In the latest details straight out of the courthouse for the FTC vs Microsoft hearing, Sony may have accidentally revealed how much they make out of Call of Duty being on PlayStation thanks to a poorly redacted court document.
During this week’s court saga, Sony has been highly vocal about Microsoft having Starfield exclusivity and their thoughts about the Xbox Game Pass subscription. But that’s not why we’re here. No, we’re here to discuss how valuable Call of Duty is to the PlayStation platform.
Over the past few months, Sony has firmly opposed the idea of Microsoft owning Call of Duty. Sony’s objections have ranged from fear that Microsoft would degrade the quality of the Call of Duty titles on PlayStation to potential exclusivity to Xbox entirely.
Thanks to the poorly redacted document in question, it makes sense that PlayStation has these fears. According to one of Jim Ryan’s letters, Call of Duty generated over $800 million in revenue for PlayStation in the United States alone and over $1.5 billion worldwide in 2021.
The document also shows that Call of Duty players on PlayStation have spent an average of $15.9 billion annually from 2019 to 2021.
It’s worth noting that Sony isn’t the only gaming company to take issue with the Activision acquisition. Bethesda also raised concerns after Microsoft promised to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.
In an email to Phil Spencer, Bethesda’s Global Marketing SVP Pete Hines inquired about Microsoft’s logic for retaining exclusivity and carrying out multi-platform projects.
This issue was raised following Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax Media and its decision to pull some of Bethesda’s projects from PlayStation for Xbox and PC exclusivity.
During the hearing, PlayStation also commented on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service with Jim Ryan, CEO, saying that the service is destructive and that publishers unanimously do not like Game Pass.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us know in the comments.