According to Sony, the acquisition of the Call of Duty license by Microsoft could greatly influence the choice of console made by buyers in the future. In particular, the company expresses concerns about the ability of the competition to be able to offer a rival to the steamroller that the franchise currently represents.
Sony is not very serene for the future. The Japanese company recently reacted to news of Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard through a filing by Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and appears concerned about the acquisition of the franchise. call of duty by its main rival which it believes could influence gamers’ console choice in the future.
A historic license that has huge resources
In this document, we can find the reactions of several companies following the announcement of the takeover of the publisher. And according to Sony, the license call of duty is so powerful that it alone can define users’ console choice.
call of duty represents one of the main games when it comes to first-person shooters and almost defines its category by itself. Sony doesn’t think it can break gamers’ habits even with a competing title with a similar budget.
It is true that the game is regularly present at the top of the title sales rankings at each of its releases. And for Sony, this acquisition could prevent the competition from competing in the future, whether by the time invested in the development of the games (3-5 years) or by the allocated budget which is several hundred million dollars, without forget the large number of employees dedicated to the task.
A fear of seeing loyal players walk away
The anchor of call of duty would be so huge according to Sony that few gamers would be likely to move on to other franchises because they would have built up too much loyalty over time.
Microsoft responded to these comments by replying that the competition did exist and that many titles came to challenge the license.
The company also already responded to Sony’s fears earlier this year by saying it would stick to the contractual agreements in place and continue to supply Activision games on other platforms, but didn’t mention what will happen next. future franchises.
Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.
—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022
The acquisition of Activision Blizzard still needs to be approved by the relevant authorities and the takeover should still take some time before being finalized. However, it should take full effect by next year.
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