Support NeoGAF

[Mr Reasonable]

MS may have marketing rights now, but they signed a 10-year binding contract to release CoD on Playstation Consoles

Seems like a moot point to me. For most people nothing will change this november

The point is "it'll be interesting to see how Microsoft market this game now that Sony's deal has completed and the game is going to be on Gamepass" that's the intent of the discussion.

Not some weird console war stuff.

 

[MisterXDTV]

The point is "it'll be interesting to see how Microsoft market this game now that Sony's deal has completed and the game is going to be on Gamepass" that's the intent of the discussion.

Not some weird console war stuff.

They will market it as "Get it FREE with Xbox GamePass"

What else should they do??

 

[Mr Reasonable]

They will market it as "Get it FREE with Xbox GamePass"

What else should they do??

A career in marketing likely doesn't await you.

Will it be on the billboards that Activision put up every year in Times Square? Will Gamepass be on all the COD promo materials? Or will they run a Gamepass promo featuring Call of Duty? Will they do both? Will they call whatever launch event that they do "The Xbox Gamepass Call of Duty Lauch Celebration" ? Will they put Call of Duty on every Xbox console box? Will they package in a full year of Gamepass at christmas, guaranteeing that you get TWO Call of Duty's included (via gamepass). Will they call Xbox Gamepass, the home of Call of Duty - Every Call of Duty available on Gamepass today.

Or will they just do a couple of tweets that say "get it free with xbox gamepass"?

 

[Little Chicken]

A career in marketing likely doesn't await you.

Will it be on the billboards that Activision put up every year in Times Square? Will Gamepass be on all the COD promo materials? Or will they run a Gamepass promo featuring Call of Duty? Will they do both? Will they call whatever launch event that they do "The Xbox Gamepass Call of Duty Lauch Celebration" ?

Or will they just do a couple of tweets?

There will probably be a limited edition CoD Series S.

And a couple of tweets of Aaron Greenberg having lunch with people.

 

[Topher]

This isn't true, Activision moved to Playstation because Playstation outbid Microsoft for the rights.

It's not an honour that's bestowed on a company.

100%

Its all who paid the most money

In 2007, Xbox got the rights when it was clear that 360 was the dominant console in the US. Same thing happened with PlayStation in 2015. Yes.....the amount paid obviously has a lot to do with it, but Activision clearly wanted to market the game on the console with the most players. What good is marketing Call of Duty on PlayStation 3 when the vast majority of gamers were playing on Xbox 360? Remember, this was before the days of cross play.

I think there is a lot more to it than simply who put up the largest bid.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

They will market it as "Get it FREE with Xbox GamePass"

What else should they do??

Get it tattooed on their arse

 

[ViciousAgenda]

Xbox is back

 

[Mephisto40]

I'm willing to bet this is the multiplayer part of the game only, they'll charge extra for the campaign, and they'll also say if you buy the campaign you can play it a week earlier than everyone on gamepass who hasnt paid for it

 

[Astray]

We know for a fact that Sony has outbid MS on numerous games, not just COD.

I think you'll find that even Xbox has a marketing budget.

Activision didn't back anyone, they just took a cheque.

Activision had a marketing agreement with Xbox for the 1st 2 games of the Xbox One's lifecycle.

Ghosts was debuted at the TV TV TV event. Even had the exclusive maps.

Xbox One to have Call of Duty: Ghosts exclusives

Microsoft has announced that there will be an Xbox One Call of Duty: Ghosts bundle available at launch, offering exclusive content.

www.trustedreviews.com

Advanced Warfare had a special edition console

That snazzy Limited Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Xbox One Bundle has released

You know that snazzy Limited Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Bundle for Xbox One? It's now available.

www.vg247.com

Black Ops III was the 1st one to get a marketing contract with Sony, with a special edition ps4.

So the idea that Xbox somehow tanked because they lost the COD contract is false, they lost it because they fucked up the launch.

