Just after Microsoft officially announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for a sky-high price of US$68.7 billion, one of the most curious questions among players is whether Activision’s signature shooting game “The Last Call” has a chance to be released on the market during its first launch. On the Xbox Game Pass platform today. Just a few months after the acquisition was officially completed, Xbox head Phil Spencer finally mentioned the possibility.
In an interview with Game File website, Phil Spencer said that Microsoft currently plans to have all games from Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax (Bethesda, MachineGames, iD Software, etc.), and Xbox Game Studios simultaneously launched on “day one”. on the Game Pass platform. This means that players who subscribe to this Microsoft platform can play these games immediately on the first day of release.
“Our goal is to have all games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox Game Studios on the Game Pass platform on day one,” said Phil Spencer
Not long ago, Microsoft has officially announced that Activision Blizzard’s “Diablo 4” will be officially launched on the Game Pass platform in March this year, and also stated that they intend to have past works in the “Decisive Hour” series also be launched simultaneously. this platform. But in addition, relevant news also hints that even the latest sequel to the “Call of Duty” series may be available on the Game Pass platform on the first day of launch. Considering that Activision Blizzard has resisted such a strategy in the past, This is indeed a very surprising development.
Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has publicly stated that he does not agree with “the idea of multi-game subscription services as a business proposition.” However, Phil Spencer opposed such an idea in an interview with IGN last year, saying that someone else would make the final decision.
It is not difficult to understand why Phil Spencer would like to have the new “Call of Duty” series on the Game Pass platform on the first day of release. After all, this will definitely bring significant growth to the number of subscribers to this platform. However, many AAA game publishers have also come forward to express their concerns about this strategy, believing that it may affect final sales. For example, Sony still rarely allows its own game masterpieces to be included in the game lineup of its own subscription platform PlayStation Plus on the first day of launch. Instead, it is added through updates after a period of official launch.
In addition, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also has a skeptical attitude towards Game Pass. At a recent financial meeting, the executive also expressed his opinions on the strategy of getting 3A game masterpieces on the Microsoft subscription platform on the first day. view. According to him, he believes that this approach does not make business logic, and the intensity of this idea is growing day by day, saying that this will cause publishers to lose many opportunities, so their views have not yet changed.
According to many rumors, this year’s new game “The Call of Duty” that has not yet been officially released will be the latest sequel to the “Black Ops” series. The background will be set in the Persian Gulf War and will continue the game “The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War”. The development team will be Treyarch. At present, this game is expected to be released in October or November, and based on Phil Spencer’s hint, it is very likely that this game will be directly available on Game Pass. In addition, players can also expect to see more works from Activision Blizzard’s past coming to the subscription platform in the future.
