Microsoft has introduced the Xbox Game Pass Wave 2 October 2024 lineup.
The headline right here is of course the October 25 launch of Black Ops 6, the primary Call of Responsibility recreation to launch day-one on Game Pass. It comes a yr after Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which has additionally seen the likes of Diablo 4 and Trendy Warfare 3 arrive on Game Pass, and can, in November, see StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Marketing campaign Assortment hit the subscription service.
Black Ops 6’s launch straight into Game Pass is a giant gamble for Microsoft. It hopes the ability of Call of Responsibility will increase subscriber numbers and income (itself bolstered by the current Game Pass value rise and restructure), but it surely comes with the chance of shedding gross sales of the full-price recreation. Whereas Xbox executives have insisted gross sales might be boosted by a recreation’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers stay unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for instance, was at all times towards placing Call of Responsibility into subscription companies. Not like Microsoft, console rival Sony doesn’t launch its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.
In an interview with IGN final yr, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was requested how he’d deal with his and Kotick’s completely different ideologies after the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard closed. “Properly, there is a completely different particular person making the choices,” Spencer laughed.