[Insider Gaming] Sarah Bond Confirms Every First Party Game Will Still Launch on Game Pass - Including Call of Duty

[Angie]

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Sarah Bond has confirmed that every first party game, including Call of Duty, will still launch on Game Pass.

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Earlier this week, The Verge reported that Microsoft has been heavily debating whether or not it will launch Call of Duty on Game Pass. Sarah Bond, however, has seemingly shut down the idea that this is still in consideration, saying that all first-party games will be coming to its subscription service.

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Transcribed by XboxEra, Bond said, "And the last piece is about game pass. We know our core users love game pass, game pass is a gaming subscription, you get a whole portfolio of games, but importantly you get every single one of the games we build day one in game pass. And the quality and the breadth of those games has only been going up over time. And you're going to see some more really big games going into Game Pass later this year."

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Dina: "From Activision's portfolio or?"

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Sarah: "Across the whole slate, across the whole slate, you're going to see some really amazing things. And keeping that as something that is really special for Xbox players is central to us."

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Sarah Bond Confirms Every First Party Game Will Still Launch on Game Pass - Including Call of Duty

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Sarah Bond has confirmed that every first party game, including Call of Duty, will launch on Game Pass.

insider-gaming.com

 

[IDontBeatGames]

Gonna be honest, while this is a win for most people, this news still isn't enough for me to get over all of the bad news from this past week.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

Remains to be seen if there will be any changes to Game Pass tiers/pricing until then

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

We'll find out next month and if it'll require a new subscription tier.

 

[Platy]

Great, now put some old activision stuff in there while you are at it

 

[Shopolic]

But current Game Pass with this price, or a new tier of Game Pass with higher price?

 

[Kami]

Not going to believe it until I see the Game Pass logo stamped onto the key art

 

[Gavalanche]

Well, at this point who can believe anything these people say.

But, I do think it will be on there. I think the compromise was xbox going multiplatform while keeping everything on gamepass still.

 

[Bulby]

I mean, the only chance their hardware has is a very good bundle this holiday.

Series S plus 1 month gamepass this October for 199

 

[Serene]

"across the whole slate" reads to me more as "from all the different XGS/Activision places" and not "literally every game"

but it'll be a solved issue soon once the game is announced

 

[SunBroDave]

Xbox says a lot of things

 

[Caiusto]

She doesn't confirm anything btw.

 

[Cassius Africanus]

Verdict is still out then on if gamepass is an impossible business strategy. Every business strategy sucks when you have ass for games multiple years straight. Well, Xbox has had pretty good games but not the type you buy consoles for.

 

[Neuromancer]

It was all worth it

 

[stopmrdomino]

They will not explicitly say "the next Call of Duty is launching day one on Game Pass".

And until they do, it isn't.

 

[Hasney]

"across the whole slate" reads to me more as "from all the different XGS/Activision places" and not "literally every game"

but it'll be a solved issue soon once the game is announced

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She doesn't confirm anything btw.

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The quote before says "every single game" before the "across the whole slate", so she is saying every single game they publish.

That said, who can believe them right now?

 

[sderttreds]

they had to but idc about cod

 

[Dekim]

How can you trust what they say at this point? Could be true. Could not be. MS may not even be sure as it seems their minds change every few months. Best to just wait for the next COD to launch and see what they ultimately do.

 

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Sarah Bond Confirms Every First Party Game Will Still Launch on Game Pass - Including Call of Duty

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Sarah Bond has confirmed that every first party game, including Call of Duty, will launch on Game Pass.

insider-gaming.com

Click to shrink...

Already a thread about this.

Sarah Bond Talks About The Future of Xbox

An article about some of her answers from the recent Bloomberg interview. These aren't related to mobile or the studio closures, so figured it would benefit from its own thread. If not, please close or merge, thanks! https://xboxera.com/2024/05/10/sarah-bond-talks-about-the-future-of-xbox/...

www.resetera.com

 

[Specific Power Ranger]

The problem here is if Microsoft's attitude of everything on gamepass end up causing Microsoft to shutter studios because they don't have enough sales and only maintain existing subscription base

 

[RaySpencer]

Good, now add the old games.

And stop fucking closing studios. Especially ones hot off of a banger like Tango.

 

[JohnnyToonami]

...How are people here still believing her or anyone at Xbox after what happened?

If it does happen and when it doesn't help Game Pass numbers nor Console sales then this time next year they'll be doing the same song and dance while also wondering why CoD sales were lower.

 

[Unknownlight]

"across the whole slate" reads to me more as "from all the different XGS/Activision places" and not "literally every game"

but it'll be a solved issue soon once the game is announced

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You're 100% correct, she literally does not say what the headline claims she said.

Edit:

The quote before says "every single game" before the "across the whole slate", so she is saying every single game they publish.

That said, who can believe them right now?

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Ah, never mind.

 

[IIFloodyII]

Still surprised they haven't put all the old CoDs up yet. Seems like a pretty easy big marketing announcement as people will talk about it and I imagine most people who would buy those games already have at this point.

 

[beebop]

There's going to either be a price hike, or a new "actually Ultimate" tier.

"across the whole slate" reads to me more as "from all the different XGS/Activision places" and not "literally every game"

but it'll be a solved issue soon once the game is announced

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Actually yeah this.

