Modern Warfare II had the highest first quarter sale in franchise history and crossed the $1 billion mark within 10 days of its late October launch, the company said. A number of launches including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Warzone 2.0 and World of Warcraft: Dragonflight from the fantasy world of Azeroth in October and November helped the company capture the attention of the gaming community .
Activision-Microsoft Agreement
Note that Activision’s results are better than its competitors Electronics Arts and Microsoft’s games division. Microsoft is in the spotlight for its $69 billion takeover of the game developer and the deal is being challenged by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and being investigated by US authorities. EU.
sonyMicrosoft’s Concerns About the Microsoft Deal
Microsoft’s biggest competitor, Sony, had raised concerns that the acquisition would give Microsoft control of Call of Duty, which could be a financial blow for the Japanese company.
Last year, reports suggested that the CEO of PlayStation jim ryan traveled to EU headquarters to discuss his concerns. In a 22-page response to the UK Competition and Markets Authority, Sony said if the deal is cleared, Microsoft would have the option to make the game a Xbox exclusive that would drive consumers away from PlayStation.
While draining players from PlayStation to Xbox can be seen as a hypothetical situation at this point, as Sony has a fair share of exclusives, including the God of War franchise, soaring revenue and popularity of Call of Duty may have a positive impact on Microsoft’s gaming business. .
An October report quoted Joost van Dreunen, senior lecturer in games business at New York University’s Stern School of Business, as saying the deal will give Microsoft “full ownership of the game.” ‘one of console gaming’s most valuable franchises’. And naturally Sony doesn’t want it or like that because it’s going to cost them business.”
Microsoft also claims that “keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation is…a business imperative for the Xbox business” and that it “relys on revenue from the distribution of Activision Blizzard games on Sony PlayStation.”
Sony has more exclusives than Microsoft
In December, the president of Microsoft Brad Smith reportedly said Sony’s PlayStation has 286 exclusive games while Microsoft’s Xbox only has 59, and a judge will have to “decide if going from 59 to 60 is such a danger to competition that he should stop that [acquisition] to move forward. »
In October, Microsoft said that since the announcement of the Activision transaction, Sony had acquired several game studios, including Bungie, developer of the popular online game Destiny 2, Haven Studios, Lasengle and Savage Games – and a minority stake in From Software, the developer of the biggest game of 2022, Elden Ring (among other hit games) alongside Sony’s existing minority stake in Epic Games, publisher of Fortnite.
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