Microsoft is reportedly considering dropping Call of Duty from its Game Pass Day One offering.
Windows Central’s Jez Corden claims Xbox is considering taking “Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year” due to “cracks in the strategy” of its Game Pass subscription service.
“I think one of the reasons [Microsoft] had to [raise the price of Game Pass] is Call of Duty. Like, Game Pass has disrupted Call of Duty’s business model in a pretty negative way, you know?” he said in his latest video (embedded above).
“If you get a big game like Call of Duty in there, Call of Duty is going to vacuum up a lot of that revenue, which kind of eats into how much money you’ve got month over month to actually get new content.
“Call of Duty is so big even in an off-year that it sort of harms Game Pass, but at the same time, the idea that you don’t have to buy Call of Duty and get it for cheaper also hurts Call of Duty in reverse, you know? So part of me wonders, is there a universe where we get more tiers and maybe some of the big service games go into some kind of super tier, and then they sort of pull it back to a cheaper price point for most games.”
Later in the video, Corden added: “If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard, I think it’ll kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly, but I don’t know.
“Revenue was down because Call of Duty revenue was down, and Call of Duty is not exclusive.”
If true, it’s not the only change coming to Xbox. Earlier this week, we reported that Xbox is making some major changes to its Achievements, including customisation options for Achievement pop-ups, the ability to highlight certain 100 per cent completions, and the ability to hide other games you’re not so keen to boast about.
