The CEO of Activision, Call of Duty’s publisher, said that he would not take an agreement to have CoD launch day one on Game Pass because it’s “not good for the business.”
As part of testimony during the ongoing Activision/Microsoft vs. US FTC case today, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed some new information and some of his thought processes behind business decisions regarding the franchise.
Kotick also said that Activision “sees no positive business value or return in their games in subscription services” and that value for CoD on a subscription service like Game Pass is “too high,” according to a thread compiled on Twitter by CharlieIntel recapping the testimony.
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In previous court testimonies, it was revealed that CoD wasn’t planned to arrive on Game Pass until at least 2025, even if the $69 billion acquisition of the CoD publisher by Microsoft eventually goes through. Now, both aspects seem to be up in the air.
Kotick’s testimony also revealed that CoD has “over 100 million” monthly active users and 70 million daily active users across mobile, PC, and console, after MW2 set new sales records for the franchise. So, in short, the series seems to be doing just fine even without Microsoft’s purchase of the publisher.
And a lot of the franchise’s success has to do with Microsoft’s main competitor in PlayStation, too. During the testimony, Kotick said that CoD’s PlayStation revenue is double that of Xbox’s revenue for the series.
The court case is ongoing, with Microsoft attempting to finish off the purchase of Activision that it began way back in January 2022.
