Sony believes that Xbox's ownership of Call of Duty could influence users console choice

Image Credit: Call Of Duty Officials.

After Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony thinks Call of Duty might convince users to switch to Xbox.

That's according to the company's official response to inquiries from the Brazilian regulatory body, which, like many other regions, is currently reviewing the proposed deal for approval (first noticed by Resetera).

The Brazilian government has made Sony's responses to a number of inquiries about the proposed acquisition, along with those of other businesses like Ubisoft, Amazon, and Google, fully public.

The majority of Sony's response to the Brazilian regulator focuses on the state of triple-A game development at the moment. Large portions, however, emphasize the value that the PlayStation company places on Call of Duty, a series that it claims "influences users' console choice."

Sony describes Call of Duty as "an essential game: a blockbuster, a AAA-type game that has no rival" in its questionnaire responses.

The importance of Call of Duty to entertainment in general, according to a 2019 study, is indescribable, the company claimed. "The brand joined entertainment heavyweights like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings as the only video game IP to crack the top 10 of all entertainment brands among fans.

Even if a rival had the resources to create a comparable product, it would not be able to compete with Call of Duty because the game is so well-liked that it influences users' console preferences.

The extensive resources Activision devotes to Call of Duty, according to Sony, are the main factor in its belief that a rival FPS series is unlikely to emerge.

"It takes about three to five years to develop each annual Call of Duty release. Activision invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in Call of Duty games because they only release one per year, the company explained.

Each version is produced by about 1,200 people, and another 1,500 are involved in publishing and distribution. Therefore, Call of Duty alone employs more developers across its entire development portfolio, including AAA studios, than the majority of game companies.

"Also, Activision probably anticipates Call of Duty to become even more successful in the future given its plans to hire 2,000 additional developers by 2021.

No other developer can invest the same amount of time, money, and knowledge into game development. Even if they could, Call of Duty is too well-established for any competitor, no matter how relevant, to overtake it.

Sony went on to say that Call of Duty "is overwhelmingly the best-selling game" for its genre and has been the top-selling game for almost every year for the past ten years.

It basically defines the genre of first-person shooter games and is synonymous with them, according to the statement. This is further supported by player interaction on social media: Call of Duty has more than 24 million Facebook fans, compared to Battlefield's 7 million, and more than 12 million Instagram followers, as opposed to Battlefield's 2 million.

"Players would be unlikely to switch to alternative games, to put it mildly, as they would lose their familiarity, their skills, and even the friends they made playing the Call of Duty games, according to the statement.

"Call of Duty still managed to outperform most other games by a significant margin, even in weaker years like 2021. One of the most popular video games of 2021 despite being widely regarded as being weaker than previous years' releases was Call of Duty: Vanguard. In other words, players continue to support the brand and purchase the game even in a bad year.

In its initial response to Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony stated that it anticipates Call of Duty games to continue to be cross-platform due to "contractual agreements" published in January.

After Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finalized, the company's head of gaming confirmed his intention to continue supporting Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms.

Later, though, it was asserted that Activision Blizzard was legally bound to only release the following three Call of Duty titles for PlayStation consoles, including this year's Modern Warfare 2.

Among the most played PlayStation games on a regular basis is the Call of Duty series. According to NPD, the series had the top-selling PlayStation games in the US for both the first (Vanguard) and third (Black Ops Cold War) places last year.