Microsoft seen the COD series growing stale and had faith in their in game development teams to compete in development and sales figures with full support behind their own companies projects and brand. I think Activision turned too greedy for even Microsoft. Microsoft had no problem partnering with Activision for the COD series but then Activision began dangling projects that would rival Microsoft's own in house project development. Releasing projects around the same release date windows that targeted the same core audiences as projects Microsoft were working on to be released in the same time frames to rival their sales but even taking it a step further and forcing their hand on obtaining Activision's exclusivities so they don't get beat out by their own hardware competitors, its kind of black male. They partnered with Activision for Titanfall in a continuance of partnership but when they sold destinys exclusivity off to Sony, Microsoft had enough of Activision antics and cut them off. That's why this new Activision business model is to screw the consumer because Microsoft isn't holding their hand anymore. Microsoft will still work with them in moderation where it suits them and the consumer to a degree but they aren't willing to spend for exclusivity on every FPS Activision dishes out to rival the Halo series sales or any other gaming genre. Which they shouldn't because the deal was already lucrative enough for Activision as a non hardware giant. They want to make console figures that rival Microsoft without pushing any hardware. Microsoft can get Activision titles at the price rates they are more accustom to still because Activision still needs the platform to release on to make money but Microsoft isn't with all those contractual agreements for every single released title because it hurts their profit figures when they're providing the revolutionary ground breaking work of evolving the gaming industry and investing towards the development of future console generations. I would think Activision has it's own disc pressing plants but at the end of the day it costs them pennies to press a disc there will be $60 profit on, so they lose no money in physical hardware itself because they make back ten fold what they invest in probably the 1st quarter of a titles release, everything else is just overage and write offs with no real damage to the financial portfolio for the company. Microsoft however is different, it actually costs money for them to produce a product that doesn't even exist, they backbone gaming hardware revolution with real investment for the consumer, they have to try to create an exciting new experience every console while trying to keep it within sync of value for the consumer to purchase. Even though a bit steep for some as of late its still within reason. It's still relatively the same product over and over console after console for Activision since what SEGA CD? With exception to updating their pressing plants with bluray discs and pressing equipment? Activision only has to pay to create a digital product at the end of the day. They are striking while the irons hot and trying to scrape every penny up they can because they might not be a valuable asset next console generation with disc potentially eradicated from the equation. They will then get paid only on their digital imprints which development teams may no longer need a partner like Activision to release content to the world. Which is probably why you hear about how console makers want to go fully digitally in the next console generation. I don't know if any of that's true but that's how I feel about it.