HeWhoWalks
Gold Member
Nothing. That was my point
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Phil confirms Call of Duty parity for all platforms
- Thread starter HeisenbergFX4
- Start date
Nitty_Grimes
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
So if its 720p on Switch means it has to be 720p on Series X / PS5?
/s
/s
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Always about the money. Activision earned an estimated 6+ billion in profits in 2023 alone.
Going forward all Activision profits will be counted towards MS / Xbox gaming division.
Thirty7ven
Banned
That’s it? Because as thing stand PlayStation is making over a billion profit on Call of Duty.
Chukhopops
Member
If Sony makes a revenue of x out of CoD, MS will make a minimum of 2.33x since they get the other 70% of the revenue.
So yeah that’s it but it’s quite a lot of money.
(And the other games will be exclusive going forward most likely)
ToadMan
Member
Also that, by revenue, MS is about 50% a mobile gaming company...
ToadMan
Member
Of course not.
It'll be 720p on series S though and that's why it'll be 720p everywhere else.
ToadMan
Member
*Profit for Sony.
MS gets more revenue, it also has to cover the production costs. Oh and gamepass...
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Kerotan
Member
It will 100% last 10 years. It's been top dog for the last 16 year's.
RoboFu
One of the green rats
yeah buts its changed ALOT and its moved away from the World War X fanbase to the ADHD masses. I doubt once they leave that it will be a thing anymore... plus MS "TED FROM ACCOUNTING" games studio approach.
Chukhopops
Member
Do you really think Sony will make more money out of CoD than MS? Because lmao if so.
Check the yearly financial report of ABK and see how much revenue they get from Sony. You can then estimate how much revenue Sony gets from ABK since it’s based on platform fees.
Then look at the total revenue of the Activistion part of ABK and the cost structure. It’s all in the report.
ToadMan
Member
If COD is on Gamepass.... and MS don't keep putting GP prices up as they have been, then yeah, Sony will 100% make more profit.
MS track record speaks for itself.
Chukhopops
Member
Check also how much of ABK’s revenue comes from game sales versus MTX.
You clearly don’t know any numbers related to what you’re talking about.
Thirty7ven
Banned
That’s profit on Sony’s side, not revenue. MS will be the one with the development and marketing cost burden. That’s how it works.
Kerotan
Member
That's very true. Warzone was the transition from arcade shooter fans to the tiktok brigade with a 10 second attention span.
Chukhopops
Member
But we know what those costs are since they are in the same ABK report nobody bothers to check.
And we also know the total profit of the Activision part of ABK and it’s clearly more than what Sony is making out of the entirety of ABK based on a 30% platform fee.
Again all the data is in the yearly report.
X-Wing
Member
Because that decision was made before Microsoft acquired it.
Thirty7ven
Banned
I don’t know what you mean. I was saying Sony was making over a billion in profit from COD sales and MTX. That’s it.
ABK mad 1.5 last year and over 2 the year prior right? Profit, not revenue.
It doesn’t matter if it makes more profit, it’s basically free money on Sony’s side while ABK has to bake the cake with all the costs and risk associated.
Spin it all you want.
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Chukhopops
Member
They don’t though, the leaked document says 1.5bn in spendings on the SIE platforms worldwide. Which by the way matches the share of ABK revenue coming from Sony over the same period.
ToadMan
Member
But those MTX are on PS too with a far larger install base and still with MS footing the costs.
So it's the base game sales that make the difference.
Ansphn
Member
I'm saving Xbox would build from Series S and then port over to everything else. Series S is their highest selling console unless they just decide to go 3rd party.
Ansphn
Member
LMAO i forgot about that but i thought it would be a Cloud solution for Switch?
Fredrik
Member
That’s still a lot of years to earn back the money from the acquisition. Especially if there is some bad blood from the whole thing so sales are dropping. Plus Gamepass.
Trogdor1123
Member
Why wouldn’t they want to do that? They make millions/billions selling software on the other platforms and lose millions/billions on making hardware.
Seems like no brainer to me.
Seems like no brainer to me.
