Global regulators are asking competitors such as Sony for comments on Microsoft’s purchase of Activision-Blizzard and how it could affect competitors’ market positions. Sony had some choice words to say about Activision’s most popular franchise.
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Call of Duty is the best shooter series of all time. It’s a powerful franchise that helps Microsoft and Sony make billions every year (even with the 30% split). We’ve already calculated that Sony (and Microsoft) would lose hundreds of millions if Call of Duty stays off PlayStation platforms should Microsoft’s $68.7 billion Activision-Blizzard deal close, but Sony has made official comments that reiterate the importance of Call of Duty to gaming.
In an official response to Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), as found on this web page and automatically translated for this article, Sony’s legal representation said that Call of Duty is unmatched in the gaming industry. games The rendering indicates that the exclusivity of Call of Duty could be a paradigm shift for the gaming market.
“No other developer can devote the same level of resources and expertise to game development. Even if they could, Call of Duty is so entrenched that no rival, no matter how relevant, can top it. Call of Duty has been the top-selling game almost every year for the last decade, and for its genre, it’s overwhelmingly the best-selling game. It’s synonymous with first-person shooters and essentially defines that category.”
We know that Call of Duty made over $3 billion in revenue in 2020, and Call of Duty Mobile has generated over $1.5 billion in revenue.
Activision also sold 25 million Call of Duty games by 2021.
To date, the Call of Duty franchise has earned over $30 billion.
While not explicitly clear, Sony’s comments could be seen as an argument against platform exclusivity for the Call of Duty franchise.
Sony’s lawyer says, however, that there is currently no exclusive franchise that could change the balance of power between platforms.
“Exclusive games are a parameter of competition between Microsoft and SIE, although to date neither company has developed or acquired an exclusive game that has decisively tipped the balance in favor of a console. This is because proprietary exclusive games are less popular and represent less revenue than third-party AAA games, which, until then, are available on Xbox and PlayStation.”