Call Of Duty Will Follow Same Established Development Structure Under Microsoft

Microsoft knows their current formula is working phenomenally, so there is no need to change anything....

Just to think Sony had the chance to have Call of Duty on Day 1 on PSPlus when Microsoft gave them the opportunity...but of course their ego got in their way to finally give PlayStation gamers something worth subscribing for.

Talking about a missed opportunity ...especially with this year's Call of Duty getting great reviews from everywhere.

I wish they would make Xbox the lead console during development

@M20B25 : They did... that's why it runs better on Xbox than on PS5

@Major_Player News to me. At least until the PS5 Pro comes out.

@Major_Player I'm genuinely curious as to where you have heard this as any comparison I've seen says it's marginal bit it does perform better on PS5.

Hm, then this is most disappointing. I got suckered in by the pre-merger rhetoric of ‘If the deal goes through and Microsoft gets Activision, just think of all the beloved IP they can resurrect. Development teams languishing in CoD support roles can work on a new StarCraft, Hexen, THPS, Crash, Spyro etc etc etc’

Lando’s words have never been more true— ”This deal is getting worse all the time!”

@Kevw2006 : YouTube reviews everywhere....of course most if those people are reviewing the GamePass version which could be less bloated and better optimized than the PS5 version.

@Balaam_ while there are still Call of Duty support studios, it doesn't mean they wont get other developers to pick up Crash, THPS etc, especially if they pitch ideas to Microsoft. These things take time and we'll see what the landscape looks like in 10 years time.

Yearly releases is the right path. Skipping years would lose a ton of money. The franchise is clearly still growing (nintendo joins the fun soon). The future still looks very bright for Duty.

They might have to start thinking about what comes after the black ops story or how to reboot it. Black Ops 10 would be ridiculous but it is without a doubt the best of the franchise.

Activision is kind of a punching bag (for some legitimate reasons) but the way they didn't miss a year during the pandemic and only had a slight dip in quality shows that they truly are great at what they do.

@Balaam_ Same here. Raven and Beenox being freed from the COD mines gave me so much hype, then I realized it was just lip service to fuel the merger hype and nothing else.

Ah well. You know the saying; death, taxes, and CoD.

lol remember Phil Spencer saying studios would have creative freedom 😂😂😂😂

@Wisegamer When did the tried and tested model of making a product and selling it become “milking their fanbase”?

It’s hardly a secret that this gamepass day one thing isnt particularly profitable for MS which is why they are releasing on other platforms, adding pay to play early gimmicks and splitting up GP tiers more aggressively. Sony don’t have the backing of a three trillion dollar parent company to bail them out or spend 80bil on publishers when it doesn’t go to plan. Comparing Sony and MS from a financial perspective is like comparing Me to Ed Sheeran. Silly take from a “wise gamer”

@GeeEssEff I actually don’t think it’s a silly take. I think we are at a point now where Xbox and Playstation could literally announce they are doing… anything. By that I mean that everything has become so unpredictable. What crazy thing will they do next? (Nintendo has always been crazy and unpredictable).

This extends to how they perceive success currently so I couldn’t tell you if they are genuinely happy with CODs success or not. And because of Gamepass; I don’t think even Microsoft really knows at this point. COD being in Gamepass day one obviously gives you immediate sales figures to report etc as well but the long term benefits of it coming to the subscription service, along with the “teaching” to the consumer that all of them will go to GP going forward, will take a while to reveal themselves. Think it’s still a long game.

@Wisegamer Considering unit sales were up 60% on PlayStation and Steam I don't think Sony will be too worried about anything at the moment. Also, it may have had the largest single number of new subscribers in a day but that can't really be classed as a success if they don't retain those subscribers for long enough to make more money than they would have made from an outright purchase from those users. It those users just subscribe for one month and then cancel them that would be a loss for them. Also those statements don't really mean much if they don't tell us what those figures are, what is the current single highest amount of new subscribers in a day? Without knowing this we don't know how impressive breaking it really is. There's just too many unknowns at the moment to consider it a success.

