Sony also publishes The Show on current gen Xbox platforms, as well as Destiny. At this point, there's enough weird edge cases that I'm sure there's some firewall policy in place, or they're throwing their hands up in the air for corporate espionage.
EDIT: quoted the wrong person! Excuse my stupidity.
Yea. For all the debates about animosity between ABK, MS, Sony, etc, there's really more cooperation in the industry than there has been for a long time - maybe ever. And I'd like to see that continue and expand.
.......????
what? everything they do is day 1. the amount of day 1 stuff is the big differentiator of Game Pass from other subscription services.
Yea, I said that. My point is in that paragraph isn't that MS doesn't care about Day 1. It's that Day 1 isn't the only thing that is of value there. So it's impossible to tease apart the relative value of one piece over another piece. But now we're in a situation where there's an opportunity to break those two things apart, at least for a little while. Like I said, I agree with most of you, I just think it's not necessarily so cut and dry. Diablo 4 is already
almost definitely missing day 1 release, just because of the timing of the deal. Is the difference between day 15 and day 45 actually that big? I say eh.
I think people overrate the idea that "lots of day 1 games" = value for most gamers.
There were times in the past when this would have been true. But for the past decade or so, I'd argue that most core gamers have backlogs / more games to play than time to play them. And casual gamers play one or just a small handful of games each year. For these people, they're not really interested in paying $180/year for "a bunch of games." They need these to be games that they would have otherwise paid or considered paying full price for.
That's why it's important for MS to have not just a regular cadence of quality games, but to be releasing at least 1-2 blockbuster-style games each year. That's why COD is so important. You have 15-20m gamers who are already throwing down $70 each year to play that game. Game Pass becomes a much easier sell in a year when it includes COD and, say, Elder Scrolls VI.
So being able to include Diablo IV in a year when you're also offering Starfield is the kind of 1-2 punch that will really drive Game Pass subs. So it's critically important that Diablo be included if at all possible.
My hope is that, to the extent MS gets comfortable that they're going to close, they make an arm's length deal to bring the game to Game Pass so that they can make the announcement with sufficient lead time ahead of release. Just figure out a price that is clearly fair to Acti-Blizz, and pay it because ultimately you're paying yourself.
I agree with this. They do need to get D4 out this year. Probably before the holidays IMO. I'd say they could kick off their run up to Starfield (and Forza?) with an early drop of Diablo in like.. July or August.
A huge part of their marketing is Day 1. In thier 2021 June showcase, they highlighted 27 games that were day 1 on gamepass. In 2022 June showcase, they highlighted 28 (I think) that would be day 1 on gamepass.
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/play-day-one
This is the clear differentiator between Xbox and PS subscription services. I'm not saying it's not viable. I'm saying it's Xbox's business model and they clearly believe (via their marketing and statements) that Day 1 matters significantly. I agree a constant back catalogue is important, but if that provided enough growth they wouldn't be putting their games on 1st party games on there day 1.
I think everyone else's assumption that Diablo 4 wouldn't drop onto gamepass as soon as technically feasible post acquisition are making a bigger assumption. I am assuming that Xbox will continue to be consistent with their business model without exception. The bigger assumption, imo, is that they'd somehow view Diablo 4 differently than Starfield. Or that they would somehow treat ABK back catalogue differently than BGS back catalogue. I think it's the much more reasonable assumption to make that they will add the games as soon as they are able to post acquisition.
I certainly didn't say Day 1 isn't important. But in this scenario, when "day 1" is a moving target that has no fixed date (except the actual release date, which is exceedingly unlikely for MS to hit), I think there's more room to play with when you actually drop the game onto the service. After all, even if they get full approval with CMA and EU, they have to close over FTC. There's plenty of legit reasons for them to delay for a couple months or more.
And they can make DIablo 4 on GP a big deal regardless. With a service like Game Pass, it's not that "Day 1" is inherently so important and marketing value in and of itself. No, it's that day 1 games tend to make bigger
moments. And those
moments are marketable. But Diablo 4 can be a huge moment whether it's day 15 or day 60. The next ABK game will 1000% be on Game Pass day 1. But I think there are other possibilities for Diablo.
Hehe, I'm not making a prediction one way or the other. (My track record of rationalizing seemingly crazy decisions from MS in this thread has been surprisingly decent.) We'll see how this goes haha. I certainly won't complain if D4 comes out sooner :D
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