If they don't have Xbox tv ads for this all over its release then was it even worth buying the IP?
I think the opposite. I don't think they are going to go for any hard sell. I think lots of people will continue to buy COD the old fashioned way on Xbox, PC and PS. I don't think they ever expect this to be massive.
They aren't going to sell a ton of Xboxes with this. It will be a slow burn that will go into next gen.
I think they are going to announce a bunch of old COD games along with the new one and give people an option. I bet they get more PC Game Pass subscribers (as a PC gamer, Game Pass is looking really good).
I know personally as a 3 platform gamer, I buy fewer and fewer games.
There's lots of talk about slow Game Pass growth, but I don't think they are looking to make a massive shift, just slower growth. Dangle an option in front of gamers. We all know what happens when MS tries to push people.
Again, if they can put all the old games out there with matchmaking... that could be huge. We already saw a big jump in old game populations when they did something to fix the matchmaking of older games.
Also let's not forget, all that COD microtransaction money goes back in their pockets. That's a lot of money, even for MS.