[Speculation] WoW on Xbox Game Pass

[shoc]

With Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard my bold prediction is that they will phase out Battle.net and migrate all Blizzard titles to the Xbox Game Pass. Two subscription services will be redundant, and making WoW available to the 25 million game pass subscribers is the kind of game-changer that will revitalize WoW, which, as the owners of a stagnating 18-year-old with lots of potentials, must be priority number one. The merger would also add give or take 5 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers is a 20% increase overnight, that is the kind of performance that stimulates the stock price and earns CEOs their hundo-mil bonuses.

It would be a great deal for current WoW subscribers as well, centralizing service under the Xbox Game Pass subscription would give you access to hundreds of full-price quality titles, for no more than you are currently spending. The Xbox Game Pass is cheaper too, PC Game Pass is only $10 a month, Full Game Pass is $15, the migration would not have a significant impact on revenue from WoW subscribers.

This would have some cascading effects, with the phasing out of Battle.net and the WoW subscription there would be no more WoW Tokens. No more WoW Tokens would have a big impact on the boosting economy as there would no longer be an easy and permitted way to pay to win, the system will return to banning gold buyers and sellers. This would be an improvement to the game, in my view.

Convince me that I'm wrong, but I see no conceivable downside to the merging of the WoW subscription and Xbox Game Pass. It would introduce millions of new players to WoW, add millions of new Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and most importantly keep WoWs reputation as the worlds most profitable MMO going for as long as they can.

[kenn9530]

With Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard my bold prediction is that they will phase out Battle.net and migrate all Blizzard titles to the Xbox Game Pass. Two subscription services will be redundant, and making WoW available to the 25 million game pass subscribers is the kind of game-changer that will revitalize WoW, which, as the owners of a stagnating 18-year-old with lots of potentials, must be priority number one. The merger would also add give or take 5 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers is a 20% increase overnight, that is the kind of performance that stimulates the stock price and earns CEOs their hundo-mil bonuses.

It would be a great deal for current WoW subscribers as well, centralizing service under the Xbox Game Pass subscription would give you access to hundreds of full-price quality titles, for no more than you are currently spending. The Xbox Game Pass is cheaper too, PC Game Pass is only $10 a month, Full Game Pass is $15, the migration would not have a significant impact on revenue from WoW subscribers.

This would have some cascading effects, with the phasing out of Battle.net and the WoW subscription there would be no more WoW Tokens. No more WoW Tokens would have a big impact on the boosting economy as there would no longer be an easy and permitted way to pay to win, the system will return to banning gold buyers and sellers. This would be an improvement to the game, in my view.

Convince me that I'm wrong, but I see no conceivable downside to the merging of the WoW subscription and Xbox Game Pass. It would introduce millions of new players to WoW, add millions of new Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and most importantly keep WoWs reputation as the worlds most profitable MMO going for as long as they can.

WoW is an old outdated game, nothing will ever get that much subs back into the game, the gameplay is just outdated and it not interesting to newer players, WoW is just a mediocre game now that manages to hold onto the ones who just cant quite quit the game yet.

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

Token makes them extra money, I doubt even MS would get rid of that.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Makes no sense, unless they shift their focus to more macrotransactions. Why give wow away for free when you have a bunch of people paying for it? Why give a gamepass sub away when you can have people pay that extra? Then we have the token economy. WoW would need to change alot for it to make sense.

[m4Zzo928]

I think they do, and it makes sense laterally. Imagine Wow would just be tacked onto gamepass. This would introduce regular pc gamers to wow, and also provide wow players with a library to play when they get tired of wow, or want a break. I think they're focused on the long game, and a player with a sub for 1 year isn't as profitable as a player with a 2-3 year sub. In the end it works out as better profit for the company. I think what they'll do is extend the free aspect of wow a bit, and players will still have to buy expansions, but the sub will be tied to gamepass imo.

[MoanaLisa]

I doubt that any of this is going to happen. It's much more likely that Blizzard will be its own entity under Microsoft and that things will largely stay the way they are now. The token likely remains as systems like this exist in most games, including ones that MS owns. Blizzard games may or may not go on the gamepass. In any case those that farm gold to have a cost-free subscription will be affected by tokens going away and them having to start paying a subscription again, better deal or no. Tokens are used in lots of ways and this notion that the primary use for them is that players are spending tons of real money to buy tokens to buy boosts and that is the primary use for the token is unsupported by any data whatsoever.

I don't think boosts are the huge problem that some do but I can well imagine that the guilds who do well by providing boosts, some of the most elite guilds in the game, will not be anxious to see boosts go away.

If the subscription is tied to gamepass it's as likely as not that how you pay for WoW will be one of a couple of different options.

[Relapses]

I've said this in other threads on this subject but it's almost certain that WoW will get added to Game Pass at some point. Whether that means X Box compatibility is anybody's guess but I can't imagine it's a stretch. If WoW were added to Game Pass, I can see them creating Tiers of the Game Pass service to account for the additional revenue thru a subscription... essentially moving gaming even further into the same business model which has proven to be extraordinarily profitable for the cable television industry. Late stage capitalism, ho!

[Schizoide]

With Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard my bold prediction is that they will phase out Battle.net and migrate all Blizzard titles to the Xbox Game Pass. Two subscription services will be redundant,

So MS will give up roughly seventy-five million dollars per month because the subscription is "redundant"? I agree that MS rabidly wants to grow Game Pass but that seems pretty unlikely when they can get people to subscribe to both.

IMO it's more likely that they offer WoW (and Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty, etc) perks to game pass subscribers.

