Microsoft claims it ‘simply wouldn’t be profitable’ to make Call of Duty Xbox exclusive

[Kane99]

Source - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-claims-it-wouldnt-be-profitable-to-make-call-of-duty-xbox-exclusive/

I believe this was kinda discussed in another topic, about Xbox buying up studios and such. But this is just in regards to COD and its future in terms of it being multiplatform or not. 

So far this deal for Activision and company hasn't gone through, but according to Microsoft, they don't think it would be profitable to make COD exclusive to xbox. And to be fair, it would be more profitable to keep it multiplatform. But, who's to say MS will stick to their words and keep it multiplatform after the deal is done. 

I still hope they take a year or two off, or just stop doing the yearly releases. 

Anyway, what do you guys think? 

[Yaramaki]

Call of duty is one of the biggest game franchises today, it would be stupid on microsoft their part to go exclusive with the cod franchise when there is a lot of money to be made on a competitors platform, not only that but microsoft would piss a lot of people off with on that is never a good thing. Besides the costs of making a cod game would be impossible to recoup if they would go the exclusive route.

You know this is kind of a weird one, microsoft are in a strong position to negotiate a new deal for future games but you know anything goes these days. Like i wouldn't be suprised if we start seeing xbox exclusive go to playstation and vice versa if something like horizon or days gone would end up on a xbox console sooner or later or halo on a playstation console, Mlb the show is already on xbox consoles so you never know.

This is an interesting quote front the article and validates my point that microsoft isn't really interested in keeping things exclusive all that much. 

Quote

“Microsoft isn’t as interested in the battle of the console boxes. It believes the future of games is going to be through streaming and subscriptions. Call of Duty isn’t so much a reason to buy an Xbox console, but a reason to subscribe to the Game Pass subscription service,”

So nah wouldn't worry too much about Cod being xbox/pc exclusive, probably won't happen as microsoft will want to start making money of their activision-blizzard aquisition. 

[Kane99]

3 minutes ago, Yaramaki said:

Call of duty is one of the biggest game franchises today, it would be stupid on microsoft their part to go exclusive with the cod franchise when there is a lot of money to be made on a competitors platform, not only that but microsoft would piss a lot of people off with on that is never a good thing. Besides the costs of making a cod game would be impossible to recoup if they would go the exclusive route.

You know this is kind of a weird one, microsoft are in a strong position to negotiate a new deal for future games but you know anything goes these days. Like i wouldn't be suprised if we start seeing xbox exclusive go to playstation and vice versa if something like horizon or days gone would end up on a xbox console sooner or later or halo on a playstation console, Mlb the show is already on xbox consoles so you never know.

This is an interesting quote front the article and validates my point that microsoft isn't really interested in keeping things exclusive all that much. 

So nah wouldn't worry too much about Cod being xbox/pc exclusive, probably won't happen as microsoft will want to start making money of their activision-blizzard aquisition. 

Oh for sure. I don't think they can win if they make it exclusive. Allowing COD to stick on all consoles is ideal, because there's millions of dollars there for the taking if so. As well, they can make Sony and other consoles pay up if they want the game on their platform. I bet Sony will be paying some fees. Much like you said about a new deal. I could see them charging Sony and others money for having the game on their platform. 

And to be fair, they can do that. It reminds me of how Blu-ray took over and how MS had to license the use of blu-ray for their Xbone and Series X. I feel it's kinda similar in this situation. They can just charge Sony more money. 

[Heatman]

I was definitely going to be a bad call if Microsoft moves to make Call of Duty franchise an Xbox exclusive. The game have been struggling of late after its recent releases. They would be looking at how to get the game back on track with more active gamers joining it and not cut off gamers by going all exclusive on it. 

[Kane99]

1 hour ago, Heatman said:

I was definitely going to be a bad call if Microsoft moves to make Call of Duty franchise an Xbox exclusive. The game have been struggling of late after its recent releases. They would be looking at how to get the game back on track with more active gamers joining it and not cut off gamers by going all exclusive on it. 

Yeah that's a good point. With the recent woes of a dropped user base, it would be crazy for Xbox to make it an exclusive. On top of that, I can't see a bunch of Sony fanboys buying up a series X just to play their COD games. I think if it is to be made exclusive, it will either drive sales of the series x, or it will result in fans abandoning COD altogether. It's already happening, so changing it could be worse.

[Heatman]

15 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Yeah that's a good point. With the recent woes of a dropped user base, it would be crazy for Xbox to make it an exclusive. On top of that, I can't see a bunch of Sony fanboys buying up a series X just to play their COD games. I think if it is to be made exclusive, it will either drive sales of the series x, or it will result in fans abandoning COD altogether. It's already happening, so changing it could be worse.

Exactly!! Call of Duty franchise lost over 50 million active players after the release of Call of Duty Vanguard. Imagine how many millions of gamers that's going to quit the game because they can't play it on their PlayStation consoles any more? Personally, I wouldn't do that switch to another console just because of one game. 

