I don’t think COD will change its platform. Since PS has timed-exclusive DLC, SONY probably has locked COD for many years.
Examples:
5~6 years timed-exclusive DLC
Day 1 release of retail version
Day 1 release also on Sony’s subscription.
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13
- Thread starter Rangers
- Start date
Examples:
5~6 years timed-exclusive DLC
Day 1 release of retail version
Day 1 release also on Sony’s subscription.
You do know that consumers still buy games, despite being on GamePass.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
That's not a RoI because it has no tangible value, and IPs value is relative to value and demand.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Game Pass and Xbox Cloud are their big push at the moment. If those are where they see the future of gaming going then it doesn't really matter to them whether someone buys Xbox or not. It only matters that they have a device that can play Game Pass games or can run Xbox Cloud.
Currently this means that they don't care if people have an Xbox or a PC. Xbox is there for people that either cannot afford a PC or prefer console gaming. PC is there for people that don't want to game on console and can afford a PC.
Same reason they don't mind having their games on Steam. Sure they "lose" 30% from each sale, but they are gaining 70% of that sale where if the game weren't on Steam, they would "lose" 0% but they'd also "gain" 0% additional revenue from a sale on Steam that wouldn't be happening on either Xbox or the MS store.
How about this. MS uses COD as leverage to get Sony to allow Xbox Cloud on PlayStation consoles. Maybe even try to get Game Pass on PlayStation consoles. That last is obviously unlikey, but then who would have predicted MS buying Activision-Blizzard.
COD makes Sony a lot of money. Would Sony be willing to allow Xbox Cloud on PlayStation consoles if it meant that it would guarantee that MS continues to release COD on PlayStation consoles?
On the flip side, having COD on PlayStation doesn't really hurt MS as they'll still be bringing in 100's of millions of USD (possibly billions) a year via sales of COD on PlayStation consoles.
Doing so also allows them to potentially avoid some major negative gamer backlash and negative publicity. And if they can get Xbox Cloud on PlayStation consoles, that would be a win for them.
Regards,
SB
Those 100+ million PlayStation owners aren't likely to be Game Pass subscribers. Microsoft knows Sony isn't going to allow Game Pass/Xbox Cloud on their console. Microsoft's goal is almost certainly to push Sony out of the market entirely. Removing Sony's access to the biggest games is a near guaranteed way to do that.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
They obviously do, but nobody knows how much because it's not published. 25m GamePass subscribers is a relatively large chunk of the Xbox user base and it's well documented that outside of Nintendo consoles, even über popular games rarely sell to 20% of the console base. How much actual profit is there?
This is the most frustrating thing, the utter lack of transparency in 20 years of the Xbox business. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. You can't answer or counter Shifty's question because there is literally no information. Microsoft do focus their financial reports on the most profitable parts of Microsoft's business so what does that tell you? The sheer numbers - a $70b acquisition of a company who, at most, took $2.4 revenue (not profit) in a quarter selling to multiple platforms - so these are valid questions.
Sounds like a lot, but it's only like 5x what Take 2 spent on Zynga, isn't it?
Silent_Buddha
Legend
MS are 100% not interested in pushing Sony out of the console gaming market.
The fewer competitors you have the more closely the government will look at your actions and more you have to restrict your activity to avoid triggering any closer government scrutiny. This is especially true if you are as large a corporation as MS is.
Regards,
SB
It's hard to tell how long they have the contract for . Hasn't this been going on since 2015 ?
Just out of curiosity, is there any data showing if XBSX|S physical/digital single title sales have been affected by GamePass subscriptions? The only thing that I can surmise from UK chart sales and NPD data is that physical/digital single sales [splits/share] have grown even larger in Sony's favor since GamePass.
That's I guess the initial interpretation - on its own at current earnings, AB would have paid itself in how long? Let's say $2 billion profit a year out of my arse - that's 35 years. But then you have to guess in how overall XB business will grow with people buying XB instead of PS and additional title revenues. But then you have to factor in people subbing to GP instead of buying these AB titles and getting them for less money, decreasing earning power per title.
It's really quite unfathomable, and I think MS don't really have a plan to make that money back per se - they are just growing and can afford to. Maybe they'll never really make it back, not in a meaningful time frame, but it doesn't really matter. Although I would have thought they'd need some good arguments for the investors, but maybe they don't need real numbers for that and can just woo them with buzzwords?
Has anyone had a stab at trying to figure out the return on Mojang thus far?
Nintendo is their desired competitor and probably suffices in keeping the gov from intervening.MS are 100% not interested in pushing Sony out of the console gaming market.
The fewer competitors you have the more closely the government will look at your actions and more you have to restrict your activity to avoid triggering any closer government scrutiny. This is especially true if you are as large a corporation as MS is.
Regards,
SB
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yeah, would love to have actual numbers. So we can only look at circumstantial "evidence". For example, Forza Horizon 5 selling better than any previous entry in either Forza series despite being on Game Pass. And now, Halo: Infinite being #1 in sales for both Xbox and PC as well as #2 for all games sold in the US for Dec. Again, despite being on Game Pass.
People argue that Game Pass reduces sales of games, but I'd argue that depending on the game, Game Pass can actually increase sales of a game. The more people playing it, the more word of mouth and potentially more sales. Especially if people who are talking about it are people who in the past would never buy that "genre" of games, but enjoyed it after playing it on GP and then talk about it to their group of friends who also don't typically buy or play games in that "genre" of games.
Regards,
SB
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Only if you compare one insane number to number, rather than say.. "hey.. can they actually make a return on this before humans die out?"
You think company that big as MSFT dont have smart people to figure it out and just throwing away money left and right? I think they know exactly what they are doing, we may not see whole picture right now
Minecraft earned enough back in 2 Quarters or less. Pretty sure it was even posted about on these forums at the time.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
No, we unfortunately don't have any numbers. The only thing MS has ever said about it is that Game Pass subscribers on average spend about 50% more on games than non-Game Pass subscribers.
Regards,
SB
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
The lack of transparency is why these questions get raised all the time. There is an easy answer: the be more transparent about these parts of Microsoft's business. As as I said in an earlier post, if nothing else comes of this it should result in a shareholder direction that Microsoft needs to include more information in their financial reports about how these sizeable investments are paying over over time. I.e. we may actually get some real data about Microsoft's Xbox business. After 20+ years.
Call of duty has generated more than 11 Billion in revenue since 2003. WOW is over 10 Billion IIRC as well. And that doesn't count Candy Crush and all the other stuff Activision makes. It might take them 20 years to break even, so it's like they are a normal person who bought a house.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
The fact that people need to argue about things like this is the problem. Other companies releases sales numbers and revenue numbers and profit/loss numbers. With Xbox, there is.. nothing.
Similar threads
