LOS ANGELES -- Kelly “Mrs Violence” Kelley is one of the top female pro gamers out there. But she’s currently unemployed, having recently parted ways with Gamespot. Kelley’s shooting skills in games like Gears of War, Battlefield and Call of Duty got the attention of Hollywood. She was a contestant on the Syfy competitive TV series, WCG Ultimate Gamer and won Gamespot's The Controller gaming competition. She’s won many tournaments over the years, establishing herself as one of the top pro female FPS players in the world. Kelley attended the 2014 Call of Duty Championship as a fan and spectator. She talks about the challenges female pros face today despite the rise in popularity of eSports in this exclusive interview.
Discover the impact of Microsoft's decision to include Call Of Duty in Game Pass. Explore the pros and cons and speculate about future changes.
Most folks that have a Gamepass subscription will not spend the $70, they will use Gamepass instead to play COD. MS will most likely make their money from some solely PC players & some solely PS5 owners. Even some PC players may opt to use Gamepass instead of spending $70. I would think MS would want to make every dime they could from retail sales. As long as they put new releases of COD day one on Gamepass, MS will lose out on some sales of COD.
Most that don't have Gamepass will just buy the game and he done with it. People that do will just result in a retail sale being lost. Some will buy the subscription for the month then be done. This is lose lose. Casuals aren't going to pay almost 300 dollars a year for COD.
The reality is that Microsoft already knows the answer as stated by them in their documents. PlayStation gamers have built up an ecosystem of games and they aren't migrating over and dropping what they have to buy an Xbox to play one game in a service you have to pay monthly for. Cheaper to just buy the game. And, I'd bet many casual COD players don't know or care about the acquisition.
Which is why Jim Ryan pushed to make sure that that one game continues to be sold as usual on Sony's platform to keep the status quo. Every other IP owned by Activision are worthless. And Activision has shown they don't care about other IP like Tony Hawk by cancelling them.
Sales WILL be lost on Xbox. That's for certain. Microsoft can only hope that Xbox gamers continue to buy up those micro transactions to make up for those lost sales. Only positive for Microsoft is that they get to dip into PlayStation game sales that we all know from history and NPD, that Sony's console sells more games. But increase subs from Sony fans for game pass? Not happening in any way that matters.
Sony, on the other hand, can have their cake and eat it too. They get COD and they can continue dropping more content for their fastest selling GaaS game which is Hell Divers 2. As the game passes 12 million sales and doesn't beat you over the head with micro transactions, Sony has a win win situation and can support the game getting more content to keep players engaged.
As a side note, COD is probably going to turn into some version of Sea of Fortnite Duty. Games as a service sitting in game pass being milked dry with micro transactions and constant updates making you feel you're playing an unfinished game that keeps going and going with no soul.
I'm not sure why everyone is acting like COD is a surprise. That was always the plan. They said in court during the FTC case they were doing this. They have said repeatedly and recently all first party games are going to Gamepass.
We've put together 5 reasons why we believe the arrival of the Call of Duty franchise on Xbox Game Pass will be a big deal for Microsoft.
Microsoft will reportedly add new tiers and pricing to its Xbox Game Pass subscription with the addition of Call of Duty to its game catalog.
gotta make back that money somehow. but its definitely a scummy move before cod comes to gamepass haha.
It doesn't surprise me, it's very clear that MS is trying as hard as possible to recover all the money spent on Activision and Bethesda, they will do whatever they can, doesn't matter if people will like ir or not, as long as the higher ups see money arriving, it's all fair game
While a rumour cant say Id be surprised if true.
Certain other subscription services I sub to have increased in price while adding nothing and we expect theyre potentially offering up the biggest game of every year and its back catalog for "free"?
But I'd happily skip it if there are options (or upgrade for a month for the campaign)
Video games are one field where a battle of the sexes would work well, compared to real sports.
Maybe its because guys love it when girls bite their lips?
She's definitely more than just a pretty face great fps player be happy to have her in my squad any time.
ME: so kelly, why not start an all girls team and prove to guys you just as good, if not better, by finishing in the top 10 and show them that girls take gaming as seriously as they do. that girls also have just as much dedication for the sport as guys do?
Kelley: “Yeah. I tried doing an all-female team. We got 29th in our first event. That’s technically semi-pro. And within the next two months before the next tournament, we broke up. One player just lost interest. The other one wanted to play StarCraft. So you have to find four super hardcore, dedicated females out there that want to play. Not go out with a boyfriend. You have to want to keep playing all day and night. It doesn’t stop.”
ME: i see. so basically guys had nothing to do with your team breaking up and girls are just not as dedicated then i guess.
Kelley: ...
"Do you feel like we would see a separate league for females like we do for the WNBA or do you feel like that at some point an all-girl team will emerge? "
"...we've all wanted one and said we should do that...but so many girls are like 'I don't want to play in an all female league..."
Good on these women who do not want an all female league. Segregation of the sexes in competitive gaming means stigmas will continue for these women, and they will never be taken seriously by their male counterparts--this is the real problem.
What women in competitive gaming need is a "Jackie Robinson moment". A female player on a big name team pulling in equal or better numbers than her male team mates to show there isn't a difference of skill based on sex or gender. Trick is you need a big name team to "take the risk".