In the ongoing deal for Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, new documents reveal insights into Activision’s plans with Call of Duty. The popular shooter was supposed to be the key to success – but they failed.
- In January 2022, the tech giant Microsoft announced it wanted to acquire the gaming company Activision Blizzard. With a purchase value of around 69 billion US dollars, this would be the largest deal in gaming history.
- The FTS (Federal Trade Commission) tried to block the deal. A US court has now ruled in favor of Microsoft, thereby clearing the FTC’s blockade.
- Sony has expressed concerns about the future of Call of Duty if Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
According to a new document from Microsoft, Activision had planned to grow with the acquisition of Call of Duty. Ultimately, this was a “resounding failure” (via Twitter).
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the series returned to Steam:
“The attempt was a resounding failure”
Why did it fail? According to Microsoft, Activision Blizzard had the plan to remove Call of Duty from Steam and sell the digital PC version of the shooter exclusively on its own Battle.net launcher. They wanted to lure players to the platform. The number of monthly active users of the launcher remained constant over the years, while the user count on Steam increased.
The document states:
Activision’s attempt to move the digital PC sales of Call of Duty exclusively to its Battle.net platform was a resounding failure. Before 2018, Activision sold digital versions of Call of Duty titles for PC via Valve’s successful Steam platform. In 2018, Activision decided to remove the game from Steam and make it exclusively available on Battle.net, mainly in an effort to attract users to its own platform and grow it.
via Twitter
Thus, Activision announced in 2018 that it would skip Steam upon the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and release it exclusively on the Battle.net launcher (via Kotaku). Activision held onto the plan for five years, but fans were frustrated.
In 2022, they reversed course and released Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on Steam.
The hoped-for increase did not materialize
What led to the change of heart? Activision’s plan to lure players to its own platform has failed, it is stated. While the number of monthly active users on Steam doubled over the years, it remained relatively constant on Battle.net:
The monthly active users of Battle.net remained relatively constant during the time it had exclusive access to digital sales of Call of Duty on PC, from 2018 to 2022. RX5055, p. 50. During the same period and without access to Call of Duty, the monthly active users of Steam increased by several tens of millions and nearly doubled from 67 million MAUs in 2017 to 132 million MAUs in 2021.
(MAUs = monthly active users)
via Twitter
In another excerpt from the document, Microsoft points out that platforms can also be successful without the shooter. Microsoft stated that “Activision has not released a single Call of Duty title for the Nintendo Switch” (via Kotaku).
Even without Call of Duty, the Nintendo Switch is a great success and ranks among the best-selling consoles worldwide.
We will keep you updated on how things progress with Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and Call of Duty.
After Microsoft raised the prices for the Game Pass and Xbox Series X, they are now enticing with a promotional offer for the subscription:
Xbox Game Pass: After the price increase, a popular offer returns
