Sony: Minecraft is Totally Different to CoD.
Minecraft is not probative of Microsoft's incentives. The Addendum cites Minecraft as the sole example of a game acquired by Microsoft that continued to be licensed to other platforms. The Addendum does not reach a conclusion on the probative value of Minecraft (Addendum, para. 4.18), although it seems to place more emphasis on this single example than the PFs had done (Addendum, para. 4.23). For the avoidance of doubt, the experience of Minecraft says nothing about whether Microsoft could pursue exclusivity for Call of Duty:
• First, Minecraft is very different from Call of Duty: it is a single release game that is already in users' hands (having first been released in 2011); it operates in a virtually infinite game world with blocky graphics (as a result of which it is not a major showcase of a new console's technical capability); and it has no "goals" of the kind that are important to gamers who play Call of Duty (i.e., objectives that determine what a player has to do to win a game and therefore give the player a sense of accomplishment and progression). As the PFs found, Minecraft's "legacy monetisation model of a one-time fee for lifetime access and updates ... differs significantly from Call of Duty, where users buy the new premium iteration of the game every year for a higher fee" (PFs, para. 7.285).
• Second, Minecraft does not drive anything like the level of gameplay, engagement, or purchasing decisions as Call of Duty. It has [] of Call of Duty players and MAUs; it has substantially lower user engagement compared to Call of Duty; and it has limited impact on console purchasing decisions.15 Call of Duty revenues from 2017–2022 were over [] times those of Minecraft.
Also Sony: Redfall is Like CoD.
And just last week, two days before the Addendum was published, on March 22, the video game trade publication IGN published fresh evidence in the form of an interview with Redfall's creative director, Harvey Smith, that provides additional insight into Microsoft's strategy.19 Like Call of Duty, Redfall is a first-person shooter game that features both single player and cooperative multiplayer modes. In his interview with IGN, Mr. Smith explained that Redfall was originally planned to be released on all platforms, including PlayStation, but once Microsoft acquired Bethesda, there was a "huge sea change … [Microsoft] said, 'No PlayStation 5. Now we're gonna [sic] do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.'"20 He also explained that ZeniMax "was working on a PlayStation 5 version of the game" until Microsoft bought ZeniMax. After the acquisition, Microsoft "then canned the [PlayStation 5] port."21 Even though the studio had already put in the work to make a PlayStation version of the game, Microsoft decided to terminate this work and make the game exclusive to Xbox.
-
It's a lie that Minecraft has only been a single release, the Minecraft Java/360/One/PS3/PS4 Edition is not the same thing as Minecraft Bedrock Edition, it also ignores all the spinoffs that have continued to release on PlayStation platforms such as Story Mode, Dungeons and the upcoming Legends. It also ignores how Warzone which is extremely popular isn't intended to be released every year as well but a title which will last years, the only reason Warzone 2 happened was because Warzone 1 ran like crap and was on an old engine.
Bringing up the blocky graphics is irrelevant and I'd guarantee you that the vast majority of CoD players don't give a shit about its technical capability, case in point, Warzone, which ran like shit for years but was still consistently the most played title on both Xbox and PlayStation. You make your own goals in Minecraft, if you want to create a mode to "win" something then you can. If you want accomplishment or progression then you can go for that as well. There's likely a huge amount who play both Minecraft and CoD.
Comparing Minecraft revenue to Call of Duty's feels a bit deceptive considering the price differences. But to act like Minecraft can't be compared to Call of Duty due to its engagement and purchasing decisions but Redfall can be compared to CoD because it's an FPS is hilarious when Redfall is both a new IP and Arkane's titles tend to sell modest at best.
Here's some stats for Minecraft as of October 2021.
- 500m Registered Minecraft Players in China
- 140m MAU Peak.
- Over 1 Billion Multiplayer Hours in 2021.
- Minecraft Marketplace Creators Have Generated More Than $350M to Date Selling Mods, Add-Ons and Other Experiences.
- Available on 22 Platforms.
- Over 238m in Sales.
- Often Selling Over 20m a Year.
- Generating Hundreds of Millions in Revenue Per Year.
The Creator Marketplace alone has likely generated more revenue than every Arkane title combined, Lol.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 06 April 2023
