PlayStation wouldn't exist without Call of Duty
If you thought that the major PlayStation brands were the result of the creativity of development studios and their developers, you are wrong. Yes, because according to Sony, games of the caliber of Call of Duty, Horizon, The Last of Us and many others would not have been developed without… Call of Duty. The statement of the Japanese giant is contained in a statement by the CMA, the English antitrust, regarding the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
In reality, Sony does not refer to any type of title specifically, but limits itself to declaring how Call of Duty wears a strategic position on consoles. Without the revenues from its IP, Sony could not fund all of its internal development studios to a high standard. This is certainly an interesting reasoning, but it probably does not (at least partially) reflect the truth.
If it is true that Call of Duty is able to grind billions of dollars in revenue, it is also true, however, that PlayStation can boast the largest number of exclusives sold. If we think for example of Marvel's Spider-Man, the Insomniac Games game has sold more than 30 million copies. A truly difficult number to replicate and which we strongly doubt that without Call of Duty it could not have been developed. Sony certainly has far more money at its disposal than that generated by CoD sales and can easily afford to finance more and more projects, especially from the top of its position.
In CMA phase 1 responses, Sony makes an interesting claim that third-party franchises like Call of Duty inadvertently help fund first-party games development, implying that without hits like CoD, Sony may not be able to serve up high-profile 1P games. pic.twitter.com/Osy2wZSSc5
— Derek Strickland (@DeekeTweak) February 27, 2023
Sony's concerns about possible Call of Duty loss are more than legitimate, but entrusting the future of PlayStation to Activision's IP is really a bit too extreme. Surely the declaration makes perfect sense in a context of protecting one's own interests, but it obviously does not reflect the truth.
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