The never-ending stupid debacle between Microsoft and Sony over the former’s attempt to buy Activision Blizzard King offers a new lowlight every day. Yesterday we had Microsoft says it has exclusive titles that suck compared to Sonyand today Sony just loudly dissed EA Battlefield frankness in order to prove how Call of Duty carried out.
It’s all part of an ongoing effort to demonstrate that one of the biggest console makers in the world shouldn’t own one of the biggest game publishers in the world, which, you know, seems like a bad idea. . But as Sony and Microsoft continually downgrade and others try to win a Who’s Worst argument, it seems nothing is sacred. Hence the PlayStation owner’s astonishing statement to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that EA Battlefield would be a poor substitute if he lost access to the Call of Duty franchise.
“Call of Duty is not reproducible,” Sony’s filing with the CMA says, as reported by The edge. “Call of Duty is too entrenched for a rival, no matter how well equipped, to catch up. Explaining that it’s been the best-selling game “almost” every year for the past decade, he says that “other publishers don’t have the resources or the expertise to match its success”. Now, this all seems a bit wrong, given that at some point the Medal of Honor sold out series Call of Dutybut it is certainly true that in terms of branding, Cod beat everything else. But to drive that point home, Sony waits for an oncoming bus, then pushes hard:
To give a concrete example, Electronic Arts, one of the largest third-party developers after Activision, has been trying for many years to produce a rival for Call of Duty with his Battlefield series. Despite the similarities between Call of Duty and Battlefield– and despite EA’s track record of developing other successful AAA franchises (such as Fifa, Mass Effect, Need of speedand Star Wars: Battlefront)-the Battlefield the franchise can’t keep up.
Sony adds that Battlefieldthe last entry of — the comparable Miss of 2042—sold “only” 88.7 million copies, against Codit’s 400 million.
Microsoft has repeatedly insisted that Call of Duty wouldn’t become an Xbox exclusive, just yesterday explaining how Activision’s juggernaut would remain cross-platform, while old scrolls Won’t doeven though based on the utter absurdity that star field is precarious new IP and, uh, Fallout 76 is “niche”. So you can understand why Sony might not take them at their word.
At the same time, do not sell Cod at half your current playerbase would be incredibly stupid, and while some people could switch from PlayStation to Xbox to continue playing the annual shooter, it won’t 200 million.
Oh, honestly, I don’t care. Stupid and childish absurdity makes many lawyers incredibly rich, unimaginable millions to be spaffed while the company customers are wondering how they will keep the heating going this winter. But I really hope that so much of those ridiculous “woe to us” statements come back to bite both console makers on the ass.