Key Takeaways
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass is a nuanced business decision, with many factors to consider.
- Early analysis from the United States suggests Black Ops 6 has boosted Game Pass subscription numbers.
- However, fewer people are reportedly buying Call of Duty for full price on Xbox.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s presence on Game Pass has been an interesting experiment on behalf of the series’ new steward Xbox. On one hand, Call of Duty has the potential to significantly boost Game Pass subscription numbers. On the other hand, you’re potentially sacrificing full-priced sales – there could be Xbox players who already subscribe to Game Pass that would have purchased Call of Duty at full price if it never came to the service.
It was always going to be an interesting debate, but had Call of Duty been kept off Game Pass, there would have been an inevitable backlash from existing subscribers. We’ll likely never know the full picture of how Black Ops 6 has affected these metrics because there are so many variables to consider. However, well-known industry analyst Mat Piscatella has been able to provide some insights into how Black Ops 6’s presence on Game Pass has affected its various stakeholders, on Bluesky.
Call of Duty on Game Pass
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Game Pass did a few things in the US… it resulted in a subscription spending boost, shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware,” Piscatella says.
“So, all the open questions regarding the impact of subscriptions are still pretty open, in my opinion, and whatever one believes currently, well, not sure the biggest of tests is changing anyone’s mind either way. Yet,” he finishes.
Essentially, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has indeed boosted Game Pass subscriptions, but perhaps at the expense of full-price sales on Xbox. This is reflected by the fact that PlayStation users are now a bigger percentage of full-price sales. Piscatella also believes that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass hasn’t motivated people to go out and buy Xbox Series X/S’s, which isn’t too surprising.
Call of Duty’s arrival on Game Pass is a long-term strategy, and we’ll likely need to observe data over many years before we can conclude whether it was a sound business decision, or not.
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.
The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.
In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.
Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.