At least one analyst thinks Xbox Game Pass could move away from more day-one releases outside the Call of Duty series. There are big changes taking shape over at Microsoft, with the gaming division’s new leadership hitting the ground running in an attempt to revitalize the brand amid a changing market. At the center of those changes is Xbox Game Pass, which has both good and bad news in store for gamers.
Microsoft Gaming’s new CEO, Asha Sharma, made a splash on April 22 when she announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would get a price cut, but a discounted rate wasn’t the only shift at hand. As part of the restructuring, the subscription service will also no longer feature new Call of Duty games on day one. CoD titles aren’t abandoning Game Pass entirely, as they’ll join the library each holiday season after a new release, but losing day-one access took many gamers by surprise. Now it sounds like those cuts may go further.
Rumor: New Version of Xbox Game Pass Leaked
An Xbox Game Pass tier that focuses exclusively on Microsoft-owned games seems to have leaked ahead of an official announcement.
Call of Duty May Not Be the Last Franchise to Stop Day-One Xbox Game Pass Releases
A new report from Ampere Analysis’ Piers Harding-Rolls suggested Xbox Game Pass could apply this “windowed” approach to other first-party games in the future. Harding-Rolls noted that Microsoft was likely “leaving a substantial amount of revenue on the table” by missing out on early individual game sales for new CoD titles. Previous analyses have claimed the same, with one even saying Call of Duty‘s day-one launches cost Xbox $300 million in lost sales. According to this new Ampere report, Microsoft now has the financial evidence to admit that its biggest AAA releases aren’t a good match for the subscription model, so it may slowly move away from this approach.
Harding-Rolls does note that windowed Xbox Game Pass releases for major first-party games does not mean Microsoft will end day-one launches entirely. Putting brand-new titles on the subscription service is a key part of its value proposition, so if Xbox is trying to market the platform as a better value for gamers, it doesn’t make sense to stop this practice for all games. For the time being, Halo: Campaign Evolved will be a day-one Xbox Game Pass release, as will Gears of War: E-Day and Fable, so there are still some big names in the pipeline. It’s safe to assume plenty of indie games will still be day-one titles in the future, too.
There is also still good news for CoD fans. Subscribers may not be able to play the newest ones as soon as they drop, but they will be able to access a growing library of older CoD games. If rumors of a first-party-game-only tier are true, that could offer a nice lower-priced alternative, too.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
For now, all gamers know for sure is that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is getting cheaper and CoD won’t get any more day-one launches on the platform. It’s easy to see why Xbox may do the same for other big first-party releases, but there’s no official confirmation that this will be the case. Regardless, things are shifting for the subscription service. These changes aside, it’s rumored that Xbox Game Pass could get a pick-your-own-plan feature, so Xbox users should keep their eyes peeled for more.
Source: Ampere Analysis
