{"id":186930,"date":"2025-12-12T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/186930\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:16:12","slug":"xbox-games-studio-boss-on-call-of-duty-movie-dev-direct-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/186930\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Games Studio Boss on ‘Call of Duty’ Movie, Dev Direct Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMicrosoft\u2019s Xbox is heading into The Game Awards<\/a> Thursday with 10 nominations<\/a> and major promotional plans for the second season of its \u201cFallout\u201d TV series on Amazon. The company also had some big news to break as it approaches its 25th anniversary in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a good button on the end of the year for us,\u201d Matt Booty<\/a>, Microsoft\u2019s president of game content and studios, told Variety in an interview last week tied to tonight\u2019s big event at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. \u201cThis year for us has been about delivering on the promise of roadmap, frequency of titles, delivering on consistency, delivering on quality. And it\u2019s just great for The Game Awards, as a celebration of the industry overall, but the 10 nominations [for Microsoft titles] is a good button on what has been a year of focus for us. And as you know, the results of the last 12 months were put in motion, two, three, four years ago. So it\u2019s great for the teams to see that recognition and to be able to land such a great year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Game Awards is a unique beast in the awards circuit in that, unlike the Emmys, Oscars, Tonys and Grammys \u2014 the paragons of achievement in their respective entertainment industries \u2014 the Game Awards isn\u2019t just a three-hour show honoring the top video game titles over the past year. It\u2019s an event packed with announcements of new games, release date reveals and epic trailer launches. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while Microsoft Gaming has some planned for tonight, including Variety\u2018s exclusive pre-TGA reveal that Xbox exclusive and 2025 Game Award nominee \u201cSouth of Midnight\u201d will be launching on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch next spring, Booty says Xbox Game Studios has so much coming down the pipeline in 2026 that a good chunk of news will be held back until Xbox\u2019s Dev Direct presentation in January. And even then, that won\u2019t cover it all.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can\u2019t share exactly what\u2019s there, but we\u2019ve got a lot of stuff that we\u2019re shipping next year. In fact, usually Dev Direct is about highlighting what\u2019s coming up for the year ahead. This year, we\u2019ve got more stuff coming up than we can fit in one show,\u201d Booty said. \u201cSo I will tell you that Playground Games [the developer behind the \u201cFable\u201d and \u201cForza Horizon 6\u2033 games] is going to be in the Dev Direct, but we\u2019ll have more stuff next year to ship than we can fit into one Dev Direct show in January, which is a good place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the new \u201cFable\u201d and the next \u201cForza,\u201d Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer has previously teased 2026 will include the debuts of \u201cGears of War: E-Day\u201d and \u201cHalo: Campaign Evolved,\u201d marking the first time that \u201cHalo\u201d will be available on PlayStation devices.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor us, it\u2019s really going to be a great year. It\u2019s going to be the 25th anniversary of Xbox,\u201d Booty said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming up on franchises of ours that have got these decade-level anniversaries. It\u2019s the 40th anniversary of Bethesda, Blizzard\u2019s 35, \u2018Diablo\u2019 shipped 30 years ago. We\u2019ve announced things like the \u2018Halo Remastered\u2019 collection that we\u2019ve got coming, and we\u2019ve got a lot of other things that we\u2019ll talk about soon, that ship next year. So it\u2019s going to be a real banner year for the brand and a banner year for some of our biggest franchises to show up across the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back on 2025, the year is wrapping up with a softer-than-usual launch for one of Microsoft\u2019s biggest IPs \u201cCall of Duty<\/a>,\u201d with the October release of \u201cBlack Ops 7.\u201d Earlier this week, Xbox revealed plans to shift its \u201cCoD\u201d strategy to avoid launching back-to-back installments of games in the same franchise, as \u201cBlack Ops 7\u201d came just one year after \u201cBlack Ops 6\u201d without a break for an installment from a different line of \u201cCoD\u201d games.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, \u201cBlack Ops 7\u201d was the top game on Xbox\u2019s subscription Game Pass service in November and is the top franchise on the platform for total players and hours played all year. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRight now, it is one of the most-played games on Xbox. And I\u2019m really proud of what the team did, in terms of feature innovation, moving the franchise forward,\u201d Booty said of the \u201cCall of Duty: Black Ops 7\u201d performance thus far. \u201cShipping a major franchise like clockwork every year is a really difficult task, and I\u2019m really proud of what the team did to move the franchise forward in that way. And the interesting thing about \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 is, I think that as an IP, it is really well positioned to continue to deliver content for players going forward; the system of seasons. And it\u2019s not just about the launch, but it\u2019s kind of in its own unique category and ability in terms of how the team keeps delivering content throughout the year. So we\u2019re real happy with where we\u2019ve landed with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in September, Microsoft announced plans for the first-ever \u201cCall of Duty\u201d movie<\/a>, which will be written by \u201cYellowstone\u201d chief Taylor Sheridan and produced by David Ellison\u2019s Paramount. Booty explained how that project came from Activision\u2019s trust that the Skydance-owned company had a vision for a \u201cCoD\u201d movie they\u2019d never heard before.