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Phil Spencer confirms Overwatch, Diablo and Call Of Duty are headed to Game Pass

Punished Miku

Gold Member
As for Gunk, I was actually interested in it until I read reviews and impressions...my understanding it's nothing to actually get Gamepass for. I think I might check it out though, you're the first person that has actually recommended it šŸ˜…
It's nothing mind blowing, but I finished it and thought it was worth a playthrough. I don't know what people expected from this team lol, I really don't. It feels like a lost Gamecube adventure game with chill gameplay and light puzzles.

The team went from this:

f1uX19K.jpg


To this:

vVMta02.jpg


People's expectations were pretty unrealistically ridiculous. I don't know if anyone talking shit on it even played their previous games.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
woah im surprise , I thought Microsoft going to release COD on PS PLUS instead! nice phil!
 

jorgejjvr

Member
It's nothing mind blowing, but I finished it and thought it was worth a playthrough. I don't know what people expected from this team lol, I really don't. It feels like a lost Gamecube adventure game with chill gameplay and light puzzles.

The team went from this:

f1uX19K.jpg


To this:

vVMta02.jpg


People's expectations were pretty unrealistically ridiculous. I don't know if anyone talking shit on it even played their previous games.
I want more og dig from then, dig 3 plz
 

Darsxx82

Member
It refers to what is said "like COD". But there is focusing the answer only on COD and not on the rest of franchises.

The prominent accent is"day one and same version" and that only determines for COD and not the rest.Clearly it is leaving the door open for the rest of the IPs not to enter that cuador (day one and same version). That is, you can see exclusives, temporary exclusives or "better on Xbox" with the rest of the franchises.
 

Schmick

Member
Again its good to see that MS continue to regard Gamepass as an option for gamers. All this hate towards subscription services over concern that they will take away the option to buy games continues to be unwarranted.

But also... and i'm surprised this even needs to be brought up... all first party MS Games go on Gamepass day one.

This is the new console war line in EVERY subscription thread about new content on the subscription. Its so fucking irritating.
I'll admit I used to write it. Really, just for the laughs. But now I find it as irritating as the another one.gif and I'm a Gamepass and PS Extra subscriber.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
If the mentioned games hit Gamepass day 1 then I honestly canā€™t understand how the service is going to be sustainable?
Phil has already said itā€™s sustainable now. But since Microsoft doesnā€™t allow anonymous posters on a video game forum on the internet to go up to Redmond and look through their books, people continue to not want to believe it.
 

sainraja

Member
Of course it was, why wouldn't it be.
Y'all seem to make up your own rules about game pass as you go; all first party games go to game pass, period, this isn't news.
Yup ā€” that seems to be the case.

It has been pretty obvious from the get-go that MS is making these acquisitions for Game Pass.
 
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I see we are now memory holing all of the Activision BS that led to MS being able to swoop in and buy them.
Companies climb and fall all the time on the stock market for various (often speculative nonsense) reasons. Fact is, AB grew a lot under his leadership and he sells with a huge profit, for himself (and also most stock holders). So he is killing it, but not the company. AB did not need saving from MS. AB revenue fell a bit after the corona-people-are-bored-at-home high, so if that is being killed to to you most gaming and entertainment companies are dead now.
 

CeeJay

Member
In theory could Microsoft commit to Call of Duty being multiplatform for ever and then after the deal is done rename the game to C.O.D. for all future releases and make that exclusive?
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Companies climb and fall all the time on the stock market for various (often speculative nonsense) reasons. Fact is, AB grew a lot under his leadership and he sells with a huge profit, for himself (and also most stock holders). So he is killing it, but not the company. AB did not need saving from MS. AB revenue fell a bit after the corona-people-are-bored-at-home high, so if that is being killed to to you most gaming and entertainment companies are dead now.
So again weā€™re ignoring the problems in the company that Kotick ignored and then being sued by the state of CA after a Blizzard employee KILLED HERSELF over the abuse she suffered. Ok.
 

hlm666

Member
Highlighting lines about how they confirm stuff about mutiplatform games and completely ignoring the shit in the middle about expanding their storefront to other devices and platforms.......... I mean what exactly are they planning here. Are they going to pull some shit like oh we want to release x game on y platform or device but they wont let us deploy our storefront or sell our subscription service there so our hands are tied?
 

Filben

Member
Would love to play D2R but after buying it two days ago I couldn't get it to install why literally everything else worked. Had to deal with the most incompetent support ever until I finally found, well-hidden, the refund option.

I'll give it another chance when it comes to Gamepass.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
So again weā€™re ignoring the problems in the company that Kotick ignored and then being sued by the state of CA after a Blizzard employee KILLED HERSELF over the abuse she suffered. Ok.
And you're ignoring the good parts. It's fun for all the rest of us as you guys continually just talk past each other over and over.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
I'm probably the minority, at least in here.

By as an avid cod and blizzard/xbox player, Im probably never gonna buy another game thanks to GP
 
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Amiga

Member
Diablo sold alone should bring back over a billion $ in revenue. hard to see it being economically viable to produce big projects like this for a subscription service. There will be an eventual hit to quality, scale, monetization, release frequency.

Though I can only enjoy what I'm getting for now and leave future issues for the future.
 

sainraja

Member
I'm probably the minority, at least in here.

By as an avid cod and blizzard/xbox player, Im probably never gonna play another game thanks to GP
You won't play another game because of GP? ;)

I don't think that is what you meant to say.
 
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Diablo sold alone should bring back over a billion $ in revenue. hard to see it being economically viable to produce big projects like this for a subscription service. There will be an eventual hit to quality, scale, monetization, release frequency.

