The completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision continues to move forward and is expected to be completed by July 2023. As part of this process, several major gaming companies were interviewed in Brazil about their thoughts regarding the deal.

While most of the companies had little to nothing to say about the acquisition, SONY voiced some criticism, which also targeted the Call of Duty shooter series.

According to SONY, the popularity of the shooter was so high that it would be virtually impossible to catch up with it through a competing product, even with the same financial outlay. Even the choice of console is influenced by the brand.

“According to a 2019 study, the importance of Call of Duty to the entertainment industry in general is indescribable. The brand was the only video game IP to make it into the top 10 of all entertainment brands among fans, rivaling the likes of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.”

“Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its network of loyal users is so deeply entrenched that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to keep up. Each annual Call of Duty release takes approximately 3-5 years to develop. Since Activision releases one Call of Duty game per year, this represents an annual investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“Approximately 1,200 people work on each release and another 1,500 are involved in publishing and distribution. Thus, Call of Duty alone has more developers than most game companies employ in their entire development portfolio, even AAA studios.”

“Moreover, given its plans to hire 2,000 additional developers by 2021, Activision likely expects Call of Duty to become even more successful in the future.”

“No other developer can invest the same level of resources and expertise into game development. Even if they could, Call of Duty is too entrenched that no rival – no matter how relevant – can catch up.”

In financial terms, he said, the shooter series dwarfs the performance of its competitors in almost every area. This would be true even in weaker years, such as 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, SONY added:

“It’s synonymous with first-person shooter games and essentially defines that category. This is also evident by player engagement on social media: Call of Duty has over 24 million followers on Facebook versus 7 million for Battlefield; and over 12 million followers on Instagram versus 2 million for Battlefield.”

“To say the least, players are unlikely to switch to alternative games because they would lose that familiarity, those skills, and even the friends they made playing the game.”

“Even in weaker years like 2021, Call of Duty has still managed to significantly outperform most other games. For example, Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) was considered weaker than previous years’ titles, but was still one of the best-selling games of 2021. In other words, even in a bad year, gamers remain loyal to the brand and continue to buy the game.”

Microsoft reiterated several times in the wake of the Activision acquisition announcement that future Call of Duty spin-offs will also be released for Playstation consoles. It said it plans to honor all existing agreements and contractual commitments for current and future Activision titles, which would include releases for PlayStation or Nintendo platforms.