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA relationship came about between the folks at Paramount and the senior people on the \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 team, where they felt like they found a partner who understands the game, people who play the game, and shared a vision of what it could be to bring that forward,\u201d Booty said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how these things come about for us. They aren\u2019t negotiated at a detached, kind of abstract level \u2014 and then we find out. These things start with the game team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBooty doesn\u2019t have specifics on the \u201cCall of Duty\u201d movie\u2019s storyline yet, but says Sheridan is a \u201cgood match\u201d for what the development team expects out of the project. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLaurel McConnell\/Microsoft<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLaurel McConnell\/Microsoft<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you think about the way that he tells stories, you think about the other things that he\u2019s been a writer on, I think that the team feels that he\u2019s got a good approach to characters and a good approach to story that\u2019ll match up with their vision of what a \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 movie [is],\u201d Booty said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s an interesting thing. It\u2019s a little bit like \u2018Fallout,\u2019 right? We sit here and \u2018Fallout\u2019 Season 2 is coming up. Where do you start with making something about \u2018Fallout\u2019? Lucky are we that we are shepherds of such a broad canvas of characters and stories, but where do you start? \u2018Call of Duty,\u2019 there\u2019s two decades of \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 \u2014 where do you start? Which character do you pick from which branch of the franchise? And so the team has got a vision where they want to go, and I think Taylor Sheridan will be a good match for what they\u2019ve got in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on the adaptation side, Microsoft is currently in production on the sequel to \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d with Warner Bros., which is set for a July 2027 release, and working on a \u201cGears of War\u201d live-action movie and animated series at Netflix. All of these transmedia opportunities come as the larger entertainment industry is taking note on the value of games, with Electronic Arts\u2019 recently announced $55 billion go-private deal being a key indicator of where priorities lie for investors. (Microsoft made its own M&A move with the purchase of Activision Blizzard for roughly $75 billion in 2023.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGames have really become a foundational part of entertainment,\u201d Booty said. \u201cAnd as such, I think we\u2019re seeing these valuations and transactions that really reflect their place in modern entertainment. And what the collective value of somebody like Electronic Arts, with decades of franchises \u2014 speaking of things like Madden and Football Club and The Sims and all the work that they\u2019ve done \u2014 I think it just reflects the value that exists in all of that gaming IP. And what its value is, I\u2019m certainly not an M&A expert, but I would look at the value of the transaction really being about the forward-looking value of the IP and the stories and what they\u2019ve created, even more so than necessarily, the static or rearward-looking value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe conversation of value trickles down to the consumer level with the question of increased prices for AAA titles. Over the past year, Microsoft has experimented with the cost of its top releases, first announcing a $80 price tag for \u201cThe Outer Worlds 2\u201d and then rolling that back to the standard $69.99 upon fan backlash. Booty says the company is still evaluating its approach to pricing in the future.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur whole focus is on delivering player satisfaction and delivering player value. And we\u2019re always going to be listening to what people want there,\u201d Booty said. \u201cWe\u2019ve reacted in the last year and I think for us, the real focus is going to be \u2014 I\u2019ll come back to the phrase meeting people where they are. I think there\u2019s going to be less of a focus on what\u2019s that top line price of a game, as people start to engage in different ways with games. From our point of view, monetization just happens in so many different ways right now. So we\u2019re going to continue to listen to the feedback from fans. We\u2019re going to continue, to balance that with needing to run the healthy business. But right now, on the content side, we don\u2019t have any pricing updates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of Xbox\u2019s biggest growth areas heading into the new year is its continued push to get more of its exclusive titles to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. From the recent release of \u201cFlight Simulator 2024\u201d on PS5 to the big announcement of the upcoming \u201cHalo\u201d launch on the platform, Booty is optimistic about what these availability options mean for the business.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had a bit of a moment earlier in the summer from end of April to end of June, where we had six of the top 10 games on PlayStation were our Xbox games,\u201d Booty said. \u201cI look at that as validation for the teams, but most importantly, it\u2019s an opportunity for more players to engage with our content, to come into our worlds.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBooty continued: \u201cThe coolest thing about the \u2018Halo\u2019 announcement was, I was in downtown Seattle, and that weekend is when we do the \u2018Halo\u2019 championship series, the esports series, and we had demos of the remastered version on the show floor there. But being there during that announcement and seeing the reaction for that is like the core of the \u2018Halo\u2019 community right there. If you\u2019re at that convention center on that day, you are a \u2018Halo\u2019 superfan. And it was a lot of excitement there. So again, from the point of view of bringing more people into our content, making our content more accessible, with more fans, we\u2019ve been really pleased with the results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s Xbox is heading into The Game Awards Thursday with 10 nominations and major promotional plans for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[40494,61,60,101086,80,101087],"class_list":["post-186930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-call-of-duty","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-matt-booty","tag-technology","tag-the-game-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}