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In This Edition
- Has Call of Duty in Game Pass worked?
- Devs should move fast on Apple verdict
- Nintendo goes low on Switch 2
- GTA 6 breaks records
- and loads more
What a week for news. GTA 6 delay, GTA 6 trailer, Epic vs Apple, Gears of War on PlayStation, key financial results for Nintendo, EA and Unity, staff leaving Giant Bomb, Polygon hit by lay-offs after being sold to Valnet, a new PlayStation Studio… there’s only so much you can fit into one newsletter.
Plus, this week I’ve delved into the performance of Call of Duty after the blockbuster launch of Black Ops 6 last year, which was boosted by its inclusion in Game Pass.
You can watch our analysis of a few of these stories in the video above, featuring the editor of MobileGamer.biz Neil Long. Or read through the stories below in handy newsletter form.
Enjoy!
What happened after Xbox put Call of Duty into Game Pass?
In the beginning…
Last year, Xbox placed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 into Game Pass on the day it launched, in what was a significant moment for video game subscriptions.
And the early results were positive. Microsoft proudly declared that Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty launch of all time in terms of players.
According to Ampere, 33.7 million people played a Call of Duty game during November last year (when Black Ops 6 launched). It was a huge 13 million increase on the year before when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched.
Modern Warfare 3 was a disappointing launch for Call of Duty (more like an expansion than a full game), so it’s worth going back another year for a more like-for-like comparison. 2022’s game, Modern Warfare 2, was another high point for the franchise, and that game attracted 31.4 million players. So Black Ops 6’s player count was nearly 2.5 million higher than the previous best.
In terms of revenue, the situation is less clear. But in terms of Game Pass subscriptions, there was an obvious jump for Xbox. The firm said that the launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest single day for new Game Pass subscribers.
US sales tracker Circana reports that game subscriptions spending (including Game Pass) grew 12% in the fourth quarter of last year (vs Q4 2023). Call of Duty is particularly big in the US, and Game Pass was the clear driver for that jump in subscription revenue.
And Call of Duty in Game Pass boosted the series on Xbox platforms, too. Looking at console only (so not including PC), 47% of Call of Duty players in November played on an Xbox system (Ampere data). In November 2023, Xbox’s share of Call of Duty’s player base was just 35%. The year before that (2022), Xbox did better, with an impressive 44% market share on Call of Duty during November.
2024’s performance might not seem significantly better when compared with 2022, but it’s worth noting how big PlayStation’s control of the console market is today even compared with two years ago. Ampere estimates that by the end of 2022 in the US, PlayStation’s active console base was six million higher than Xbox’s. By the end of 2024, the gap had increased to 10 million. Therefore, if it wasn’t for Call of Duty going into Game Pass, we would likely have seen Xbox’s market share on the franchise fall even further.
All of this is to say that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 entering Game Pass provided a big boost to players at launch, grew Xbox’s market share on Call of Duty and boosted Xbox Game Pass revenues (particularly in the US).
“Call of Duty entering Game Pass provided a big boost to players at launch, grew Xbox’s market share on the series and boosted Xbox Game Pass revenues”
And then…
But the real test was what would happen next. Would those subscribers stay subscribing? Could Activision capitalise on that player increase and monetise Call of Duty’s larger audience?
The results are mixed.
The Call of Duty franchise saw its users decline after the Black Ops 6 launch, and more sharply than in recent years. Some of that may have been caused by Game Pass, as subscribers are more likely to try something and then put it down if it’s not for them. But the reality is that despite a strong start, Call of Duty has struggled to engage players to the degree it has in the past. According to Ampere, in March 2025, Call of Duty had 20.6 million players. That is still a huge number, but it’s slightly less than March 2024, which had 20.8 million players, and well down on March 2023, which saw 22.4 million players.
The Call of Duty team has not been able to capitalise on that record-breaking launch, which will be disappointing to the Activision team.
