Sony has claimed that the Battlefield franchise is unable to meaningfully compete with Call of Duty, within the newest information to come back out of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The feedback have been made in Sony’s response to the UK authorities’s investigation into the proposed acquisition (by way of PC Gamer). Sony acknowledged that Call of Duty, a collection owned by Activision Blizzard, has reached such a degree of success that different publishers are unable to maintain up with it.
Sony mentioned that Call of Duty’s success is “not replicable”, arguing that it’s too entrenched for any rival to have the ability to catch up – no matter their assets. The firm factors out that the franchise has been the top-selling sport for “almost every year in the last decade,” and is “overwhelmingly” the top-selling sport within the first-person shooter style.
“Other publishers do not have the resources or expertise to match its success,” mentioned Sony. “To give a concrete instance, Electronic Arts – one of many largest third-party builders after Activision – has tried for a few years to supply a rival to Call of Duty with its Battlefield collection.
“Despite the similarities between Call of Duty and Battlefield – and despite EA’s track record in developing other successful AAA franchises (such as FIFA, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, and Star Wars: Battlefront) – the Battlefield franchise cannot keep up. As of August 2021, more than 400million Call of Duty games has been sold, while Battlefield has sold just 88.7million copies.”
However, one individual more likely to disagree with Sony is EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who acknowledged in September that the prospect of Call of Duty being an Xbox unique is a “tremendous alternative” for Battlefield.
For its half, Microsoft has claimed that it provided Sony a 10-year deal to maintain the franchise on PlayStation, and has repeatedly rebuffed the concept it plans to make it unique to the Xbox ecosystem. However, Sony has repeatedly argued that there can be nothing stopping Microsoft from altering its thoughts about exclusivity, and that customers might leap ship from PlayStation to Xbox as a way to maintain enjoying the franchise.
Microsoft has acknowledged that, regardless of growing scrutiny, it’s confident that the deal will go forward. However, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly more likely to file an antitrust lawsuit as a way to forestall the takeover.