Microsoft Reveals Activision Almost Removed Call of Duty From Xbox

By Cade Onder

Microsoft has revealed that Activision almost pulled Call of Duty from Xbox. Call of Duty is one of the biggest franchises not just in gaming, but all of entertainment. Call of Duty has been such a juggernaut that Xbox and PlayStation have battled over the ability to just have the marketing rights to the series, allowing them to promote it as a marquee title on their platform and leverage some exclusive content here and there. However, Microsoft made an unprecedented offer to purchase Call of Duty publisher Activision for nearly $70 billion, prompting a long, drawn out process with all kinds of legal drama involving Sony, the FTC, and Microsoft.

With that said, during a hearing with the FTC and Microsoft with regards to the Activision acquisition, a fascinating anecdote was provided. Xbox vice president Sarah Bond that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick threatened to remove Call of Duty from the platform if Activision wasn't allotted a greater revenue share. It's believed the standard is a 70/30 split, with some games allowed an 80/20 split if they're deemed "critical" titles. As reported by The Verge, Activision refused to work on Call of Duty on the Xbox Series X|S development kits and suggested that PlayStation allowed a different revenue split with the publisher. Microsoft ultimately accepted Kotick's conditions as "time was limited" and players had expectations that Call of Duty would appear on Xbox.

"It was clear that Call of Duty would be on PS5 and that would not have been good if it was not also on Xbox if it was launching at the same time," said Bond.  

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With that said, it seems like there's a world where Call of Duty was almost made unavailable on Xbox Series X|S and would've been made exclusive to PlayStation and PC. Whether this would've just been for one game or all future games until Microsoft accepted the conditions is unclear. Either way, it certainly forced Microsoft's hand.

What do you think of the Xbox/Activision legal drama? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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