Call of Duty, a highly coveted and profitable monster
Since 2003, Call of Duty is 19 main games, fifteen derivative titles including two versions of the battle royale, seven mobile games, and lots and lots of money generated. Despite ups and downs and annual releases, the franchise supplanted Medal of Honor or even Brothers in Arms and still seems far from running out of steam. To situate, the fact that in 2020, Call of Duty and FIFA were beaten by Animal Crossing: New Horizons as the best-selling cultural product in France was a real event. In September 2022, Activision announced that Call of Duty represented 400,000 million copies worldwidenot counting Call of Duty Modern Warfare II or the billions generated by Warzone.
Call of Duty: PlayStation and Xbox finally agree!
But that, as the expression goes, it was before ! While the day of Sunday seemed to pass quietly, here is that Phil Spencer, boss of Microsoft’s gaming division, unleashed a tweet that we didn’t think we’d read! Indeed, the latter announced nothing less than a deal with Sonyguaranteeing the presence of Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles.
We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 16, 2023
Seeing that the FTC had lost its lawsuit and that the CMA was reopening the way to a negotiation, Sony therefore finally accepted the proposal of Microsoft in order to avoid being in the water in the face of a takeover which now seems inevitable. However, and contrary to the other contracts signed, we know almost nothing about it. No mention of duration, no indication of a possible sharing of the income generated. One can imagine that this agreement is more advantageous for PlayStation than for the others, but this remains in the field of hypothesis. According to Tom Warren (The Verge) and Stephen Totilo (Axios), the agreement would be valid for 10 years.
In the meantime, this signed contract shows that Sony has laid down its arms against Microsoft over this takeover. This could be announced today or Tuesday morning, but it will not be completely finished. Microsoft will still have to deal with two procedures which have little chance of succeeding but which could cancel the merger, and it will then be necessary to definitively clarify things with the British regulator. Finally, note that if we expect an announcement in the next few hours, it is because the agreement between Microsoft and Activision expires on July 18, that is, tomorrow. After this date, it will be necessary to renegotiate one.
