Call of Duty will eventually be removed and kept off PlayStation systems, Sony gaming boss Jim Ryan has officially confirmed today.
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Call of Duty won’t stay on PlayStation anyway. After several vague statements with a lot of PR, speaking of Microsoft and Xbox’s Phil Spencer (and a no reply to Bloomberg on the topic of exclusivity), Sony has officially responded and set out the terms of Microsoft’s proposed non-exclusive agreement.
Sony’s Jim Ryan confirms that Call of Duty would be removed from PlayStation hardware three years after Sony’s deal with Activision ended. In a recent statement to The Verge, Phil Spencer said this without explicitly saying that Call of Duty would be kept off PlayStation after that time.
“I wasn’t going to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set it straight because Phil Spencer has brought this to the public forum,” Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment told GamesIndustry.biz.
“Microsoft has only offered Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony expires. After nearly 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and did not take into account the impact on our gamers.
“We want to ensure that PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”
Xbox’s Phil Spencer had previously told The edge that Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation for “several years” after the pre-existing contracts between Sony and Activision expire.
“In January, we provided Sony with a signed agreement to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with parity of features and content, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes far beyond typical agreements in the game industry”,
Required reading
Revenues from the Activision segment match big hits like Call of Duty.
Call of Duty is currently unmatched in the gaming industry for its monstrous presence across retail and live service channels. No other video game on the market has the same revenue and recognition as Call of Duty. While games like Apex Legends and Fortnite do compete, the terrain is not an event as these are F2P only titles and Call of Duty delivers premium games every year.
Call of Duty made more money in 2020 than any other period in history, generating $3 billion in revenue in one year, or nearly half of GTA V’s currently reported lifetime earnings.
The $30 billion series is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, selling tens of millions of copies of games each year, while raking in billions of dollars in revenue from digital online channels, including microtransactions in games like the regular multiplayer modes in franchises. annual releases and the free-to-play Call of Duty Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile games.
This year marks a huge expansion point for Call of Duty with Modern Warfare II arriving in October and a new separate Warzone set to be released sometime in 2023.
Call of Duty Mobile has generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue as of 2021. More COD mobile games are planned, including a Warzone mobile release.
Call of Duty was a major concern for Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Global regulators are currently investigating the merger and Microsoft’s intentions with Call of Duty are seen as potentially anti-competitive due to exclusivity issues.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA, basically the UK version of the FTC) has: publicly expressed concern over Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The CMA says it believes the deal has a “realistic prospect of a significant reduction in competition” because of Microsoft’s existing technologies and services and with regard to any exclusions with Call of Duty.
Jim Ryan has confirmed that Call of Duty will indeed be an Xbox and PC exclusive and will be kept outside of PlayStation. One of the world’s most powerful and lucrative video game series is on a countdown on gaming’s largest console platform.
Warzone’s significant player growth has contributed substantially to Activision’s annual revenue. In 2021, Activision achieved record sales of $8.8 billion.
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