By pretty much any estimation, the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been a huge success for Microsoft. Precise figures are understandably somewhat elusive at this stage, but CEO Satya Nadella was able to be unreservedly effusive in his remarks about the launch on the company's earnings call this week.We know, at least, that it broke the series' records for day one players and drove Game Pass subscribers to a new record high, while also seeing a 60% boost in unit sales on Steam and PlayStation over last year's instalment, Modern Warfare 3.Getting this launch right was crucial for Microsoft – but largely for internal reasons, rather than because of any kind of relevance to whatever console war narrative people have spun around it.The single biggest challenge that Microsoft's games division faces now and in the foreseeable future is not competition with rivals like Sony; it is the need to actively and continually justify the enormous purchase of Activision Blizzard by showing Microsoft's most expensive purchase actually delivering value to the company's growth and its bottom line.Call of Duty is Activision Blizzard's most valuable franchise; it was incredibly important to demonstrate how that IP was going to fit into the Xbox strategy, which is increasingly centred around the Game Pass offering, while also ensuring that it delivered the expected lift to the division's revenues.Thus far, that seems to have worked out exceptionally well.
It helps, of course, that Black Ops 6 has been extremely well-received, and thus enjoys solid comparisons against last year's rather less well-liked Modern Warfare 3.Starting out the Microsoft/Game Pass era for the franchise on such a high note is a real gift to the company, and really helps to drive home the key point that it needs to make – that Call of Duty is a big and successful enough franchise to be able to drive Game Pass growth without cannibalising sales and profits on other platforms like Steam and PlayStation.The