Meanwhile, Xbox’s share of Call of Duty players (on console) has gone from 47% in November to just under 37% in March (Ampere data). For the US, Xbox has gone from being the No.1 platform for Call of Duty in November, to matching PlayStation by March (both on 33.3% active players, according to Circana).
Nevertheless, Xbox’s share is still bigger than it was the year before. Globally, in March 2023, Xbox had a 32.5% share of the Call of Duty audience (Ampere data). So the Game Pass inclusion has still benefited Xbox to the tune of 4.5 percentage points in Call of Duty market share.
And Game Pass?
Things are more positive when it comes to Game Pass. Circana says that US Q1 2025 spending on subscription is up 11% compared to Q1 2024. So spending has eased slightly compared with Q4 (when spending was up 12%), but we’re still seeing a noticeable revenue improvement year-on-year.
Did putting Call of Duty into Game Pass pay off for Microsoft? Well, it depends on the area of the business. The Call of Duty team has not been able to capitalise on that record-breaking launch. To go from an all-time high to trending below previous years in terms of monthly players will be disappointing to the Activision team.
However, the wider Xbox organisation appears to have maintained interest in Game Pass. The firm followed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 with a string of strong titles in the service, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, South of Midnight, Elder Scrolls VI: Oblivion and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. And it looks set to continue this cadence with new titles in the Doom, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, The Outer Worlds and Gears of War franchises over the coming months.
Is the level of Game Pass growth what Xbox was hoping for? It’s difficult to know. But the company has often stated that Game Pass is simply one way for its audience to access games. It may not always lead to increased revenue for developers (although it does sometimes), but it can play a crucial role in discovery. And one statistic I’d love to see is whether those new Game Pass subscribers who came in for Call of Duty went on to play other games. Because if Microsoft has been able to encourage Call of Duty players to try different experiences, then that speaks to the service’s ability to not just aid discovery, but also encourage people to diversify their gaming habits.
Developers should move fast on ‘Apple tax dodge’
Mobile game developers are being urged to move fast to capitalise on Apple’s courtroom defeat in the US.
Last week, in a case with Epic, Apple was found to have violated a 2021 anti-steering injunction. The firm was ordered to allow developers to inform customers of other ways they can buy in-app purchases, and to stop charging fees on purchases made outside of the Apple platform. It was also told to stop ‘scare screens’ designed to discourage people from paying for things outside of Apple’s ecosystem.
As a result of this, payments and web store specialist Xsolla says it has seen a “meaningful increase” in developers getting in-touch to help them create direct-to-consumer stores. Xsolla says Apple’s tactics had previously acted as a deterrent to developers.
Beyond just increasing margins, Xsolla says that developers operating their own store has numerous additional benefits.
“You can now communicate through that [Apple] wall,” said chief strategy officer Chris Hewish. “There’s a great opportunity to really build out your ecosystem and your community.
“You can also see the full picture of your player data, where before a lot of what was happening on the platform was lost to you. That means you can offer better value to your players and you can operate your business more efficiently.”
“And this helps with discoverability. Platforms have become so crowded. Now, if you’re thinking of it as an ecosystem, you can now advertise to your players on the web or on other channels, other platforms, and drive them all right to your game from different places, which is huge. Strategically for your business, this is massive.”
“Even if the judge decides not to enforce this ruling, which is effective right now, putting the genie back in the bottle is going to be really hard”
- Neil Long, MobileGamer.biz.
Neil Long, the founder and editor of MobileGamer.biz, agrees. And urges game developers to move quickly.
“Really time is of the essence. If you’re a mobile game developer with an established product, you should implement this Apple tax dodge right now, because Apple is appealing the verdict.
“I don’t think they’ll get very far because if you’ve read the whole court document… the judge is furious throughout. It ends with her saying that this is beyond argument. It is a ruling, not a temporary injunction. I don’t think Apple really has a leg to stand on given the wealth of evidence in that court ruling.