[Clasher]

Having it on several platforms made it a really versatile game and no matter what platform you have you could still play this particular game.

The need to make profit is also there and Microsoft is a profit oriented company.

[Kane99]

On 8/12/2022 at 9:02 AM, Heatman said:

Exactly!! Call of Duty franchise lost over 50 million active players after the release of Call of Duty Vanguard. Imagine how many millions of gamers that's going to quit the game because they can't play it on their PlayStation consoles any more? Personally, I wouldn't do that switch to another console just because of one game. 

They'd lose another half of users if they made it exclusive to the Xbox. Also on top of that, there are less players on the Xbox side, so that's another problem. 

On 8/14/2022 at 4:21 AM, Clasher said:

Having it on several platforms made it a really versatile game and no matter what platform you have you could still play this particular game.

The need to make profit is also there and Microsoft is a profit oriented company.

Oh for sure. They'd be crazy to make it exclusive. 

Only reason they would make it exclusive, is to try and sell more consoles, which I think would result in that happening. But I don't think they need to sell a ton more consoles. They're doing just fine with their current sales, so I don't think they need to make it exclusive. 

[Heatman]

3 hours ago, Kane99 said:

They'd lose another half of users if they made it exclusive to the Xbox. Also on top of that, there are less players on the Xbox side, so that's another problem. 

 

That's a risk that cannot afford to take, otherwise, they will be in a hot mess for it that's going to be very difficult for them to recover from. If it's possible for them to get it on more platforms to boost players, it's what they are going to do. I really want to see Call of Duty franchise become as good as it used to be again sooner than later. 

[Empire]

They definitely don’t need to make it exclusive. Microsoft wants game pass subscribers. Think about how many people play basically only cod and maybe some sports games. A single copy of cod pays for nearly a year of regular game pass and then you add in all the ea sports games that are a part of ultimate plus they would need Xbox live gold, it would basically pay for itself for a lot of people

[Clasher]

15 hours ago, Kane99 said:

They'd lose another half of users if they made it exclusive to the Xbox. Also on top of that, there are less players on the Xbox side, so that's another problem. 

Oh for sure. They'd be crazy to make it exclusive. 

Only reason they would make it exclusive, is to try and sell more consoles, which I think would result in that happening. But I don't think they need to sell a ton more consoles. They're doing just fine with their current sales, so I don't think they need to make it exclusive. 

I saw a more recent article online but I can't recall on which site talking about Microsoft making COD an exclusive and they are speculating that COD would no longer be coming to PlayStation.

I don't know how true this is but I don't think that would ever work though.

[Heatman]

6 hours ago, Clasher said:

I saw a more recent article online but I can't recall on which site talking about Microsoft making COD an exclusive and they are speculating that COD would no longer be coming to PlayStation.

I don't know how true this is but I don't think that would ever work though.

That's a big false. Microsoft already announced that they are not going to make the game Call of Duty franchise an Xbox exclusive. The only thing that they said about the game that wasn't the way it was that it's no longer going to be on a yearly release. 

[Kane99]

21 hours ago, Heatman said:

That's a risk that cannot afford to take, otherwise, they will be in a hot mess for it that's going to be very difficult for them to recover from. If it's possible for them to get it on more platforms to boost players, it's what they are going to do. I really want to see Call of Duty franchise become as good as it used to be again sooner than later. 

Of course not. They'd be dumb to lose out on all of those sales. But, I think what will happen, is that after this next game drops, they will finally take a much needed break from releasing another. And in turn, maybe they will improve on the series for the better. 

9 hours ago, Clasher said:

I saw a more recent article online but I can't recall on which site talking about Microsoft making COD an exclusive and they are speculating that COD would no longer be coming to PlayStation.

I don't know how true this is but I don't think that would ever work though.

Likely rumors as MS recently said they have no plans to make it exclusive. You also may be thinking of Bethesda, as they are more likely to stay exclusive, but I could see some games coming out multiplatform. 

[Clasher]

7 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Likely rumors as MS recently said they have no plans to make it exclusive. You also may be thinking of Bethesda, as they are more likely to stay exclusive, but I could see some games coming out multiplatform. 

I guess it's just rumours.

Are there any Bethesda  games coming out in a short time that is multiplatform?

[Heatman]

On 8/17/2022 at 12:39 AM, Kane99 said:

Of course not. They'd be dumb to lose out on all of those sales. But, I think what will happen, is that after this next game drops, they will finally take a much needed break from releasing another. And in turn, maybe they will improve on the series for the better. 

 

That's the only and best way that I see forward for the game. If they try to rush it, it's still going to be the same result that's not going to change what's currently going on with the game. I think that we mentioned somewhere about how possible it's going to be in having the whole team on the game's development changed.