In legalize, I am sure that a Microsoft spokesperson would smugly tell fans that the company didn't lie when it spoke with Eurogamer back at the end of May and stated that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 won't be locked behing a new Xbox Game Pass tier. In fact, here's the exact quote that Eurogamer published:
Upon launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playable on Xbox and PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for Console members
See how that works? Black Ops 6 will indeed be available on the existing tier of Game Pass that it was announced for. What wasn't mentioned in the statement that was given to Eurogamer is that there would be a new, lesser tier (Game Pass Standard) that doesn't offer day-one releases. Meaning, Black Ops 6 isn't being locked behind a new tier in name, but it is being locked behind a new, more expensive pricing structure in spirit. Which is exactly what many people have speculated would be the case when Microsoft finally closed out its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Game Pass isn't making Microsoft money. Not in the way that the company needs it to in order to turn any meaningful profit. I wrote about the likelihood of streaming services failing in the longterm, which you can read here, In brief, Xbox needs to start seeing a serious return on investment from the 40-plus studios it purchased, and so far Game Pass isn't generating the kind of revenue the company dreamed it would, even at the height of the pandemic when subscription services experienced a huge uptick in demand. It's a huge mess.
And what's sitting right there in the Activision catalog waiting to be taken advantage of and maybe, possibly turn things around? Call of Duty.
When Xbox claimed there wouldn't be a new tier of Game Pass to go along with Black Ops 6 coming to the service this November, many were shocked. I just assumed it wasn't truthful. And here we are, with Game Pass Standard now a thing, playfully circumventing anyone from being able to say Microsoft lied by virtue of semantics. Ultimately, it's very obvious what is happening: putting a game that is a perennial huge seller like Black Ops 6 onto Game Pass is the perfect way to boost subscriber numbers because there are countless suckers out there who can't figure out that they'll be paying $240 a year for the privilege to play the game. Instead of just plunking down $70 one time and owning it outright.
If you've never heard me piss and moan about this before, I'm not a fan of streaming services. I don't pretend not to have any and I can understand the allure of them, but on principle I don't like the lack of control consumers have within the streaming paradigm. It's a rental model. You pay and pay and never own anything. The content catalogs are restrictive and anything can be removed at any time without your censent. All actions taken within the ecosystem of the platform are heavily monitored and analyzed. And on and on. It's crap. Crap that, unfortunately, a lot more people will sign themselves up for because Black Ops 6 will be on Game Pass Ultimate.
Throw in the inherent dishonesty of the statement Microsoft made to Eurogamer and the ridiculous price hike that consumers are being saddled with, and the whole thing just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I'm not even upset about the basic idea of Xbox wanting Call of Duty on Game Pass—duh—it's just the shifty way the company went about revealing how Black Ops 6 will be available to subscribers that bothers me. Hopefully, it bothers gamers, too, and people start voting with their wallets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction. Let's face it, though—this will probably be a huge win for Xbox come November. But we'll just have to wait and see.
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