Sony Would Lose $260 Million A Year If Call Of Duty Went Xbox Exclusive

The biggest gaming news of the week (and also, very likely the entire year) has raised a whole lot of questions about the future of Xbox, and the many Activision studios and IPs that Microsoft should soon expect to own. Well, by “soon”, I mean by like June 2023, but you know what I mean. It’s very much in motion. 

One of those main questions has been whether or not we could see any big name franchises, like Crash, Spyro, Overwatch or even Call of Duty going Xbox exclusive after the deal goes through. It’d certainly cause waves amongst any 90s PlayStation fan if those former two iconic mascots relocated themselves permanently to the rival console, but it turns out they’d be far from the biggest loss for Sony in the grand scheme of things. 

Since you're already here, why not check out some of our favourite COD: Warzone wins and fails below?

Call of Duty going Xbox exclusive would cause absolutely huge losses for Sony, according to experts. As reported by TweakTown, financial experts like Citigroup estimate that the company would lose between 10 billion and 30 billion yen (that’s $87.9 million to $263.9 million dollars) if COD stopped releasing on PlayStation. Yikes.

During 2020 alone, revenue across the entire Call of Duty franchise surpassed a whopping $3 billion dollars, so it’s unsurprising to hear how big of a hit Sony would take if the series stopped releasing on their consoles. 

However, it doesn’t seem like Sony have to worry about that particular scenario anymore. Last night, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer tweeted that he still wants to keep COD on PlayStation. He wrote: “Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honour all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.”

Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022

This might not be a super surprising decision, as in actual fact, making the series Xbox exclusive could have put the entire acquisition in jeopardy, thanks to competition law, according to one analyst. Regardless, this can only be good news for PlayStation users (and certainly Sony themselves).