If you've played any AAA games, you probably already have an idea of just how expensive it is to develop one. Due to Sony's lack of skill in redacting important number figures, it's longer just an estimation. We now know the cost it took to create two of the company's biggest games, and they are quite big.
Sony Reveals Its Secrets
Sony has a lot of exclusive games but as part of the document it submitted for the FTC vs Microsft hearing, it mentioned two of its titles with redacted numbers on how much was spent to develop them. Unfortunately for the company, it a Sharpie was not enough to conceal it.
It was revealed that for the game Horizon Forbidden West, Sony spent $212 million creating the game, all in the span of five years. The document also shows, even though they tried to cover it up, that it took around 300 employees to make the game, as mentioned in The Verge.
The sequel to another one of its games, The Last of Us II, cost more than the first mentioned title at $220 million, although it did have fewer employees working on it at 200. With the graphics and gameplay of the mentioned titles, it kind of makes sense.
Even with the impressive costs revealed, that's not even the main concern as to why Sony provided the documents in the first place. Its purpose was to show the impact of Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive by showing the statistics regarding the game.
Even if the game becomes exclusive to the Microsoft-owned console, there's still a possibility that Sony will have access to the game, but part of its fear is that when it comes to PlayStation consoles, the game might be "sabotaged" in their version.
Call of Duty is a hit game, and millions of users spend hours upon hours on it. In fact, a million users are said to only play CoD, with over six million spending 70% of their time on the game. Over 14 million users played the game 30% of the time.
A redacted section from the document states that Call of Duty provided $800 million in revenue for PlayStation in 2021 in the US, with what looks like revenue of $1.5 billion worldwide. Including the in-game purchases, it appears to amount to $15.9 billion a year.
Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition
Microsoft's plans to purchase the video game company were announced back in January 2022 at the price of $68.7 billion. Even then, Sony already expressed their worries about the future of Activision's games on their console.
Microsoft video head Phil Spencer assured that they intend to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, stating that Sony is an important part of the gaming industry and that he values their relationship, as mentioned in Fast Company.
By February 2022, the Federal Trade Commission was appointed to handle the deal, eventually blocking it by December 2022. On April 2023, the CMA also blocked the proposed acquisition to "protect innovation and choice in cloud gaming."