Kotick likely knew this and used Xbox to get as good of a deal as he could from Sony. But the idea that any division of Microsoft is lacking in funds is asinine. Sony was also still under a tough financial situation compared to now, they weren't going to "outbid" anyone really.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I'm willing to bet this is the multiplayer part of the game only, they'll charge extra for the campaign, and they'll also say if you buy the campaign you can play it a week earlier than everyone on gamepass who hasnt paid for it

I think there's a chance they'll do an early access version/premium edition But it'll be available on Playstation too - it has to be under the terms of the deal Microsoft got everyone to sign with regard to no special treatment of different platforms. Knowing how expensive COD super ultra mega editions cost It'll be something ridiculous like £120 on PS while Gamepass players will be able to buy an upgrade for something stupid like £40.

 

[DenchDeckard]

The best deal in gaming!

 

[ManaByte]

I think there's a chance they'll do an early access version/premium edition But it'll be available on Playstation too - it has to be under the terms of the deal Microsoft got everyone to sign with regard to no special treatment of different platforms. Knowing how expensive COD super ultra mega editions cost It'll be something ridiculous like £120 on PS while Gamepass players will be able to buy an upgrade for something stupid like £40.

There’s always a $100 Vault edition that gives you access to the campaign early if you pre-order.

They’ll put out the Vault content for $39 separately on Xbox. That’s what they do with Forza, The Show, Starfield, etc.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

There’s always a $100 Vault edition that gives you access to the campaign early if you pre-order.

They’ll put out the Vault content for $39 separately on Xbox. That’s what they do with Forza, The Show, Starfield, etc.

Right, yes.

It'll be interesting to see how many Gamepass subscribers pick up the upgrade. I remember when Starfield launched that the upgrade was quite high in the charts. That's one way that COD could earn a lot of additional revenue for Xbox. People who are already on Gamepass, and might have expected to buy COD's standard edition may well be some of the people to buy an upgrade.

 

[Rockman33]

Good for you, I guess. But there's a reason why GP is shrinking even with Gold-to-Core conversions.

lol. It’s not growing as fast as they expected/wanted. But its definitely not shrinking. With the conversions it jumped more than 10 million. Not sure what you’re referring to.

 

[DJ12]

I’ve always had it stacked 3 years. When they raised the GPU price they didn’t reduce me down. No one does that. It’s an immediate lawsuit.

All well and good but as I said won't help you if they introduce new tier.

 

[Ozriel]

For casuals, maybe they will get Gamepass for a month or two as mentioned but it only artificially inflated Gamepass, but yes, it would lose them money because of that.

Subscription services have some ‘stickiness’ to them, and GP does have a library of games that could very well keep those ‘casuals’ engaged.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a significant portion of players stick around for a while.

PlayStation got the marketing rights to Call of Duty because Xbox sales were tanking while PlayStation was thriving. Same thing happened in 2007 when Xbox 360 was dominating PS3 (at least in the US). Call of Duty marketing rights follow the market leader

This isn’t accurate, though. Sony got the COD rights in 2015 when Microsoft chose not to renew. Same with them dropping their FIFA deal with EA.

No need to speculate. MS went to court and to regulators showcasing the financial loss they’d incur if COD were to be included in GP.

Source?

There is no way on earth the extra subs they are going to get is going to subsidise the losses they are going to have to eat due to the game bringing in no revenue on xbox through game sales

between the Extra subs + extra MTX revenue + Switch 2 releases, I think they’ll manage.

 

[Topher]

This isn’t accurate, though. Sony got the COD rights in 2015 when Microsoft chose not to renew. Same with them dropping their FIFA deal with EA.

Source?

 

[Ozriel]

Source?

That was the general sentiment at the time.

But also

https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases1/202330/M_10646_9311516_7443_3.pdf

Page 105, while heavily redacted, seems to touch on MS reluctance to continue paying after seeing the Xbox One still trail to PS4 despite the deal.