[Relapses]

So MS will give up roughly seventy-five million dollars per month because the subscription is "redundant"? I agree that MS rabidly wants to grow Game Pass but that seems pretty unlikely when they can get people to subscribe to both.

A subscription to pay for a subscription. Actual live image of Bill Gates atm:

[Puri]

It's pretty much certain that wow will be added to the game pass.

And I don't get why people assume they would ever remove the token. It literally turns 13 Euros into 15 Euros for Blizzard/MS. They could literally offer everything MS has to offer for tokens, including hardware, and make a huge profit.
But that would obviously completely destroy the Wow economy, so the simple solution is that you you cannot generally buy everything, but only wow related items (like the subscription/game pass and everything you can now buy ingame, including services).

[m4Zzo928]

How many wow players sub to gamepass? I'd imagine not many. Yes they'd be giving wow players access to the gamepass library, but they still inherit their subs, and there's a much bigger opportunity for people to discover wow and try it if they have a gamepass account.

[ZazuuPriest]

I would have said never but in November that started to allow modding on gamepass games so yeah I guess I could see it happening now. Without addons though WoW would die

[Schizoide]

How many wow players sub to gamepass? I'd imagine not many.

Quite a few, game pass has 25 million subscribers already. I'm one of them. You can get it for $4.19/month by converting XB live gold, which is an amazing deal.

Back in the day lots of WoW players only played WoW, but these days? Nah, it's a slowly dying title and we're just feeding on the corpse.

[Stickiler]

With Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard my bold prediction is that they will phase out Battle.net and migrate all Blizzard titles to the Xbox Game Pass. Two subscription services will be redundant, and making WoW available to the 25 million game pass subscribers is the kind of game-changer that will revitalize WoW, which, as the owners of a stagnating 18-year-old with lots of potentials, must be priority number one. The merger would also add give or take 5 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers is a 20% increase overnight, that is the kind of performance that stimulates the stock price and earns CEOs their hundo-mil bonuses.

It would be a great deal for current WoW subscribers as well, centralizing service under the Xbox Game Pass subscription would give you access to hundreds of full-price quality titles, for no more than you are currently spending. The Xbox Game Pass is cheaper too, PC Game Pass is only $10 a month, Full Game Pass is $15, the migration would not have a significant impact on revenue from WoW subscribers.

This would have some cascading effects, with the phasing out of Battle.net and the WoW subscription there would be no more WoW Tokens. No more WoW Tokens would have a big impact on the boosting economy as there would no longer be an easy and permitted way to pay to win, the system will return to banning gold buyers and sellers. This would be an improvement to the game, in my view.

Convince me that I'm wrong, but I see no conceivable downside to the merging of the WoW subscription and Xbox Game Pass. It would introduce millions of new players to WoW, add millions of new Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and most importantly keep WoWs reputation as the worlds most profitable MMO going for as long as they can.

The big counter-argument for this is that ESO's subscription ISN'T on Gamepass, ESO itself is but you don't get the premium subscription with it. If they're not gonna use Gamepass to pump the numbers of the MMO they already have, they're definitely not going to lower the amount of money WoW makes(Because anyone who's paying for both Gamepass and a WoW sub would cancel one).

They're also not going to deprecate Battle.Net and merge the games in to the Microsoft Store, because again, they've left the Bethesda launcher in place, and it's an infinitely worse launcher than either the MS Store or Battle.Net.

Also, Third Party RMT is and has always been banned, but that didn't stop them. The only thing that stopped them was the WoW Token, and I've zero desire to return to those days.

[Unlimited Power]

I firmly believe there's a great chance that the WoW subscription will be included in the Xbox Game Pass eventually, but I doubt they'll get rid of the regular sub regardless.

The WoW tokens and 6 month sub bundles are simply too lucrative for them and they're difficult to reconcile with the Xbox Game Pass in its current incarnation.

[Schizoide]

Note that while ESO is technically on game pass, in reality that's just the base game and the first expansion. There have been like 4 expansions and tons of story DLC since, and ESO story DLCs are entire outdoor zones with quests, dungeons, raids, etc. And as you noted, the ESO+ subscription is not on game pass.

[Unlimited Power]

Note that while ESO is technically on game pass, in reality that's just the base game and the first expansion. There have been like 4 expansions and tons of story DLC since, and ESO story DLCs are entire outdoor zones with quests, dungeons, raids, etc. And as you noted, the ESO+ subscription is not on game pass.

In many ways, WoW is also quite different to ESO's payment model. When a new expansion releases, the current/previous expansion gets incorporated into the base game.

You can technically play the game for free up until level 20, and the subscription is not a premium service, it simply gives access to the remainder of the game.

Now, as for whether the latest WoW expansion would be included or not is an interesting dilemma. Including WoW in the Game Pass subscription would be largely pointless if it didn't give access to the latest expansion, as WoW is a game that largely makes anything but the latest content redundant.

[Schizoide]

If they put the WoW sub on game pass, which I think is unlikely but totally possible, it would include the latest expansion also. MS is all about putting day 1 releases on game pass, it's why it's so awesome.

[Hitei]

If they put the WoW sub on game pass, which I think is unlikely but totally possible, it would include the latest expansion also. MS is all about putting day 1 releases on game pass, it's why it's so awesome.

You are nuts if you think they're going to let you sidestep expansion box cost by paying 30% less for your monthly sub.

[Schizoide]

30% less? Where did that come from?

As I noted, I don't think they're going to put WoW on Game Pass in any shape or form. At most, Game Pass will include "perks" for WoW. Maybe a free mount, pet, or transmog.