With the news today that Bungie saw Halo Wars as “whoring out the franchise”, Daily Reaction discusses the difference between building a franchise and plain ol’ greedy milking. Pour yourself a warm glass of cow juice and read on. - PSLS
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.
gamepass like PS Plus are rental services. Games like COD you buy not rent. So in my case unless I plan on keeping gamepass for 2yrs minimum than the benefit of adding cod is pointless.
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)
I think we could slip in a few more final fantasy 13's in what do u think?
It always has to be a tough call.
One on hand, you've got a million people ready to give you money -- and a lot of them will report being happy about the product they buy. When making games is also your source of your PAYchecks, that has to be tempting.
On the other hand, when you pride yourself on a consistent level of quality...well...you do have to wonder how much is too much.
It's easy for you and me to say "never milk!" because our full time jobs are something else. But what if we didn't? What if our paychecks were dependent on the sales of the games we make? It has to be a tough decision for a lot of developers. Where do you draw the line, you know?
As long as the next game in the series is equal in length and content, how can it be whoring?
I don't think Uncharted and some other franchises this gen are being over milked, most of them only have three main games and maybe a spin off like a prequel compared to something like COD, Assassins Creed or Halo (Halo 3, Wars, ODST, Reach, Halo 4, Halo HD and all the novels...and thats without a handheld)
I wholeheartedly approve of the pun.
As for franchise milking... yes, it sucks. Yes, it's indicative of a creative bankruptcy in the industry. Yes, we all hope things were different.
But they're not.
Why?
Because we're living in the largest economic recession since the Great Depression. And what does that do for entertainment media? It prevents people from taking risks and doing no things. A sequel is a safe bet: you already have your fans.
I mean, just think of it: how many people would buy ~any~ of the Final Fantasy XIII games if they went by a different name? Some, sure; but far, far fewer.
This stagnation isn't limited to games. It's simply "the way it is" in EVERY form of entertainment media. From plays to television to books to popular music to stand-up comedy. Hell, rather than games, I'd point to film as the best case-study for this malarkey.
There's a reason why almost all of the fresh, innovative, inspiring games are coming out of the Indy scene (low budget) or Eastern Europe.