, it’s a community,” he told AFP.
The first “Call of Duty” games were pioneers by allowing many players to join the same game online.
Many of those players have grown up together, playing the game with each other no matter where they are in the world.
“Video gaming is a social media platform and Call of Duty has been doing that for a very long time,” said Comiskey.
So these older players may well get involved even if the game itself is not so impressive.
“The interest isn’t necessarily always the content,” he said. “That’s just a cherry on top.”
