A filing from the Brazilian government has given us a rare glimpse into Sony’s thoughts on Microsoft’s impending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, and specifically, the fact that Xbox will soon own the massive first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty.
In Brazil, companies in the same sphere of any corporate transaction are asked for their opinion on agreements of this magnitude. And, interestingly for us, Brazil also publishes all these details online (albeit in some cases with redacted passages).
Sony’s response is largely public and contains a series of arguments that paint the potential of Xbox’s ownership of Call of Duty in a problematic light (as spotted by ResetEra and translated to us by Eurogamer Portugal).
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will be released later this year.
For starters, Sony argues that Call of Duty is a franchise without rival, something even EA’s Battlefield might privately agree with.
Entries in the Call of Duty franchise “tend to be long-running franchises with big budgets, multi-year development cycles, and fanatical followings,” Sony wrote. “And despite huge budgets and resources, no other developer has managed to create a franchise to rival Activision’s Call of Duty, which stands out as a gaming category in its own right.”
Sony describes Call of Duty as “an essential game,” “a blockbuster, AAA-like game that has no rival,” and cites a 2019 study that found COD to be the only video game property that ‘has placed among the 10 most lucrative. entertainment franchises globally, along with “powerhouses like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.”
More intriguingly, Sony suggests that Call of Duty “is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its network of loyal users is so entrenched that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a product similar, I wouldn’t be able to compete with it.”
This is a fascinating argument for Sony, as Sony itself has partnered closely with Call of Duty over the last few console generations, offering perks and early access to those who play COD on PlayStation.
“Call of Duty is deeply entrenched, so no rival, no matter how relevant, can match it,” Sony concluded. “Call of Duty has been the best-selling game for almost every year for the past decade, and for its genre, it’s overwhelmingly the best-selling game. It’s synonymous with first-person shooters and essentially defines that category.”
For its part, Microsoft has previously promised to release Call of Duty games on PlayStation “beyond the existing agreement and in the future”. This year’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 will launch on Sony platforms.
Beyond that, it’s been reported that the Call of Duty franchise will take an unprecedented hiatus in 2023, before the next Black Ops title from Treyarch studio arrives sometime after that. This game is also believed to be part of PlayStation’s existing deal, suggesting that nothing will change, for now.