Sony may have accidentally revealed how much revenue Call of Duty funnels into PlayStation in a poorly redacted document. The details came to light amid the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearings, where Sony has been vocal about Microsoft's actions including Starfield exclusivity and the Xbox Game Pass subscription. Now, a new revelation hints at just how much Call of Duty represents financially to the PlayStation platform.
Over the past few months, the Activision Blizzard franchise has taken center stage in the case against Microsoft's pending $68.7 billion acquisition. Sony has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the idea of Microsoft owning Call of Duty, with complaints ranging from the quality degradation of future Call of Duty titles on PlayStation to potential exclusivity to Xbox entirely. However, even as Microsoft offered both verbal and written commitments that franchises like Call of Duty would be shipped to other platforms like PlayStation for the foreseeable future, Sony's concerns don't seem to have receded. Now, following the FTC v. Microsoft case, Sony might have unintentionally provided an explainer as to why the company continues to raise concerns over the Activision Blizzard deal.
So far, the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearings have unveiled, according to one of Jim Ryan's letters, that Call of Duty has seemingly generated over $800 million in revenue for PlayStation in the United States alone and as much as $1.5 billion worldwide, in 2021. The letter also suggests that Call of Duty players on Playstation have spent an average of $15.9 billion annually from 2019 to 2021, accounting for hardware, accessories, subscriptions, games, and other PlayStation services. Though, it shouldn't be surprising considering that about 1 million PlayStation gamers play nothing but Call of Duty, according to Jim Ryan's poorly redacted letter.
Of course, it wasn't just Sony that had issues thanks to the Activision series. According to an email sent to Xbox chief Phil Spencer, Bethesda raised concerns after Microsoft promised to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation where Bethesda's Global Marketing SVP Pete Hines inquired about Microsoft's logic on retaining exclusivity and carrying out multi-platform projects. The issue was raised following Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax Media and its decision to pull some of Bethesda's projects from PlayStation for Xbox and PC exclusivity.
In addition to Call of Duty, the PlayStation CEO also commented on Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service during the FTC v. Microsoft hearings. Jim Ryan believes that Xbox Game Pass is destructive and that all publishers "unanimously do not like Game Pass." When inquired about his statements, the CEO responded stating that he holds conversations with publishers frequently and that their opinion against Game Pass is a "commonly held view." In any case, it remains to be seen how things will work out with regard to the Activision Blizzard deal, though it's apparent that Sony is unlikely to back down on its opposition either way.
Source: The Verge