Sony now includes EA’s Battlefield franchise in its arguments against Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying the shooter can’t keep up with Call of Duty.
As reported by PC gamer, sony said the response Not even Battlefield can compete with any other shooter, with a UK government investigation into the merger making Call of Duty an unparalleled success.
It says “Call of Duty cannot be duplicated”. “Call of Duty, no matter how well-equipped, has become too entrenched for its rivals to catch up. It has been the best-selling game nearly every year for the last decade, and by far the best-selling first-person shooter genre. The best-selling game.
“No other publisher has the resources or expertise to match its success,” Sony continued. Electronic Arts has been trying for years to create a Call of Duty rival in the Battlefield series.
“Despite the similarities between Call of Duty and Battlefield, and despite EA’s track record of developing other successful AAA franchises (FIFA, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, Star Wars: Battlefront, etc.) , the Battlefield franchise can’t keep up. As of August 2021, more than 400 million Call of Duty games have sold, while Battlefield has sold just 88.7 million.”
Several updates and fixes were delayed, forcing developer DICE to recreate the map as they understood the “walking simulator” complaints.
Meanwhile, the latest Call of Duty has had the biggest opening weekend in franchise history, broke multiple sales records, and grossed $1 billion in its first 10 days.
The franchise has always released on both Xbox and PlayStation, but Sony now claims that nothing will stop Microsoft from dedicating the franchise to Xbox.
A deal with Activision has been approved in some markets, but the UK government’s Competition and Markets Authority is currently scrutinizing the deal for anti-competitive concerns.
Meanwhile, EA sees a deal with Microsoft as a big opportunity. “Being platform agnostic and being completely cross-platform with Battlefield is a huge opportunity,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said at the time.
Want to know more about Call of Duty? Check out what Warzone 2.0 glitch is locking players out and what’s new for Call of Duty in 2023.
Ryan Leston is IGN’s entertainment journalist and film critic.you can follow him twitter.
