Microsoft FTC Trial: Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on Call of Duty Exclusivity and Other Key Takeaways
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick took the witness stand during today's portion of the Microsoft FTC trial. Kotick shot down questions about making Call of Duty exclusive, admitted he wasn't impressed with Nintendo Switch prototypes before the system launched, and revealed a release window for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. Here's everything you need to know from Kotick's time in court today.
Call of Duty was obviously the big focus of Kotick's testimony and cross examination, and when the Activision CEO was asked if he's ever thought about making Call of Duty exclusive to one platform, he said "No."
“You would alienate over 100 million monthly active players," Kotick said. "Half of them play on phones, but the rest of them play on computer and PlayStation, and you would have a revolt if you were to remove the game from more than one platform.
“Gamers are very passionate… And so with that kind of investment, time, and effort, you get an enthusiastic, passionate group of people.”
Kotick said it would be "very detrimental to our business” to take Call of Duty off PlayStation.
Kotick admitted that when he first saw prototypes for Nintendo Switch, he didn't think it was going to be popular. He also admitted that he was wrong, given that the Switch has now sold well over 100 million units. Kotick said it was a mistake to not put Call of Duty on the current Nintendo Switch, and he briefly spoke about how Activision will approach future Nintendo consoles.
“We would consider it once we had the specs, but we don’t have any present [plans].”
Based on Kotick's comments, it seems Activision will heavily consider bringing Call of Duty back to Nintendo consoles "once we get the detailed specifications" of the next console. "It's probably something
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