Activision CEO wouldn’t put Call of Duty, other titles on Xbox Game Pass
“I have a general aversion to the idea of multi-game subscription services.”
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What you need to know
It’s Day 4 of the bigFTC vs. Microsoft hearingover the latter’s planned deal to acquire Activision Blizzard King for $69b next month, and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has made quite a statement.
While speaking at the hearing, Kotick said that Activision currently isn’t interested in “multi-game subscription services” likeXbox Game Pass.
“I have a general aversion to the idea of multi-game subscription services," said Kotick. “Maybe part of it is being in Los Angeles and having large, big media companies move their content to these subscription streaming services and the business results have suffered.”
He went on to say that he has no plans to putCall of Duty— Activision’s largest and most lucrative franchise and one of the biggest games in the world — on these services. Kotick also noted that while his company has “experimented with a few streaming services,” he doesn’t plan to make other titles available on them moving forward.
With that said, the FTC did note that Activision hasn’t made an official decision about these services. “We’d evaluate,” Kotick said about the possibility of the company’s games coming to subscription services. “Generally speaking, I don’t believe that a multi-subscription service for games is the best way to enable players to make their investments.”
Activision was reportedly considering putting its titles on Xbox Game Pass in 2020, but “made a decision not to include our games on Game Pass as a subscription service.”
“I don’t agree with the idea of a multi-game subscription service as a business proposition going forwards, but we [Activision and Microsoft] can agree to disagree,” said Kotick in response to a question from Judge Corley about why he agreed to the merger if he didn’t believe services like Game Pass made “commercial sense.”
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
