Microsoft’s ambition to become the “Netflix of video games” faces a big test this week with the release of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” on Friday. The US software giant bought game publisher Activision-Blizzard for $69 billion a year ago in the sector’s biggest acquisition yet.
Activision’s prized property was the “Call of Duty” franchise, one of the world’s best-selling games, and Friday’s release will be the first in a series that will be available from day one on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
The game will be available for PlayStation users as well as PC.
Matt Piscatella of analyst firm Circana told AFP it was the “largest effort” ever undertaken to consolidate any subscription platform.
Video game companies once made money by selling hard copies of their games to console players.
But the industry now profits from in-game sales and subscriptions on a model like Netflix or Disney+.
“How consumers respond could result in a dramatic shift in the industry toward — or away from — the subscription model,” said Piscatella of the “Call of Duty” release.
‘Something for everyone’
Microsoft isn’t messing with its ambitions for Game Pass.
It aims to have 100 million customers by 2030.
But the industry has slowed since the pandemic boom, when most of the world was spending time confined to their homes.
As of February this year, Game Pass had approximately 34 million subscribers.
For Friday’s release, Microsoft has changed its pricing and only subscribers to the most expensive “Ultimate” tier will get the game when it launches.
Despite the game’s immense importance to Microsoft’s business, the creators were keen to promote the game’s merits.
“There’s really something for everyone in Black Ops 6,” Stephanie Snowden, Call of Duty Studios’ head of communications, told AFP at a promotional event in London.
Players are immersed in an alternate reality of conspiracy and paranoia during the 1991 Gulf War.
But he stressed that the game is not saying anything about contemporary divisions in the United States or the upcoming presidential election.
“We consider this a big blockbuster and entertainment moment of the year,” he said. “But we’re not sending any kind of political message.”
‘Very wonderful’
The saga has grossed over $30 billion worldwide in just over 20 years.
But Brian Comiskey of the Consumer Technology Association, an industry group, said that when Microsoft bought Activision it got much more than a simple gaming title.
“It’s not just a sport, it’s a community,” he told AFP.
The first “Call of Duty” game was pioneering by allowing multiple players to join the same game online.
Many of those players have grown up together, playing games 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,” Comiskey said.
So these older players can get involved even if the game isn’t as impressive.
“The interest isn’t necessarily always in the content,” he said. “That’s just a cherry on top.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
