Macquarie ‘highly encouraged’ by Microsoft adding Call of Duty to Game Pass

Macquarie analyst Frederick Havemeyer keeps an Outperform rating on Microsoft with a $475 price target after the Wall Street Journal reported the company is planning to add the upcoming Call of Duty game to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. The analyst is “highly encouraged” by the news, saying it reinforces the thesis that Microsoft can leverage its “market-leading” gaming portfolio to drive uptake of its subscription-based Game Pass service. This news reinforces the view in Microsoft that the company is leveraging the “must-have” premium gaming content acquired from Activision Blizzard to enrich its Game Pass catalog for broadening the Game Pass customer base, the analyst tells investors in a research note.