Sony is having a meltdown
Sony is not happy.
And they are firing shots at Nintendo now.
It began with Phil Spencer announcing that MS has signed a deal with Nintendo (and Steam) to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo’s console. This is obviously contingent on the deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard going through in mid-2023.
Given the timing of everything, this announcement is clearly meant for positioning CoD for Nintendo’s next console - not the Switch. Very clever move on Microsoft’s part; it shows that Microsoft is not looking to keep CoD as a console exclusive, which - we thought - was the crux of Sony’s concerns.
But apparently, Sony was very unhappy with the news. And it had some choice words to say internally about Nintendo and the Switch. And frankly, they come off sounding a bit bitter in this internal memo MLex:
Wow. There’s so much to unpack here. Sony rejected MS’ 10-year deal and is basically accusing Microsoft of being dishonest with this move.
So let’s go in order:
“…Nintendo’s younger audience is not interested in the first person shooter…”
and their evidence for this is:
“…a previous version of the game on its console was a commercial flop…”
Ok, so a few things here. Anyone’s who’s played CoD multiplayer and hung out in the lobbies knows the place is packed with elementary school-aged children.
The last CoD games to be released on Nintendo consoles were for the Wii U - a console that was a commercial failure; selling a grand total of 13.56 million units across its entire lifespan. So yes, many games flopped on the Wii U, including CoD. Notice how Sony leaves out that the console in question was the Wii U.
As for the ‘Switch is for kiddies’ energy Sony is trying to bring back from the PS1/N64 era, here’s a receipt that breaks down Switch active user age demographics:
So much for the ‘Switch is for kids’ argument, Sony…
Furthermore, Nintendo Switch could not run Call of Duty easily or may never be able to…
The Switch can handle Call of Duty is it is ported within it’s hardware parameters. It obviously won’t look as nice or perform a smoothly as the PS5 version, but the Switch is perfectly capable of running any first person shooter optimized for the hardware. See DOOM, DOOM Eternal, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - all fantastic games that were optimized to run on the hardware and completely playable.
Nintendo doesn’t need to worry about equal treatment for its subscription service or cloud gaming service as those are not areas where it competes aggressively…
There is an element of truth to this, as Nintendo Switch Online is brand new, and not nearly as robust as XBOX Live and PSN, but Nintendo is building it - just like Sony built there’s off the back of Call of Duty over the years.
So the questions becomes… what is Sony really afraid of here?
With Microsoft, it seems that Sony is afraid of GamePass.
Call of Duty marketing going to PS4 last gen was everything for Sony. They received 30% of all revenue and saw sustained PSN subscription numbers. Those revenues will likely take a massive hit if/when the merger goes through. When Microsoft has the game up on Gamepass day and date with the PS5 launch and has all the CoD marketing, you can already envision a mass CoD migration back over to XBox from PlayStation. Sony is terrified of this.
With Nintendo, Sony may just be jealous.
Nintendo is not pissing, moaning, crying, or bitching about Call of Duty. Nintendo is completely indifferent to the series. Nintendo does not need Call of Duty. Nintendo has its own IP with its own following and can sustain its own hardware.
Sony on the other hand, is openly saying that no other shooter can complete with CoD, nor can their own devs compete. Sony clearly feels like it NEEDS CoD. Nintendo KNOWS it does not. And Sony is coming off pretty salty about it.
The FTC has filed a lawsuit to block the merger between MS and ActiBlizzard.
Will be interesting to see what happens next.