Chukhopops
Member
I’ll try one last time:
- on average across all storefronts, ABK pays 17.5% platform fees;
- 13% of ABK’s total revenue comes from Sony as a platform;
- around half of the total revenue of ABK is from the Activision part;
- the total operating income (not revenue) of ABK was 1.6 bn last year.
If after all that you still believe Sony will make more revenue out of CoD then it’s a personal choice.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
Then why not release everything on PS (which honestly I wouldn't be opposed to just like I wish PS released everything on PC day one)
People would still buy the hardware they prefer
At this point they are so big that I am wondering if they will de-prioritize exclusivity. Could honestly agree with both pros and cons.
Trogdor1123
Member
I wish they would do it more. It’s a shame Sony doesn’t
Fredrik
Member
Absolutely. But that goes for everybody else too so why wouldn’t everyone sell everything everywhere? Why is Spider-Man 2 PS5 exclusive? Why isn’t it on Xbox too? Why isn’t it on PC? Why isn’t Starfield on PS5? Because the normal thing for a platform holder is to want more people to buy their console and be locked in to their ecosystem. And I think that’s the case here as well but they don’t want to admit this right now.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
Like SM2 is going to sell great as is but imagine their sales if it launched on PC at the same time
Calverz
Gold Member
No. I didn’t say that. They can go without cod then and spend their 70 bucks on fair game or concord instead.
JackMcGunns
Member
This is good news, thanks to the acquisition, everyone wins, not just Sony fans with the BS Call of Duty exclusives.
ZoukGalaxy
Gold Member
*for now*
He proved so many times that he's anything but reliable during acquisition auditions. You don't buy a company to stay like "before"...
Oops sorry, Phil has a BSOD while lying.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
That's fine, I don't think anyone is realistically expecting them to recoup $70bn in 5 years otherwise deem it a failed acquisition.
Fredrik
Member
Yeah it would break all the records.
But Sony is (annoyingly) clever. They know people like me with a PS5 + a $5K PC is going to buy the game on PS5 first, then talk about it and hype it up so more people buy the game and a console, then they know I’ll buy it on PC a couple years later to get some extra frames and pixels, then talk about that and hype that up so more people buy it. money money money
LordBlodgett
Member
I really do believe him here, but what he is not saying is more interesting to me. Remember that their ultimate goal is to drive people to the subscription. Gamepass Ultimate gives you perks where you get paid DLC content for free quite often. This is how I expect them to use COD. To entice you to subscribe to Gamepass Ultimate by making certain things free every month. Technically none of that content will be gated or exclusive, it will just be a "perk" for subscribers. Look at their deal for Riot games (Valorant and League of Legends) to see how I think this is going to play out. This is also why I think WOW will be coming to console, and that there will be a subscription "upgrade" package where you can get WOW and Gamepass Ultimate for $5-10 more than just the WOW subscription. They need these super sticky subscribers to make sure that the minimum base subscribers for Gamepass is high.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
I am sure they have the internal numbers but really would love to know how many they would sell to double dippers vs day one on PC in terms of total numbers
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The next game (and probably the one next year as well) is also shipping on PS4/XBO.
Series S is a generational leap compared to the games lower target spec.
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Laugh at call of duty all you want COD4 set the tone for the future of shooters in 2008.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
How much money did Activision make each year on console sales and on third party software fees?
We might start to see some synergy in strategy as time goes on, but I doubt Sony will go straight to launching on both PS5 and PC without first testing the waters with whatever Bungie is working on. MS was in the PC realm earlier, had the smaller install base, has a different subscription strategy that kind of requires faster growth than Sony's does because of day 1, and of course has better financial security to survive had it been a disaster on console sales. Less risk and more incentive. But if Sony gets enough data to feel confident that they won't harm their PSN business, they may decide its time to cast the wider net too.
On a different but related topic, and with so many studios / pubs under its belt now, I do wonder if Starfield's success (1st place last month despite being available via sub) will start MS on a pathway towards selling their games anywhere they can be played in the future.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
This is Microsoft we're talking about here; their upper-level gaming management is among the most creatively bankrupt in the industry's history. You'll see "safe" picks like Guitar Hero come back because they can be easily adapted to a heavily monetized GaaS/live-service model. But IPs like Leisure Suit Larry, which'd require a ton of creative guidance and leadership to make a modern version work? Little to no chance.
