{"id":32029,"date":"2022-08-01T11:02:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sony-says-it-believes-xbox-owning-call-of-duty-could-influence-users-console-choice\/"},"modified":"2022-08-01T11:02:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:02:42","slug":"sony-says-it-believes-xbox-owning-call-of-duty-could-influence-users-console-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sony-says-it-believes-xbox-owning-call-of-duty-could-influence-users-console-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony says it believes Xbox owning Call of Duty ‘could influence users’ console choice’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sony believes Call of Duty could inspire users to switch to Xbox following Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.<\/p>\n

That’s according to the company’s official response to questions from Brazil’s regulatory body (first spotted by Resetera), which like many regions, is currently studying the proposed deal for approval.<\/p>\n

Along with other companies such as Ubisoft, Amazon and Google, Sony’s responses to several questions about the proposed acquisition have been published in full by the Brazilian government.<\/p>\n

Sony’s response \u2013 read by VGC \u2013 mostly outlines the current state of triple-A game development for the Brazilian regulator. However, large portions highlight the importance the PlayStation firm puts on Call of Duty, a franchise which it claims \u201cinfluences users’ console choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

<\/svg>Official Dark Water Level Gameplay – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In its questionnaire answers, Sony calls Call of Duty \u201can essential game: a blockbuster, an AAA-type game that has no rival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to a 2019 study, ‘The importance of Call of Duty to entertainment, in general, is indescribable,’\u201d the company said. \u201cThe brand was the only video game IP to break into the top 10 of all entertainment brands among fans, joining powerhouses such as Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall of Duty is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its network of loyal users is so entrenched that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to rival it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sony went on to explain how the huge resources Activision puts behind Call of Duty are the core reason why it believes the FPS series is unlikely to be rivaled by a competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach annual Call of Duty release takes approximately 3-5 years to develop. As Activision releases one Call of Duty game per year, this equates to an investment of hundreds of millions of annual dollars,\u201d it explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately 1,200 people work on each version and another 1,500 are involved in publishing and distribution. Thus, Call of Duty alone has more developers than most game companies employ across its entire development portfolio, even AAA studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, given its plans to recruit 2,000 additional developers by 2021, Activision probably expects Call of Duty to become even more successful in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Sony
Sony says it believes Xbox owning Call of Duty ‘could influence users’ console choice’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNo other developer can devote the same level of resources and expertise in game development. Even if they could, Call of Duty is overly entrenched, so that no rival \u2013 no matter how relevant \u2013 can catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sony went on to note that Call of Duty has been the top-selling game for almost every year for the past decade and for its genre, \u201cis overwhelmingly the best-selling game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is synonymous with first-person shooter games and essentially defines that category,\u201d it said. \u201cThis is also demonstrated by player engagement on social media: Call of Duty has over 24 million followers on Facebook versus 7 million for Battlefield; and over 12 million followers on Instagram versus 2 million for Battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cTo say the least, players would be unlikely to switch to alternative games, as they would lose that familiarity, those skills and even the friends they made playing the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in weaker years like 2021, Call of Duty still managed to outperform most other games by a considerable margin. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021), for example, was widely regarded as weaker than previous years’ titles, but was still one of the best-selling games of 2021. In other words, even in a bad year, players remain loyal to the brand and continue to buy the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its first response to Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard published in January, Sony said it expects Call of Duty games to remain multiplatform due to \u201ccontractual agreements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Microsoft’s head of gaming also subsequently confirmed his intention to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms once Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is completed.<\/p>\n

However, it was later claimed that Activision Blizzard is contractually committed to releasing only the next three Call of Duty games for PlayStation consoles, including this year’s Modern Warfare 2.<\/p>\n

The Call of Duty series is regularly among PlayStation’s most popular games. Last year, the series was both the first (Vanguard) and third (Black Ops Cold War) best-selling games on PlayStation in the US, according to NPD.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sony believes Call of Duty could inspire users to switch to Xbox following Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That’s according to the company’s official response to questions from Brazil’s regulatory body (first spotted by Resetera), which like many regions, is currently studying the proposed deal for approval. Along with other companies such as Ubisoft, …<\/p>\n

Sony says it believes Xbox owning Call of Duty ‘could influence users’ console choice’<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41511,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-refutes-sonys-claims-that-its-activision-acquisition-is-anti-competitive\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":0},"title":"Microsoft refutes Sony’s claims that its Activision acquisition is anti-competitive","date":"August 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft has responded to Sony's claims that its ongoing attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard would be anti-competitive, especially with regards to Call of Duty.Last month Sony told Brazil's regulatory body CADE \u2013 which like many regions, is currently studying the proposed deal for approval \u2013 that the deal could influence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41551,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/xbox-has-accused-sony-of-paying-developers-game-pass-block-fees\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":1},"title":"Xbox has accused Sony of paying developers Game Pass ‘block fees’","date":"August 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft has claimed that Sony pays developers for \u201cblocking rights\u201d in return for them agreeing not to put their content on its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.As part of a document sent to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) to justify its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Xbox firm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41655,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-claims-sony-pays-developers-blocking-rights-to-keep-games-off-xbox-game-pass\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":2},"title":"Microsoft claims Sony pays developers “blocking rights” to keep games off Xbox Game Pass","date":"August 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In a lengthy document submitted to the Brazilian government as part of its investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has claimed Sony pays developers \"blocking rights\" to prevent games from appearing on Xbox Game Pass. The accusation appears in a 27-page rebuttal of Sony's recent objections to Microsoft's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32283,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sony-doesnt-sound-thrilled-microsoft-is-buying-call-of-duty-maker-activision\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":3},"title":"Sony doesn’t sound thrilled Microsoft is buying Call of Duty maker Activision","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A Brazilian government filing has given us a rare glimpse into Sony's thoughts on the impending $69bn Microsoft buyout of Activision Blizzard - and specifically, the fact that Xbox will soon own blockbuster first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty. In Brazil, companies within the same sphere of any such corporate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31910,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sony-to-brazilian-regulators-no-rival-can-overtake-call-of-duty\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":4},"title":"Sony to Brazilian regulators: ‘No rival can overtake Call of Duty’","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Worldwide regulators are asking competitors like Sony for comments on Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard buyout and how it could affect competitor's positions in the market. Sony had a few choice words to say about Activision's most popular franchise. VIEW GALLERY - 3 IMAGES Call of Duty is the top shooter series of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"Sony to Brazilian regulators: 'No rival can overtake Call of Duty' 1 | TweakTown.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.tweaktown.com\/news\/8\/7\/87688_1_sony-to-brazilian-regulators-no-rival-can-overtake-call-of-duty.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42849,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-claims-sony-pays-blocking-rights-to-stop-games-appearing-on-game-pass\/","url_meta":{"origin":32029,"position":5},"title":"Microsoft Claims Sony Pays “Blocking Rights” To Stop Games Appearing On Game Pass","date":"August 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"According to documents filed with Brazil's national competition regulator, Microsoft has claimed that Sony has paid \"blocking rights\" to developers to prevent their games from being added to Xbox Game Pass. As part of the regulator's review of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company alleged that Sony had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/files\/2022\/06\/modern-warfare-2-i.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}