The Microsoft v. FTC trial has seen some wild exchanges come up which has led to interesting details being revealed about the Activision acquisition, and one such exchange comes from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who says he wouldn’t consider putting Call of Duty on Game Pass day one of launch.
For those familiar with Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft routinely puts many of its games, including big releases, on the service on the first day of launch. It’s part of what makes the subscription service such a good value for customers. As they don’t have to buy the game for $50, $60, or even $70 for either PC or Xbox consoles. But that value is not exactly there from an executive’s perspective.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says services like Game Pass are “value destructive” for publishers. Going on to say that he talks to lots of publishers regularly and that they hate the service. Kotick seems to somewhat agree with this stance.
Activision CEO hasn’t considered Call of Duty on Game Pass because it’s not good for business
Some players would no doubt love to have Call of Duty on Game Pass day one. Understandably, given the amount of money they’d save. But for Kotick, he says a reason he wouldn’t put the game on Game Pass is because it’s not good for business.
Kotick also states he hasn’t considered putting the game on other streaming services because the commercial value for Call of Duty is too high. And that no companies have reached out at the price he wants. There are only so many streaming services out there. So it’s reasonable to assume that this includes the big players like Luna and GeForce NOW in addition to Xbox Game Pass.
Of course, if the acquisition goes through, CoD on Game Pass wouldn’t be Kotick’s decision any more, and he says as much. Make no mistake though, Bobby Kotick wants the sale to go through. And downplaying the legitimacy of Game Pass in addition to agreeing that it’s not good for business, is in a sense good for business. Because it could help sway the judge’s decision to approve the deal.
Bobby Kotick basically says the commercial value (price) for CoD on subscription service is too high and no companies have reached out at the price he wants
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) June 28, 2023
2023-06-30 15:14:43