Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard has fans Call of Duty outstanding, especially those of PlayStation, who see the presence of the franchise on their consoles in danger. It is therefore normal that with each new statement from Phil Spencer, the boss of Microsoft’s video game division, many fear that sooner or later the North American franchise will end. belong exclusively to Xbox territory.
PlayStation, is there anything to worry about?
But of course those same fans who live in fear should meet Phil Spencer, a character who has been characterized by something, and that is by be extremely friendly with the rest of the competitors, whom he does not hesitate to congratulate if he thinks he has done something good. Another thing is what happens behind closed doors, where the American bares his fangs and makes it very clear what the limits of his franchises are.
The fact is that in the last hours Phil once again showed his talkativeness in the media and he didn’t hesitate to throw us another bone to entertain us. On this occasion, his message was not restrictive towards the franchise Call of Duty but in the other direction, quite expansive because, although he did not mention a possible exclusivity on Xbox and PlayStation March, he preferred to open horizons and make a wish: where would he like to see the Activision franchise succeed?
Specifically, Phil Spencer said that “Call of Duty specifically, it will be available on PlayStation. I would love to see it on the switch, I would like to see the game on many different screens. Our intention is to treat Call of Duty such as Minecraft“.
A global Call of Duty
Indeed, the key is Minecraft. From the start of Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard, many argued that Redmond’s plans would not be restrictive and, on the contrary, they would seek to eventually conquer any device on which a video game could run. We will not say that a cash register as in the case of Loss
Microsoft is aware that the smallest market for video games is for consoles and that a good part of the commercial pie lies in mobile devices, to which nearly 2,800 million people around the world are permanently hooked in one way or another. The rest, up to 3,000, are users of PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo machines, current and previous generations, so…
Proof of this is that Phil Spencer himself makes a point of specifying it by declaring that “this opportunity [la adquisición] is it really related to mobiles for us […] If you think of the three billion people who play video games, there are only about 200 million households equipped with a console. That is, they will continue to extend the leg war zone of Call of Duty and others that may appear in the future.
In the case of Switch, obviously, this is a necessary step to be present in 100% of homes equipped with consoles and would return to the fold of the Japanese almost a decade after its last opus, after the launch on Wii U of Call of Duty Ghosts at the end of 2013. So see what Microsoft wants to do, if you are a player of PlayStation, do not be afraid of issues as banal as that of exclusivity. In Xbox they don’t seem to be in the realm of sales, revenue and profit.