 

[Ant_17]

I mean, congrats on the 10 million GP users you will get that month...

 

[AuthenticM]

gonna venture a guess that there will be exceptions to this rule. Like TES 6, for example.

 

[Angie]

Already a thread about this.

Sarah Bond Talks About The Future of Xbox

An article about some of her answers from the recent Bloomberg interview. These aren't related to mobile or the studio closures, so figured it would benefit from its own thread. If not, please close or merge, thanks! https://xboxera.com/2024/05/10/sarah-bond-talks-about-the-future-of-xbox/...

www.resetera.com

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I saw that, but I thought this part could be worth their own thread.
But of course I wont mind if a mod closes or merges with that thread

 

[BloodHound]

This can easily change 3x in the next 5 months.

Also, GP ultimate can go up in price.

Also, many high prices SKUs can be introduced with GP getting the cheapest.

In summary, this means nothing until the game actually comes out. Don't do this to yourself.

 

[Callibretto]

I'm guessing a trial or limited access to CoD. unlock DLC to access the actual game.

or only access to single player mode and you have to buy the game to play multiplayer

 

[Nolbertos]

Just like Phil, I ain't believe any Xbox exec's PR. I'll have to see it to believe it. Also, most likely they will raise GP, that's a given after the ABK buyout. Sarah and others may say one thing but Nadella calls the final shots.

 

[Allietraa]

Why would anyone believe anything MS says about the future right now? I'm sure as of today, every 1st party game is slated for a day 1 game pass release. But will that be the case in 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? What if the bean counters come in and demand cuts like they did for the game studios? Will the Xbox heads stop it? Or will they gut Game Pass like good servants to the line going up? I think we all know the answer to that

 

[Kenzodielocke]

I can't possibly imagine that the price stays the same this year - it has to change. I am guessing it goes from 16.99 to 18.99 as the lowest possible increase imo.

 

[HMS_Pinafore]

Okay. And Hi-Fi rush was a massive success by all metrics.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I don't believe a word of what these people are saying. By all accounts, none of the execs look to be on the same page about any of these decisions going by the past week. And if they are one day, things can seemingly be overturned on a whim.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Considering how much COD costs to make and market each year, it's pretty much going to guarantee an increase in the price for GP.

I have to think, most movies that go through something like Netflix do not cost anywhere near as much as most of the big named games that will be going through GP and the most expensive model for that is $23 USD a month. It's currently $17 USD for Ultimate GP. COD retails at $70. Most movies that would be shown on Netflix would retail for roughly $20, if not less. If anything, I think putting COD fully on there is either going make GP go higher per month than Netflix or will be a real struggle bus for funding for future COD games.

Basically, my point is, COD is such a massive cash cow, even just at retail/game sales, that this is going to be a sizeable ding to their revenue, especially against previous COD releases.

And I agree with everyone else, until we actually see a fucking stamp on the logo that it's coming to GamePass, no reason to take what they fucking say at face value. No one should actually take their word for it until there is factual proof it exists.

 

[kamineko]

After all of the bad news lately, I'm excited to hear about a new profit model for Call of Duty games!

🙃

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Yeah, we'll see. That quote leaves plenty of wiggle room in my opinion.

 

[Fortinbras]

We'll find out next month and if it'll require a new subscription tier.

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I hope it does actually. I don't want to pay a higher price for something I don't want.

 

[Bishop89]

We're happy to introduce our NEW 360 no scope captain PRICE COD GAMEPASS Tier

For an extra $50 on top of your existing GP Sub, you'll have access to the latest cod with bonus 10000 cod points to spend on your favourite cosmetics!

 

[SimplyComplex]

I still don't believe it.

 

[Lotus]

No point in trusting them given recent events, anything can change at any time up until its actually announced. At worst, I'd still expect a price hike for Game Pass even if it is Day 1 on the service

 

[Brat-Sampson]

Makes sense, they still want more GP subscribers.

 

[Ahti]

Until it won't.

 

[Soj]

Oh wow, 3 hour campaign and recycled maps from a decade ago come with game pass now? Awesome, I know I'll be keeping my sub.

 

[jroc74]

Cool.

Patiently waiting for the huge ass asterisk tho.

 

[Watershed]

Xbox is going to die on the hill of continuous Game Pass growth and it's all their smaller studios and more niche games that have suffered for it.

 

[yhgtu]

The fact that they don't say COD is a tell imo. They are horrible at communication, sometimes accidentally, sometimes on purpose. This time I think it's on purpose.

The interviewer asked about Activision's portfolio, Bond says "the whole slate". A backlog of older COD's would fit the bill, and it's different than saying "the new COD launching later this year is day one."

She gives enough wiggle room to see what their final decision will be, if they don't already know.

 

[beebop]

Why would anyone believe anything MS says about the future right now? I'm sure as of today, every 1st party game is slated for a day 1 game pass release. But will that be the case in 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? What if the bean counters come in and demand cuts like they did for the game studios? Will the Xbox heads stop it? Or will they gut Game Pass like good servants to the line going up? I think we all know the answer to that

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Don't misunderstand my opinion on the bullshit that happened this week, but in general this industry is full of broken promises and less malicious circumstantial changes. It's way better to buy into what is, rather than what some suit promises will be.

 

[Lord Vatek]

Every dev who works at Microsoft just felt a chill go down their spine.