At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sony introduced the new Call of Duty game instead of Microsoft. They then went on and said that they are the “new home” for Call of Duty and will be the first console to release new content such as DLC’s. Sony is therefore taking over the role that Microsoft has held for the past few years (an expensive transaction no doubt). This is a change that many people have seen coming for a while now, but the rumours didn’t have any real bearing until now.
In terms of competitive Call of Duty, the Xbox has been the main console for a long time. Upon release of the Xbox One, Major League Gaming (MLG) quickly switched over to the next-gen console from the Xbox 360. Now, the question is whether or not competitive Call of Duty will be played on the Playstation 4.
Major League Gaming and other tournament organizations support competition on the Playstation, but they do not host LAN tournaments on the console. There have been rumors that MLG purchased a large number of Playstation 4’s back when they were released a year and a half ago, but for unknown reasons. Will they finally be used? For smaller companies that have already invested in Xbox One, the switch to Playstation 4 will be an expensive but necessary one, though competitions can still be held on both consoles. When it comes down to it though, anyone interested in going pro will certainly need to own the correct one.
A lot of people are upset about the potential console change and have created a Twitter hashtag to voice their opinion: #XboxorWeRiot. It’s not hard to understand their frustration! These gaming systems are not cheap to own and people have already put a large sum of money into the system they are currently playing, the games they play, and any accessories that go with it. A switch to a new console not only means they need to purchase a new system, but they need to purchase new copies of Call of Duty and accessories that will be compatible, easily exceeding $500 in total. For professional players, this is no big deal. The organizations they play under will likely foot the bill, and pro players make money from playing the game anyway.
For the good of the competitive scene, switching from the Xbox One to the Playstation 4 may not be a bad thing, however. Since a large number of fans currently play on the Xbox One, switching consoles has the potential to reel in a whole new group of competitive Call of Duty fanatics. Sure, some current fans may drift away from the eSport, but are those people true fans if they are lost so easily? It is not necessary to own the same console as the pro players to follow them, you just need to watch tournaments and support the scene! Playing competitively can be done on either console, as there is no chance that tournaments will cease to exist on the Xbox One, but if you are truly trying to go pro, playing on the right console is obviously a must. To those who aspire to be the next Scumpi, I say this: to make money you have to spend money. The initial investment is important.
One major point that some people have brought up is that Sony may have more focus on the competitive scene than Microsoft. Is this sure to happen? No, right now it is purely speculation, but by entering a deal with Activision to become the first console to receive new content they must have had a discussion about the million dollar Call of Duty Championship at some point. Xbox, Activision, and the game developer of the current Call of Duty title have always teamed up to host CoD Champs, and that is basically the extent of involvement Xbox has directly had in the competitive scene. The ball is in Sony’s court and they can take it or leave it, but I am here right now to say that the eSports scene is not something to be ignored! Clearly eSports have grown immensely in recent years and any company not clamoring to jump on that bandwagon is making a mistake.
Still, there has not yet been official word on a console switch, but should it happen it might not be such a bad thing!
