Microsoft believed that the purchase of Activision was a round business. A year later I lost 300 million for ‘Call of Duty’

The clients of Game Pass They are still trying to recover from the impressive 50% rise of the Ultimate mode rate in the service. A spectacular climb that moves Microsoft’s proposal away from that buffet Economic games of all kinds That once it was, and that he has his clients since then circling a single question: why? And although Microsoft has not yet made anything clear, there are some issues that already have an answer.

300 million. Game Pass had rare He arrived at the service on day onesomething only possible thanks to the purchase of activation by Microsoft. However, it was still extraordinary: ‘Call of Duty’ was, thanks to that acquisition, The most valuable property that Xbox had in its portfolio. And now it was available for all Game Pass users without additional cost. According to Bloombergthe experiment cost Microsoft 300 million dollars.

Internal affairs. This movement is the last and most striking of this type that Xbox has given, determined to drown its rivals with strategies that meant a high cost in sales. Bloomberg states That, as seven anonymous informants have told the environment, getting as powerful as powerful as’Forza Horizon 5‘ either ‘Halo infinite‘Internal fractures already supposed due to the important sales that were lost by placing these games available to all Game Pass subscribers. According to The Vergethe discussion about ‘Black Ops 6’ was even greater, and it was not for less.

In An interview with Windows CentralBobby Kotick, an Activision Ex-Cecement, already claimed that due to having spent his career in Los Angeles, he had seen with disgust how “large media companies had transferred their contents to these subscription streaming services, which had negatively affected business results.” The story was repeated.

It was clear. Ign counted at the time That the movement triggered the subscriptions to Game Pass, as expected, and the ‘Cod’ itself went up: 23% more than the previous delivery, ‘Modern Warfare 3’. But there is an important nuance: 82% of those sales were in PlayStation, in opposition to Xbox and PC. Yes, subscriptions had risen, as expected, but not enough: just 16%. According to The calculations that Kotaku doesto compensate for the 300 million copies of the game that Activision (and therefore, Microsoft) did not sell, it would have needed an impossible: 15 million new monthly subscribers to Game Pass (or 1.25 per year).

Drink for pain. Again, according to Kotaku calculations, the remarkable price increase in the Ultimate rate relieves these numbers for Microsoft: it would need 10 million new subscribers to compensate for those losses. Something that, without a doubt, is far from the possibilities of the service, but we get an idea of ​​to what extent the climb was an urgent need for Microsoft. Bloomberg states that Microsoft Amy Hood’s CFO has asked the division of games to find more ways to raise benefits, so new increases are not ruled out at all, inclusion of advertising or limitations in the characteristics of the Tiers cheaper to encourage subscribers to pass to Ultimate.

A purchase at all. Everything summarizes well in the statements of the specialized analyst Joost Van Dreunen: “Game Pass has not provided the explosive growth that Microsoft anticipated in the post-Compra of Activision era, and they have realized that their structural costs do not align with their pricing model.” That is, Microsoft foresaw a notable impulse of subscriptions thanks to blows to the table such as the arrival of ‘Black Ops 6’, and it has not been so. Crisis policy is approaching in Microsoft (which, by the way, states that He does not leave his plans to continue in the hardware business) and, without a doubt, it will have an impact on our pocket.

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