Ask Paul: October 18 (Premium)

Where does the time go? This month is already half over and there's so much left to do. But let's take a quick break for another great set of reader questions. Happy Friday!
COD FTW
helix2301 asks:

There has been a lot of hype around the new COD release. My question is do you think it's more of less than usual? I feel like everywhere I look I see COD promotion. I was wondering if Microsoft told Activision to beef up marketing or do you think this is normal?

I feel like there's always a lot of promotion around each Call of Duty release and that this franchise was a consistent and primary driver of revenues for Activision pre-acquisition. But yeah, this is a big one for Microsoft, especially: It spent $68 billion on that company, and a big chunk of that was based on recurring revenues from its biggest game series, and COD is the biggest of the biggest.

I think there are two factors at play here. One, that this is a proof point for Game Pass, and if this goes well, it could set up the subscription-service future of the platform. And two, that COD has been same old/same old for a long time, and I assume there was a drop-off in usage over the past few games, both of which were well-worn sequels (and one of which was originally designed as an expansion pack). Of course, the new game is more of that as well. Hence the marketing: Microsoft wants this to be an event, and maybe COD can run on more than inertia.

It's going to be an interesting test. Activision's leadership was opposed to Game Pass previously, preferring to go with the traditional annual retail-type release schedule instead. And there were always questions about how many Game Pass subscription adds Microsoft would have to make for COD to make sense in a Game Pass world. It's some ugly math, but that explains the elimination of Xbox Game Pass (with its day one perk) and the price bumps this past year: The math just didn't work out previously. But I suspect it's not certain now either. I'm curious to see how this goes.
Colorized
helix2301 asks:

Will you be doing a Kindle color review?

Yes.

I'm excited about the color Kindle, a device I've long wanted Amazon to make. Having just used and then discarded a new Kindle this past summer, I'm aware of the limitations--among them, I found the overall performance, which includes things like page turning, to be on the slow side--and color adds a new wrinkle.

When I look at my iPad usage, what I see is 80 to 90 percent reading in apps and some web browsing and other apps when home, and then occasional video viewing when traveling. The video bit isn't a worry: I can do that easily enough on a laptop. But I do use various apps--newspaper apps, Google News, feeeed, Google Discover, Instapaper, etc.--on the iPad too. And I know Kindle won't address all those needs. If it works out that the Kindle is additive--that is, I keep using an iPad--I'm OK with that. I like the idea of reading in a non-distraction way at night in bed...