Microsoft CEO Namedrops Call Of Duty: MW3 In 'One Of Our Strongest First Party Holiday Lineups Ever'

Even though the majority of console players will be on playstation,how ironic

I know that it is 'First Party' but I doubt that it will 'feel' first party for some - much like they don't think of Minecraft as 'first party' because exclusivity and first party are synonymous.

MW3 in particular may feel a bit more like Deathloop/Ghostwire were with Sony having some advantages over Xbox but that's the difference between 'Consumers' who expect first Party to be more beneficial on their own Platform and 'Businesses/Companies more interested in their Revenue. Those games still contributed to MS's gaming revenue as MS own Bethesda and now own Activision too. Therefore it makes sense for MS to count these - every 'sale' will generate revenue for MS as owner of ABK.

With COD now in the mix, gaming revenue better be up more than 9% next time Microsoft has an investor meeting.

@Mephisto2869 and roughly 70% of each of those sales will go to Microsoft; that puts them in a great position!

I wonder if the game will have the Xbox logo anywhere in it. Or if it was too late for that. For parity reasons it needs to be there.

@K1LLEGAL next year when you load up cod on PlayStation it should say “included day one on gamepass”

I am kind of hoping they went ahead and slipped the Xbox logo into the startup credits. That would be kind of funny.

Microsoft did update their expected revenue for next quarter due to the acquisition going through. They are expecting mid to high 40% increase for overall gaming revenue and mid to high 50% increase for Xbox content and Services revenue.

I would not have even mentioned that, but I understand what he's doing. Unfortunately for gamers, MW3 being a "first party" title means nothing to us this year. We'll try again next year, or the year after.

Are we still calling this MW3? When we all know it's MW2.1

Well if you own it you got to name drop it.
They paid plenty.

This "game" wasn't meant to be happening. Due to Modern Warfare II failing because IW refused to listen to community feedback. That's when Activision saw this as a win and thought we'd make a "game" [it's a DLC] (Modern Warfare II was meant to be a 2 year game) and sell it off as a full price game. Them changes they've made could've been implemented into the current title, but their greed got the best of them.

I'd say it's a weak lineup, especially as Forza Motorsport is a mess.

These are not first party games if you are not publishing them. Activision BLizzard is publishing them. Microsoft is not. So they are second party games. Buying publishers = shady move guys!

@themightyant I always assumed Minecraft has it too? Still just would be quite a sight on Call of Duty.

@BacklogBrad That would be great, but with me being new to Xbox and everything happening like Starfield, Forza Motorsport and whatever Activision decides to make,

I can see I've made the right choice in console

@themightyant ah okay interesting. Assuming Deathloop and Ghostwire are the same then; so perhaps this won’t ever get it.

@K1LLEGAL dunno is the ps logo on destiny,honestly there gonna need those 70 percent sales to make up that 69 billion.

@themightyant the hbo logo sound just reminds me of game of thrones.

While their lineup is more than prior years in quality/quantity (among the 'biggest lineup/best lineup' mentions prior years I will give them this it is a good lineup of games from Starfield, FM8.... Age of Empires, Minecraft Legends (over the eh Minecraft updates the past few years) and HiFi Rush I can remember it's been good so far on Xbox. Redfall is coming along in updates and who knows how it turns out over time I assume it may surprise like Fallout 76 or others but who knows.

I can't say I care when they aren't my type of games and I keep using my Xbox One X/Xbox One with Kinect for BC titles OG or 360 and the backlog Xbox One games or smart delivery titles (Demon Turf, Project Cars 3).

Seeing as Forza Motorsport 8 was the only Xbox game I cared for this year (very few games compared to 2022 games I bought in 2023 to catch up besides retro titles I pick up from time to time) well while mostly more Switch this year (Pikmin 4, Bayonetta Origins and felt like having another Disgaea with 7 on Switch than PS4), pass on that and back to old racing games I go and anything else in my other consoles backlogs.

Time to finish Shift 1 as enjoying it more than PC3 & Shift 2, and got more of Project Cars 1 to play too let alone MotorStorm & Pacific Rift, Fuel, whatever else let alone other genres.

Starfield and the rest are good in their own way though. That and if I get around to HiFi Rush or not. Still got Valkyrie Elysium from 2022 to finish still for hack n slashes.

@BacklogBrad 40% increase in revenue? That would put Xbox only slightly behind Playstation! You think COD is gonna single handedly make Xbox catch Playstation??? I doubt very much!!

@Pimpernel these are not numbers I am pulling out of a hat. They are the official Microsoft expectations for next quarter (they beat their expectations for last quarter BTW). So much more research goes into this prediction than we could ever dream of knowing. Whole teams of analysts are coming to this conclusion. I will take their word for it until next quarter's results are revealed. I bet they are pretty accurate in their prediction that it will be mid to upper 40's percentage increase.

A simple google search says that Microsoft made 16.2 billion in 2022 and Activision/Blizzard made 7.4 billion. That would be a 45% increase.

@BacklogBrad are we talking about Microsoft or Xbox? Xbox is on -$70 billion for Activision buy. Going take a while to profit from that! Espesh wen COD sales fall off cliff wen it on Game Pass.

@Pimpernel Just talking Xbox. It is a very profitable division for Microsoft and will be even more so going forward.

COD sales will not fall off a cliff, not even close. It is now going to Nintendo consoles. It will still be the best-selling game on Playstation every single year. Overall sales will rise for Call of Duty.

@BacklogBrad i really think Playstation sales will drop. I read 75% of Series sale are Series S. You can bet a lot who own PS5 bought a Series S as their second console for Xbox games like Starfield an COD.

The series S is closer to 50% now, I think it might even be behind the X now. The discrepancy was from when the X was hard to find, the series S never really had that much of a stock shortage.

I don't think that many people will switch consoles for COD or sub to Gamepass just to play COD. That core Call of Duty audience will continue to do what they are doing, wherever they are doing it. I think Gamepass will lead to more Xbox players playing each yearly COD. That with the added Nintendo audience will probably put even more of a spotlight on it and the higher player counts and discourse will probably boost sales on PS5 and Steam.