Call of Duty Sales Down 60%, Former Activision CEO Says
According to Bobby Kotick, investors should be grateful for the $69 billion sale of Activision Blizzard.
The stream of reports painting Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition as one of the worst financial investments in the tech giant's history shows no signs of stopping, with a new reveleation dropped by none other than Activision's infamous ex-CEO Bobby Kotick suggesting that ABK's biggest cash cow – that being the Call of Duty series – hasn't been producing much milk since the buyout.
Bobby Kotick
In case you missed it, it was previously reported that Microsoft's decision to make CoD available via Xbox Game Pass resulted in a whopping $300 million loss in potential Call of Duty sales across console and PC. Corroborating those reports, Kotick said that Call of Duty sales are down over 60% year-on-year, pointing to "intense competition from titles like Battlefield" as one of the reasons for the franchise's financial downfall.
He further added that the CoD series' financial underperformance, alongside console sales being at an all-time low, is why investors – who are currently trying to sue Kotick for allegedly rigging the deal in his favor and selling Activision Blizzard for too low a price – should be thankful that he sold ABK in the first place.
"Today, given that console sales are at an all-time low and Call of Duty sales are off over 60% from the prior year, Plaintiff should be expressing extreme gratitude for the foresight Activision leadership demonstrated in consummating this transaction," the former Activision boss told Game File. "Call of Duty is on track to perform over 60% below last year because of intense competition from titles like Battlefield – destroying the FTC's now defeated argument about Call of Duty's purported monopoly and the lack of competition in the first-person action game category."
While Kotick's position as the company's ex-CEO most certainly lends credence to his claims, it is worth noting that at the moment, there is no concrete evidence that Call of Duty actually declined 60% year over year, as Activision has yet to confirm or deny the figure cited by its ex-head.
That said, between Kotick's new revelation, the $300 million report mentioned above, and Black Ops 7 struggling to surpass 40,000 peak daily concurrent players on Steam, it increasingly appears that the franchise is headed for a disaster and is in serious need of major changes if it hopes to survive.
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