@K1LLEGAL For me the silly take part was that just because a Multi trillion dollar company can afford to do something their infinitely poorer competitor should follow suit. You are right though, anything can happen but I think hell will freeze over before we see Sony put a game like Spiderman 3 day one on plus. There’s no sustainable profit generation from their single player games so nothing stopping users buying a month of PS plus, completing it and unsubscribing. Xbox might be able to absorb that hit, particularly now they own a cash cow like ABK but Sony cannot.

@GeeEssEff Spot on, Sony will continue exactly as they are doing now where the odd indie drops day 1 with PS+ but they will continue to sell mainline titles. Both platforms subscriptions plateaued a while back and the only way for them to keeping move the shareholder line up is get more subscribers or raise prices, and we all know its always going to be the latter.

In all other industries we are seing sub services decline in quality, increase in price as the market bloats with more and more platforms all wanting a pieceof your wallet. Gaming subs are no different, despite how many want to hope theirs will win because they fanboi their favourite colour logo.

@GeeEssEff you are probably right about the single player games yea.

However it’s so thick to me that they didn’t try it with Concord. I think it was a stubbornness (standard for Sony) but potentially they learnt a lesson there. It could have actually saved the game depending on how they worked it. But too late now obviously.

You are entirely correct, @GeeEssEff. The reason that Microsoft are insisting on putting first party games on the PlayStation is to offset the money they don't make from putting games on Game Pass. That is why I am convinced that pretty much every game will go to the PlayStation, and I remain unconvinced that this won't include the likes of the next Gears of War, Halo or Forza. There might be a longer period of exclusivity than we have seen with Indiana Jones, but I think there is a strong possibility of them also making the transition to PlayStation. After all, when it comes to Gears of War: E-Day, what better place to start the PlayStation community off than at the chronological beginning?

I think the only lesson that Microsoft have learned from the Indiana Jones reveal is that to announce the games heading to the PlayStation at the same time they announce the release date for the Xbox was a mistake. I don't see them doing that again. I don't think they believe that the game going to the PlayStation is a mistake though, as I think they need the revenue to cover the costs of both development and licensing, which they would not otherwise have recouped from sales and Game Pass without it going to the PlayStation too...

@BacklogBrad sad thing is I'd argue keeping up yearly releases is only a good idea if the quality can still be maintained pumping them out annually. But reality is it makes that much money I doubt it'd come into the equation. EA certainly don't care with FIFA lol

@Fiendish-Beaver I second this. When (whether some like it whether they don't) the Playstation brand is that strong and their install base so high. If you are Microsoft why not put the games on there offset costs and more than likely make a massive profit in the process.

Console Wars are long dead and have been since the early 2000s tbh. All about what drives profit now. With certain games they may already have offset spend so putting them on another platform almost printing money at that stage.

@Rog-X No it’s Windows, Azure, 365 and countless business acquisitions over the last 4 decades which have turned Microsoft into a trillion dollar company.

Thanks for the update on Sony though Sifi, I understood the “one exclusive a year” comment the first 20 times you made it on here. I look forward to reading it a further 500 times in the future…..absolute broken record.

They should bring COD Mobile onto the Switch, I’d also love to see it come to Xbox but seriously doubt that would happen.

@Elbow @Balaam_ Considering how... aggressive CoD development is I wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't be a few years before there could be any meaningful changes. No idea if any changes will actually happen, Corpo Daddy MS wants its 69 billion back with interest.

As long as the campaigns tell good military stories im all for it.

@GeeEssEff lol, you calling me 'Sifi', maybe you should ask the mods if I'm 'Sifi', I changed my name long long ago(my IP remains the same) and as soon as I did a very well known Sony fanboy took it over. Those posts under that name since are not mine and I'm surprised Pure Xbox allows him to post.

"Azure, 365 and countless business acquisitions over the last 4 decades which have turned Microsoft into a trillion dollar company"

There you go, you are confirming that Microsoft had the vision to risk things that did Sony etc didn't.