The UK CMA has posted another document relating to its ongoing Activision Blizzard investigation today, as Microsoft continues in its pursuit to acquire the Call of Duty publisher. This document goes over Xbox's response to making potential 'remedies' to suit all interested parties, and Xbox Game Pass prices are brought up.
In short, Microsoft says that Xbox Game Pass will not go up in price if the merger is successful. The Xbox owner says it didn't do this when Bethesda was acquired, and the potential of making such a move post-ActiBlizz deal is "counter-productive" to the company's plans for the service.
It then goes on to use Call of Duty's annualised nature as an example. Basically, Microsoft thinks that by keeping Game Pass at a lower price, CoD fans would be likely to subscribe for longer, rather than just dipping into the service at the launch of a new Call of Duty title before unsubscribing.
"Game Pass subscribers can cancel at any time after a month of play. As CoD titles are only released once a year, any impact would be short-lived as gamers who exhaust their enthusiasm for the new version of CoD within a few months will churn because of the higher price."
Although not directly related to the pricing of Xbox Game Pass, the next section of the document also provides another plus point for IP such as Call of Duty to be included in the service at its current cost. Microsoft believes that if Xbox improves its Game Pass offering, Sony will improve its PlayStation Plus lineup, thus creating more competition in the service-based marketplace.
The team at Microsoft makes some compelling points here, and we're intrigued to see how well the company will manage to convince the CMA of its theories. The UK authority's ongoing investigation is expected to conclude on April 26th.