Though I can only enjoy what I'm getting for now and leave future issues for the future.
Diablo is still gonna sell well on PC, Playstation and Switch. And it's gonna add many subscribers to Gamepass. And if the game is good, it will also make a lot of MTX money. I wouldn't worry much.
 

Topher

Gold Member
In theory could Microsoft commit to Call of Duty being multiplatform for ever and then after the deal is done rename the game to C.O.D. for all future releases and make that exclusive?

Microsoft was almost broken up because they bundled Internet Explorer with Windows during the "browser wars". Since then Microsoft has learned what to do and what not to do when dealing with the government. I don't believe for a second Microsoft is going to sacrifice all the goodwill they have built up over the years just to pull a "gotcha" and make CoD exclusive.
 
Although expected, itā€™s great news to have this confirmed. Iā€™m now waiting for them to announce a game pass price increase due to the acquisition of these new studios.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Although expected, itā€™s great news to have this confirmed. Iā€™m now waiting for them to announce a game pass price increase due to the acquisition of these new studios.
They're definitely still in a growth phase. They're going to launch on TVs and the new Xbox Series Y(why?) cloud stick to try and get to Netflix level numbers before a price increase is likely, imho. 30 million is good, but they're aiming for 100 million+. No one's really proven that market exists, but that's their goal.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamerā„¢
Sooo can we kill the Battlenet launcher please? Move those game purchases to Steam like they did with Bethesdaā€™s launcher?

I noticed the other day I can no longer purchase Blizzard gift cards. I was going to snag one to pick up Diablo 2 Resurrected.
 

splattered

Member
Can't help but wonder if there is a new big FPS franchise beyond COD that we haven't seen yet, and that's why they are comfortable keeping COD multiplatform. Happy this stuff is coming to GP but still gonna be super mega ultra versions of D4 and COD anyway haha
 

sainraja

Member
maybe he meant buy a game again? lol
Yup, I was just poking fun haha. I mean, I can see how a sub service could prevent someone from playing ā€” they'll have to decide what to play but how often is that going to be the case lol.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
I wonder what they will do if COD players remain on playstation.

Maybe they will make Cod $80 on PS5 $60 on Xbox?, or maybe missing modes on the PS version? etc.

I think how nice they will play will be determined by how much success they get.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamerā„¢
Microsoft cares less about moving 'more boxes' than Sony, but want to dominate the eyespace with subscriptions. They aren't going to shut out millions upon millions of customers by making Call of Duty exclusive. Microsoft wants to be more akin to the Netflix of gaming than the Dell, so they're not concerned about Sony having more hardware wins. As long as they get more subscriptions, they are fine. I doubt Xbox will have many exclusives this gen, but will be the place where you can play the games first on gamepass. Interesting strategy

But more Xboxes sold means more potential GP subscriptions. That wonā€™t matter once Game Pass is an available app on TVs, Tablets, Phones, etc.
 

jorgejjvr

Member
I wonder what they will do if COD players remain on playstation.

Maybe they will make Cod $80 on PS5 $60 on Xbox?, or maybe missing modes on the PS version? etc.

I think how nice they will play will be determined by how much success they get.
$70 in ps and included in gp is enough

There might be even more incentives than that, early betas, more free stuff etc. But cod players still remain on ps.... I mean MS still gets money from them, win win
 
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CeeJay

Member
Microsoft was almost broken up because they bundled Internet Explorer with Windows during the "browser wars". Since then Microsoft has learned what to do and what not to do when dealing with the government. I don't believe for a second Microsoft is going to sacrifice all the goodwill they have built up over the years just to pull a "gotcha" and make CoD exclusive.
Yeah I doubt they would but I just wonder where a name change would sit legally. I know the name is the IP and a change in name would erode somewhat the very thing that gives it value but, companies rebrand all the time without it causing too much of an issue. We have also got the FIFA situation with EA where if they don't renew the contract to use the name then they are going to have to go through a similar exercise of renaming.

If MS were planning to do something like this then they could do it over a fairly long period of time so as not to damage that good will they have built up, something like;

Call Of Duty Ultimate Soldier (multiplat)
COD Ultimate Soldier 2 (multiplat)
Ultimate Soldier 3 (exclusive)

Personally though I think that the fact MS have already said that they aren't going to fully integrate ActiBlizz into Xbox Game Studios but going to run it as a separate arm alongside speaks volumes. It means that at some point they could resell the whole thing on and keeping it seperate to the rest of the company lessens the risk of the initial purchase to some degree. They have made a huge investment buying ActiBlizz and they will want the monitory value of it to remain as high as possible should they choose to sell it. Losing playerbase due to making games exclusive does not achieve that. It's one thing to spend millions on a AAA developer and make them exclusive, it's another entirely to spend billions buying one of the biggest publishers with multiple development houses and some of the highest grossing games in the industry. Just the simple fact that Microsoft will be in control and be able prevent anyone from making marketing and exclusivity deals with ActiBlizz is massive and probably enough to justify the purchase.
 

Amiga

Member
Diablo is still gonna sell well on PC, Playstation and Switch. And it's gonna add many subscribers to Gamepass. And if the game is good, it will also make a lot of MTX money. I wouldn't worry much.
That is the trick here. It's relying on a market where GP isn't available. right now MS can eat their cake and keep it. but if their market grows the economics change. The only thing a see in the future is more microtransactions. Most games turning into Destiny/Genshin Impact. Already the number of future games with complete self contained campaigns are scarce.
Can't say MS started this. we didn't have a GTA the whole of last generation (360/PS3 had 2+ single player expansions). Konami killed it's gaming division in this rush. But MS is putting it's financial might to expedite this and make the industry change faster. Sony is following in with half a dozen GaaS games.
On the positive side the industry is so big mid-sized developers are filling up space and achieve good success.
 
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