By squinting a little, we understand that Horizon Forbidden West cost $212 million to make while The Last of Us Part II exceeds it by a head with a budget of 220 million dollars, despite a smaller number of developers engaged (at least 300 for the Guerrilla Games game and at least 200 for that of Naughty Dog). Sums of which we do not know if they include the marketing costs associated with the launch of these large productions. In any case, it seems likely that Naughty Dog’s game released in 2020 will be the most expensive ever made by a PlayStation studio, although it would take God of War Ragnarok’s budget to be sure. These figures correspond in any case to recent statements by Shuhei Yoshida who was already talking about a budget that could be around 200 million dollars for the biggest current productions. let’s remember that Horizon Forbidden West was credited with 8.4 million copies sold as of April 16, 2023 while The Last of Us Part II had passed 10 million in the spring of 2022.
A “day one” Xbox Game Pass game usually can’t be released on a competing service
Remember Microsoft’s statements accusing its favorite rival of paying “blocking fees” to prevent developers from adding games to Game Pass and other competing subscription services? Surprisingly, the practice of excluding a game from a competing platform or subscription as part of a trade deal goes both ways. Sony indeed confirms that Microsoft frequently requires that a game landing in Game Pass on the day of its release cannot do the same in PlayStation Plus. ” While SIE generally does not require subscription exclusivity for games included in PS Plus, Microsoft often requires that titles included in Game Pass – especially titles offered on Game Pass on the day of release – not may not be available on other subscription services “, could we read on the document. We also learn that Sony and Microsoft have each fought to obtain the favors of Valheim and Immortality on consoles, Microsoft having won the bet in both cases. Neither of these two titles has yet been announced for PlayStation.
Call of Duty is their whole life
Other interesting revelations relating to the importance of Call of Duty on PlayStation could be gleaned from these poorly censored documents before they were taken offline by the court:
- 2023’s Call of Duty is the last one PlayStation has a marketing deal for. The latter makes it possible to associate the various advertisements and bundles with the PlayStation brand and grants some advantages to PlayStation players, such as an exclusive mode.
- Modern Warfare 2 (2022) sold 4.4 million copies on PlayStation in one week.
- In 2021, over one million PlayStation gamers played nothing but Call of Duty on their machine and 6 million PlayStation gamers spent 70% of their game time on Call of Duty.
- Call of Duty is the biggest third-party franchise for PlayStation. It has generated more than $800 million on Sony’s platforms in 2021 alone and in the United States alone.
- In the United States, less than 20% of PS5 owners also own an Xbox Series. On the other hand, nearly half of PS5 owners across the Atlantic also own a Switch.