Ever since the Microsoft Activision acquisition last year, gamers have been eagerly waiting for the Call of Duty games to arrive on the game pass, including both new and old. However, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes before that dream can come true, it seems. According to a recent The Verge report, Xbox executives have had internal debates about whether they want to put the new Call of Duty games into the Game Pass.
This debate has been an internal issue for the two companies, as it concerns a large portion of the revenue generated by Call of Duty games.
Also read: Xbox May Soon Shed Light On The First Batch Of Activision Blizzard King Games For The Game Pass
Xbox May Not Bring New Call of Duty Titles to Game Pass Day One Following Internal Conflicts
Newer Call of Duty titles on Game Pass have a huge chance of hurting the general revenue for Activision Blizzard and what they bring into the company. According to Tom Warren's The Verge's report on the matter, Microsoft has also considered increasing the 'price of Game Pass Ultimate', again. However, these statements are not final, as executives are still deciding internally on what is best for the company at the moment. The final decision could also see upcoming CoD titles appear on 'most versions' of the Game Pass, which could make fans very happy.
Recently, due to the shutdown of many Xbox Game Studios, such as Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, Microsoft has taken large hits in the workforce. Even before the said shutdowns, the company laid off a good chunk of their workers weeks back. All these decisions are slowly coming together and it has also hit the gaming division at Microsoft hard.
Following the Arkane Austin shutdown, Dinga Bakaba, the head of Arcane Lyon expressed his concerns on the matter through his tweets, where he disappointedly mentioned that talented teams are leaving the industry due to the corporate decisions. He said:
"For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again."
Aside from Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games has also fallen victim to the major shutdown movement at Xbox. The team at Roundhouse Studios is being moved to ZeniMax Online Studios. The games industry has seen an alarming number of layoffs over the past year and it doesn't look like they're slowing down. Interestingly, it was reported that Xbox internally discussed the need to bring smaller titles that stand to receive more critical acclaim and awards, games in the same vein as Hi-Fi Rush