Sony has a contract to keep Call of Duty on PS5 (and, presumably, PS6) for the next ten years, following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
But aside from the fact Xbox is gradually transitioning into a third-party publisher, there’s another big reason why the first-person shooter franchise is likely to remain on PlayStation – its games cost an arm and a leg to make.
Premium game treated like its free-to-play
Game File discovered a court filing which includes a quote from Patrick Kelly, the current head of creative on the Call of Duty franchise, where he confirmed 2020’s Black Ops Cold War cost $700 million to make.
This is the highest budget ever officially attributed to a game, and seemingly doesn’t include marketing costs.
The direct quote is as follows: “Treyarch and Raven Software took years to create the game with a team of hundreds of creatives. They ultimately spent over $700 million in development costs over the game’s lifecycle.”
Call of Duty games take years to make, and then include years of post-release support, as more content is added. Many feel the microtransactions have been getting out of hand recently, although it’s clear the franchise needs money to continue fuelling the machine.
What’s particularly crazy is that 2024’s release, Black Ops 6, will have potentially topped $1 billion when you account for inflation and the general uptick in costs since the pandemic.
Microsoft, boldly, decided to include the release in its Game Pass service, which torpedoed full-price sales on Xbox but did modestly boost subscriber spending in the US. It’ll be interesting to see if it continues with this strategy.
One thing’s for certain, though: with PlayStation accounting for up to 82% of the franchise’s full-price sales in some countries, this series is unlikely to ever skip Sony’s systems.
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an
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