Damn, that’s the same bass-ackwards logic that record companies use to say piracy makes them lose money.
Spoiler alert: the majority of people pirating your stuff would not have otherwise purchased it. You have lost nothing.
Similarly, the majority of people using gamepass to play the game would absolutely not have bought the game, especially since it’s the same game as last time, with new names and skins.
For instance: the last call of duty game I bought was MW3. I only played black ops 2 when someone got two copies for their birthday and gave one to me I only remember playing for the zombies. I have played a total of less than 30 minutes, from startup screen to shutdown, of all the call of duties since then. Absolutely no chance in hell I’d buy another one. But I’m sure Microsoft would have included me trying it out as a potential lost sale of every one of them.
I used to play black ops 1 a shitload. I was fresh out of highschool and it was my first online game after getting internet. I already liked FPS games and this was interactive FPS with actual skilled people instead of shitty bullet sponge bots.
As for why people love them so much now? I have no idea. I’m sure I also wouldn’t have cared for them if I had played online games earlier in life.
I’d much rather have a compelling story nowadays.