Phil Spencer: Sony buying third party games, all to do with money, not market share

[WC4Life]

IamAwsome said:

I honestly don't think so because like I said, CoD has gotten so big that the game will sell a lot on both consoles either way. I highly doubt they care at all which stage the game gets shown on, just as long as someone else pays for the marketing. I also doubt it was any easier for Sony to get the deals. Signs point to MS having a 5 year CoD deal that they didn't renew. 

I'd agree if it was still last-gen but not current-gen. The reason is Europe and ROTW. In NA it does not matter so much whether COD is PS4 or XBO since both have a lot of presence. However the situation is completely different in Europe and ROTW compared to last-gen. X360 actually had significant presence in these territories but current-gen XBO has lost marketshare so much that in many countries COD-marketing would go to waste completely. The amount of exposure COD-franchise will get by teaming up with PS4 is on a totally different level worldwide. Also Activision wants to sell as many DLC as possible and as fast as possible. Activision surely don't want to delay majority of userbase to purchase DLC, they want to take their money right away. This of course assumes PS4 will have the majority and I strongly believe it will because the install base difference is so huge now.

Then there is another point which is not related to marketshare. Halo 5 is coming and MS will give H5 gigantic push. COD-marketing being XBO would compete directly with H5. Now MS can use the saved COD-marketing money to promote H5 instead.