Sure Microsoft can hire those types of people at the studios, but those sorts probably don't want to be under the approval or corporate culture policies of Xbox's upper level management in the first place. So just bet on the safe picks coming back; anything that would require more ingenuity or risk, or would be serving a smaller specific niche, has almost no chance of being revitalized.
Figured as such. But, they will still find a way to make Xbox platforms seem more desirable for COD, and the easiest way will be through tying free XP/weapon/item/perk bonuses to Xbox Game Pass (and probably also PC Game Pass) subscribers.
That's all still content you can earn and/or buy on non-Game Pass platforms, but you'd get them for free as part of a Game Pass subscription. 100% likelihood Microsoft is going to do this, hell they may try finding a way to do it with this year's COD release. It will definitely happen in 2024 however.
Microsoft have had access to PS5 dev kits through virtue of purchasing publishers who have studios with PS5 dev kits. So that whole bit from Phil was kind of bunk.
Also WRT future consoles why would Sony jeopardize development timeline and secrets of a PS5 Pro or especially PS6 by handing that hardware over to their direct competitor? Microsoft may be publishing games on PlayStation but at the end of the day, they are still directly competing with PlayStation through Xbox's existence. Ignoring that part of the equation and letting Microsoft copy off and one-up PS6's R&D hardware homework would be one of the dumbest things Sony could ever do.
And FWIW, Microsoft promising to provide their own devkits to Sony developers to "balance it out" isn't a good compromise, because Microsoft still hold the leverage in that dynamic. It also would instinctively encourage the two systems stay more or less similar to each other in design ambitions, which neuters creativity and hardware innovation that would naturally come about with teams competing in a more isolated environment that encourages competition.
Which in turn hurts gamers and the industry, with too much hardware homogenization. And, again, Microsoft would still hold the bargaining leverage in such a dynamic anyhow, so at almost any point the two sides had differing visions for certain hardware, OS, UI etc. ideas, Microsoft would likely leverage their acquired assets to win out those clashes. Which would be a heavy detriment to quality innovation IMHO.
All new games from ABK in the future will be on GP & Sony funs will have same deal......charging 70$ for every new game. Give Xbox funs free content & charge competition for profit. Brilliant plan
They won't be fooling me; my ABK access will either be through Game Pass or at steep discount sales. No guinea pigs here.
It's about Microsoft having 100% control of the supply and distribution of the content. To make a drug analogy, if gaming is the cocaine market, Microsoft want to be the Columbians.
Absolute control, presence at all levels, dictating the rules on the macro scale. And, making all other would-be competitors dependent on them in one or several forms. The money that feeds their accounts through that level of brutal control is just a naturally-occurring bonus.
Ansphn
Member
I'm basing my opinion on what Phil said. He said "parity" for all consoles. Series S is his most successful console so why would he not base the next COD around the specs of Series S?
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
This is why it's always best to view the source yourself and not rely on half-baked clickbait article headlines.
He says, and I quote "The goal is 100% parity across platforms, as much as we can, from launch in content. I say as much as we can on parity, cause clearly some platforms have resolution and frame rate differences base don perf".
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SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I don’t know. What I do know is Xbox consoles are doing poorly, and more exclusives should give them a boost.
Fredrik
Member
Yeah that would be fun, I think it would be a gigantic boost to be on PC day 1 when the hype is the most intense.
Look at Steam Charts numbers on Ratchet, everybody was talking about it but it maxed out at 8k concurrent players.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Steam Charts
An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.
I’m sure they sell enough to be worth the dev effort and Nixxes acquisition though. Spidey maxed at 66k concurrent players which is good.
devilNprada
Member
I've been a corporate controller through 4 company purchases and my experience is.. It's rough when the entire company drops 2 rungs down the ladder, the good people who can go elsewhere; usually do. The not so good people who can't, are typically who remain behind.
Realistically how long would anybody expect Bobby Kotick to report to Phil.. These guys don't do that.
Activision won't be the same company and it is typically a long and painful process replacing good fit people.
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