Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick testified earlier today during the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft case. Like Jim Ryan yesterday, he revealed information surrounding his company’s activities, particularly regarding the Call of Duty franchise.
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The following information comes from Tweets posted by @charlieINTEL, who made a thread on Kotick’s various statements during the hearing. We’ve compiled the tweets directly here for clarity and ease of reading.
Kotick revealed several statistics regarding CoD, such as the fact that it has over 100 million monthly active users, with 70 million daily active users and the primary platform being on mobile devices. Interestingly, Xbox holds the smallest percentage.
Call of Duty has over 100 million monthly active users, per Kotick
Call of Duty has 70 million daily active users, with primary platform being mobile, follow by PC and consoles. Xbox is smallest %
When asked about the franchise arriving on Nintendo Switch, Kotick conceded that it was “bad judgment” not to bring CoD to the platform. He claimed that he had seen prototypes of the console and was not convinced of its success at the time.
Bobby Kotick says he made a “bad judgement” in not bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo Switch; says prototypes of the console he used didn’t convince him and didn’t believe it would be successful
“It was a bad decision on my part,” Kotick says of no Call of Duty on Switch
One interesting statistic that Kotick shared was the difference in revenue between PlayStation and Xbox for Call of Duty. He claimed that PlayStation earned twice the revenue of Xbox through PlayStation. He also stated that the success of the CoD franchise could also be attributed to PlayStation’s own success.
Kotick says PlayStation’s CoD revenue is 2x higher than Xbox CoD revenue; says PlayStation being successful has lead to CoD’s success too
– charlieINTEL (5)
Regarding subscription services such as Xbox’s Game Pass, Kotick stated that he would not and will not put the franchise on such services on the same day and date as launch, and that he “won’t even consider it.” Kotick explained that subscription services with Day 1 releases negatively affect the financial model, citing media streaming services as an analogy and claiming that they too lose money on such a structure.
Kotick says he would not and will not put Call of Duty on subscription service day and date as launch, says he won’t even consider it
He believes subscription services that feature day and date releases has a negative impact on financial model, compares it to media streaming services today and says those companies are losing money on that services
Kotick apparently high-fived Xbox head Phil Spencer as he finished his testimony.