“And also you’ve got a huge developer community who can, possibly in the next week or so, add this stuff into their games and dodge that 30% tax. And even if the judge somehow decides not to enforce this ruling, which is effective right now, putting the genie back in the bottle is going to be really hard. It will require Apple to clamp down on developers who have just followed the law and it would be another really bad look for Apple.”
Meanwhile…
Nintendo has revealed its financial results for the full year, reporting a steep drop in sales of video games and consoles. The firm shipped just under 11 million Switch machines in the 2025 financial year, down by nearly 5 million over the year before. Meanwhile, game shipments reached 155.4 million, a drop of 22% over the 2024 financial year. The declines were expected, taking into account the age of the Switch hardware (now in its ninth year), and a weaker software line-up (the previous financial year included big games such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros Wonder). The firm also reported a very slight drop in annual players, which marks the first decline in active users since the Switch launched in 2017.
Sticking with Nintendo, the firm expects to ship 15 million Switch 2 consoles by the end of March 2026. It would make for one of the fastest-selling consoles of all time, but is below most analyst estimates. Alongside potential stock shortages, Nintendo’s biggest challenge is trying to estimate sales in a deeply uncertain economic climate, driven by the threats of further US tariffs on goods coming from Asian territories.
Sony has launched a new first-party studio called Team LFG, based in Bellevue, Washington. The new team is creating a team-based action game where players can “find friendship, community and belonging”. It initially stated within Bungie and features people who have worked on games including Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox and Rec Room.
The second trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 was viewed more than 475 million times across platforms, Rockstar told The Hollywood Reporter. The developer says it is the biggest video launch of all time, beating the trailer of Deadpool & Wolverine, which delivered 365 million views. GTA 6 was delayed out of 2025 last week, and will now launch on May 26, 2026. We gave our opinion on this here.
It was a tough week for the games media. Website and video outlet Giant Bomb is going through a ‘reset’ after a disagreement between the brand and parent company Fandom. The move followed an episode of the Giant Bombcast that mocked new content guidelines issued by upper management.
And Vox Media has sold Polygon to The Gamer owner Valnet. The sale resulted in a number of high profile journalists leaving or losing their jobs, including co-founder Chris Plante. Vox said the sale means it can focus its efforts on other ‘priority areas’. Valnet said that the acquisition marks a “powerful reaffirmation of our deep commitment to gaming”.
Palworld developer Pockerpair has made changes to its game due to on-going litigation from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company around three patents. Players can no-longer summon Pals from the ‘Pal Spheres’ and gliding is now performed via a glider rather than Pals. Pockerpair says it is disappointed to have made these adjustments.
UK trade body Ukie has launched a campaign to secure more Government support for the games sector. Ukie says there’s a risk that ‘world-class talent, innovation and IP slips away to better-backed international competitors’ without Government intervention. The trade body wants to reform the UK tax credit for video games, expand the UK Games Fund, add a digital creativity GCSE into schools and offer better access to finance to support scaling studios.
EA reported a drop in full year revenue of 1.3% for its financial year. However, it ‘significantly exceeded expectations’ in the fourth financial quarter, with revenue up 5.8% and income up nearly 40%. The firm saw improved performance for EA Sports FC, growth for its American football titles, a spike in revenue associated with The Sims, plus the success of new IP Split Fiction. Split Fiction has sold more than four million copies since launch in March. This was nearly double EA’s expectations.
Gears of War is coming to PlayStation. Gears of War: Reloaded, a modernised version of the first Gears of War, is coming out on August 26 across all platforms, including PS5. The popular Xbox game will also be available within Game Pass.
And finally, back to Nintendo, the firm has filed a lawsuit against accessory manufacturer Genki for showing off mock-ups of Nintendo Switch 2 ahead of the console’s official reveal. Genki said it was working with its legal counsel to respond ‘thoughtfully’.
Phew. What a week. Stay tuned for news around our first live show on June 9. Until then, thanks for reading.
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