Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson believes that Call of Duty’s potential to become Microsoft’s exclusive franchise could benefit Battlefield.
As reported by Axios’ Stephen Totilo, Wilson called Call of Duty’s platforming question a “tremendous opportunity.”
“[I]In a world where there are questions about the future of Call of Duty and which platforms it is and which it isn’t, I think it’s a huge opportunity to be platform agnostic and fully cross-platform with Battlefield. Goldman Sachs conference last week.
Quote: “I don’t think the last two iterations delivered it the way it should have.”
– Andrew Wilson, EA CEO of BattlefieldFrom last week’s Goldman Sachs conference.Full quote below
Also: Wilson doesn’t seem to care about the CoD-Xbox exclusivity mess, so EA can help! pic.twitter.com/bVtcB6wi6k
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 19, 2022
What Wilson is referring to here has several possibilities. As a multi-platform franchise, Battlefield has the advantage of a large player presence on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. If the Battlefield franchise were confined to a single platform or ecosystem, it would have a negative impact on the number of players who could access the game.
He could also be talking about a potential marketing deal. Microsoft had a lot of marketing deals and exclusive timed content for Call of Duty back in the Xbox 360 era, but the situation is changing. On the flip side, Sony is now working closely with its PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 franchises. There are many exclusive bonuses for PlayStation owners, such as an operator called Watanabe.
Given that the Call of Duty franchise is going to be exclusive to the Microsoft platform, it makes sense that Sony would have to approach its second-largest first-person shooter franchise, Battlefield. This would give EA substantial leverage to negotiate a marketing deal with PlayStation. It’s worth noting that Microsoft has had marketing deals for the Battlefield franchise in the past. Includes Battlefield V.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still in the process of approval and is under scrutiny by some regulators, such as the UK, over anticompetitive concerns about the potential to make franchises like Call of Duty exclusive. . PlayStation and CEO Jim Ryan are well aware of these implications, saying his Microsoft proposal to extend Call of Duty’s availability on PlayStation by three years is “insufficient”. I’m here.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey.
