Minecraft TV Show, CoD on GamePass

Does anyone remember when Minecraft was still an independent game from Notch, aka Markus Persson? The first time I played the game, my friends sent me the download file via Dropbox because it was relatively hard to find a legit download site for the game. We opened the game and were confused. What were we supposed to do? Is there an objective? IDK let’s just start digging.

One of the first things that my friends and I did that truly blew my mind was set up an automated rail system that transported materials that we were mining to and from our dig site back to our home base., and that is just scratching the surface of what is possible.

Now, under Microsoft’s umbrella, Minecraft has become one of the most played games in history. The simplicity of it’s core gameplay makes it easily accessible to anyone, whether they are familiar with video games or not, but what has kept the game alive for as long as it has been is the absolutely insane stuff you can do once you get into the nitty gritty of how everything in the game works. Rooster Teeth (RIP 🙁) made an entire series, and an eventual spinoff channel, based around the fun that their team was having in Minecraft.

While the game itself continues to garner tons of players, the Minecraft brand is starting a new life as a TV series on Netflix. It’s hard to imagine just how a game that has no dialogue, no story, no real main character (yes, I know Steve is the main player character), but that didn’t deter Netflix from taking a beloved brand and trying to make it into a pretige animated show. While there have been many other animated adaptations, this one feels like Netflix is putting more emphasis behind pushing it into the mainstream. With stars like Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Kate McKinnon joining the cast, there is no shortage of talent. I’m very interested to see how the show turns out and if it will be able to make an impact on the Netflix viewer base.

The next installment in the long, long, long… long running Call of Duty franchise will be Black Ops 6. I can’t believe there are 6 Black Ops games. I feel like the enemies should see the Black Ops coming after the 4th one. Just keep a watch posted or something already.

While the game is sure to be a pew pew, shooty shooty good time for about 3 weeks for the people who buy it, the thing that makes this game particularly special is that it will be the first Call of Duty game to be released on Xbox Game Pass on day 1. Microsoft has never taken the step to make CoD a day 1 release for Game Pass since the franchise was a guaranteed cash cow, so why make this move now?

The answer is that Game Pass subscriber growth has slowed substantially over the past 2-3 years. Microsoft’s woes started in 2022 when their goal for Xbox Game Pass growth was a 78% increase year over year. They ended 2022 with only 28% increase, a massive miss in both revenue and subscriber growth. While growth has slightly increased to 36% in 2023, MS is still not happy with the extreme slow down the game pass service has seen since the end of the COVID pandemic.

This move to bring CoD to Game Pass is a hail mary on Microsoft’s part to bring in new subs and hopefully increase that sub growth number. The game will not be available on the lowest tier of Game Pass, Game Pass Core, but will be available to all users who subscribe to any other tier of Game Pass.

The deal is a home run for consumers. The base CoD game will be listed at the standard $70 retail plus whatever they will charge for the season pass, but if you sub to the lowest level Game Pass required to get CoD:BO6, it will only set you back $11/month ($10/ month on PC). You can also get a discount if you buy a 3, 6, or 12 month game pass card. Add in all of the additional games you get access to through the program, and it is a no brainer for anyone looking to play the new Call of Duty for a few months before putting it to the side.

Game Recommendation

This week’s game recommendation is on of my favorite games from the early 2000s, Kingdom Hearts! I grew up a huge fan of Disney, so when my high school self heard that Disney was partnering with Squaresoft (there was no Enix yet), the maker of the best RPGs on the market, my little gamer heart jumped for joy.

Not only did the game live up to the hype, it spawned an entire franchise of games that I still get excited about to this day, 22 years after the release of the original. My friends and I would go home, play the game, just to come back to school and talk about where we were and what things we had found along the way. We even had nights where we would pass the controller back and forth trying to beat the extra bosses in the game that popped up after you had beaten the main story (Sephiroth took FOREVER to beat).

If you haven’t played this masterpiece yet, do yourself a favor and play the remastered version on one of the most recent consoles.

Cheat Code

This week’s cheat code is a cheat code for life, and it’s LEARN TO SLEEP ON PLANES.

I had a long travel week recently, and I am super bad at sleeping on planes, so much so that on a round trip flight that totaled about 15-16 hours, I only slept for about 2 hours total on those flights.

Save yourself a ton of jetlag and a rough first day off the plane by packing some melatonin, taking some Ambien, not sleeping the night before, or whatever else you need to do to make yourself fall asleep on a long flight. You won’t regret it.