Interpreting the official data, “Why is Call of Duty so important?” We are trying to find the answer to the question and see the results it may have.
Why is Call of Duty so important to Microsoft and Sony?
Followers know, at the beginning of 2022, Microsoft announced that it had bought Activision-Blizzard, one of the biggest companies in the gaming world. Then, the lawsuits that lasted more than a year led to the emergence of a chain of explanations. So, what made the Call of Duty game so important?
Microsoft’s acquisition of Call of Duty’s owner, Activision Blizzard, opened Pandora’s box and sparked the biggest battle between Sony and Microsoft. This statement of the company, which previously bought Bethesda, fell like a bomb in the game world. On the mind is “What’s next?” brought questions.
Why is Call of Duty so important to Microsoft and Sony?
To answer this question, it is necessary to take a look at the Call of Duty brand and its history. It was originally released for PC, Mac and n-Gage on October 29, 2003. The World War II game, which dethroned Medal of Honor, has been a guest of our devices with 21 games so far, and has generated a turnover of 30 billion dollars by selling more than 400 million units in total. In addition, the Call of Duty Mobile game has been downloaded more than 100 million times on these platforms and is estimated to have a turnover of more than 1 billion dollars.
Call of Duty is at the center of the battle, Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date. Could just one game cause such an upheaval that would affect the industry so deeply?
Many surveys have been made to clarify the matter, but two of them stand out quite a bit. The first is a survey by the CMA. When asked about the effect of CoD on their PlayStation purchases, 73% of the respondentsHe replied that he bought the PS5 to play CoD. Although this is a very exaggerated figure (which the CMA also admitted to be an exaggeration), even if it corresponds to 25%, it is an extremely large rate.
The other survey is the survey conducted by Microsoft on YouGov last January. As a result, only 3% of players buy the console to play CoD. Although my personal opinion is that the result of this survey would be more accurate, I still cannot be sure when it comes to Microsoft. The fact that he changed his initial aggressive strategy and preferred a more player-friendly approach makes me question his sincerity.
The fact that this situation causes a great loss of income and players in the long run on Sony’s side. Sony made a turnover of $ 1.37 billion in 2020 from Call of Duty games alone. This equates to 17% of Activision’s revenue. The following year, although this rate dropped to 15%, it still achieved a sizable turnover.
Fun Fact:
Sony was Activision Blizzard’s largest customer in 2020 accounting for 17% of it sales or ~$1.37 billion.
Microsoft was Activision Blizzard’s 4th largest customer in 2020, behind Apple and Google, accounting for 11% of its sales or ~$890m pic.twitter.com/9dlm6vhDhA
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 7, 2022
Of course, the only concern of the PlayStation side is not the loss of game sales. He also has to think about the device customers he will lose. Considering the advancing processes, it will also make it difficult to dominate the console market.
The passing of the players who will follow the game and move to the opponent platform may cause all the stones to move on the console front.
In the long run, the damage to the competition means that the spending will be negatively affected for the players. Because the fact that Microsoft has a weak competitor means that it can interfere with game prices as it wishes. Of course, it is not known whether the company will take such a step, but it is among the most suspicious of Sony and competition institutions to date.
We should not only look at the game prices. The fact that the games give trump cards such as quality, innovation and blocking to the company means that it can intervene in technology such as cloud systems in the future.
Microsoft’s statement, “Not publishing the game on other platforms will cause a significant loss of income for Microsoft,” in order to reassure companies in this regard, does not seem sincere to these institutions. Because when we look at the big picture, it is seen that the income generated by Spider-Man or other games that Sony has released for the console is not that big.
The size of the revenue loss caused by Microsoft’s withdrawal of Call of Duty games from the PlayStation platform is also enormous. It will suffer not only from game sales, but also from the depreciation of the company’s shares. When the purchase was first announced Sony’s shares fell 13%. If the sale is realized, this is a harbinger that the loss will grow even more. It brings with it a result that not only the gaming side of Sony, but the company will be completely impressed.
Considering all this, if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is positive, it may not be possible for Sony to recover after the loss, or it may take many years.
What I have written consists of compilations prepared in line with the information, researches and claims of the companies that have emerged recently. “Why is the Call of Duty game so important?” This article has been created so that you can interpret the situations that players and companies will face if this purchase takes place.