With Halo 5 on the way, and with physical copies of Destiny selling higher on Xbox during launch month than PlayStation, I suspect Phil thought COD marketing was not longer needed. Especially when 2014’s Advanced Warfare had a double digit decline from Ghosts.

And then Black Ops III came out and was a massive success and sold a metric ton of PS4 bundles. So yeah, another poor decision from Xbox leadership.

 

[Topher]

That was the general sentiment at the time.

But also

https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases1/202330/M_10646_9311516_7443_3.pdf

Page 105, while heavily redacted, seems to touch on MS reluctance to continue paying after seeing the Xbox One still trail to PS4 despite the deal.

With Halo 5 on the way, and with physical copies of Destiny selling higher on Xbox during launch month than PlayStation, I suspect Phil thought COD marketing was not longer needed. Especially when 2014’s Advanced Warfare had a double digit decline from Ghosts.

And then Black Ops III came out and was a massive success and sold a metric ton of PS4 bundles. So yeah, another poor decision from Xbox leadership.

Eh....there is no way to make head or tails of what this says. Xbox finance was involved. Seems MS wanted something other than exclusive DLC. Phil Spencer cautioned Nadella against something, but we don't know. Not sure. You may be right.

 

[Mr.ODST]

Cod marketing was one of the very few gaming things that got showed at the infamous TV TV TV Xbox One reveal.

Activision moved to PS because of MS dropping the ball with the Xbox One, not vice versa.

Im talking about the general public not Activision, do you think the public cares about that

 

[ManaByte]

All well and good but as I said won't help you if they introduce new tier.

They’re advertising COD for regular Ultimate on the front page of Xbox.com right now with a sign up link. They can’t sign people up for Ultimate using COD as the reason and then say they need a new tier. It’d be a massive lawsuit. The new tier thing was just more clickbait FUD.

 

[adamsapple]

They’re advertising COD for regular Ultimate on the front page of Xbox.com right now with a sign up link. They can’t sign people up for Ultimate using COD as the reason and then say they need a new tier. It’d be a massive lawsuit. The new tier thing was just more clickbait FUD.

Yep, big CoD on game pass banner on the home page which links to sign ps for Ultimate/PC/Regular.

I think it's safe to rule that a new tier will be made that's required for CoD day 1. And I still think if they're going to introduce another tier, more than likely it's gonna be a cheaper ad-supported one.

 

[ManaByte]

I think it's safe to rule that a new tier will be made that's required for CoD day 1.

That would be a massive bait and switch class action lawsuit after people signed up for normal GP based on advertising COD Day 1.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I think this is the crux of it.

Starfield's a good game, but it didn't get those "must buy a console to play this!" reviews. But, now Xbox and Gamepass offers you that good game, and COD, and Indy and Avowed.

If those other games get good reviews, then the scales start to tip a bit more. I think you have to look at the package as a whole - as stated repeatedly, taking out a one year sub to play one game obviously doesn't work.

Then again, GamePass is tied to a dying platform.

Massive hurlde right there.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Oh they will most definitely be introducing a new tier at some point.

 

[ManaByte]

Oh they will most definitely be introducing a new tier at some point.

If they try to do it before launch they’ll be sued by the people who signed up based on the ads to play Day 1 on Game Pass.

 

[Physiognomonics]

CoD is coming to Nintendo platforms now, which will more than make up for any "lost" sales.

COD was on previous Nintendo hardware (like Wii and WiiU). I don't think it made up for anything otherwise they would have continued to release those games on Switch.

 

[Astray]

Im talking about the general public not Activision, do you think the public cares about that

The public had 2 years of COD marketing on Xbox one. They still chose PS4.

My point is that cod marketing wasn't this big swing vote people think it is.

 

[peish]

Pray tell, what older days are you talking about?

There has been an annual CoD game since 2005.

like real old days, of my rose tinted memories.

we used to play MP games for more than a year. Devs would bug fixes, balance and meta fixes. Then maybe 2-3 years later, release an expansion with new units and mechanics. But the base game is fully playable and the community is there.