Following a decade of Call of Duty on Steam, the franchise skipped the platform with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in 2018. After Black Ops 4, Activision decided to make the franchise exclusive to Battle.net on PC.
However, last year’s Modern Warfare 2 was released on the Steam platform, ending the Battle.net exclusivity for the popular FPS franchise. While Activision has not said much about this decision, a recent Microsoft document elaborates on the decision.
According to Microsoft, Battle.net exclusivity was a failure for the FPS games.
Why it matters: While Activision hoped Call of Duty on Battle.net would grow the PC platform, it did not go as planned. This is why the franchise has returned to Steam and will likely release games on the platforms in the coming years.
Following a victory against the FTC, a recent document from Microsoft stated that Activision’s attempt to make Call of Duty exclusive to Battle.net was a failure. The document stated:
“Activision’s attempt to take PC digital sales of Call of Duty exclusive to its Battle.net platform was a resounding failure.”
Despite the popular franchise being available on the platform, the monthly active users for Battle.net remained the same. This is surprising as various platforms saw remarkable growth during the pandemic, with most people staying home and playing games.
On the other hand, Steam’s monthly users kept increasing, and the platform set a new record on various occasions. Steam saw over 32 million concurrent users earlier this year, setting a new record.
The platform grew from 67 million monthly active users to 132 million in just four years.
It should also be noted that the Call of Duty franchise was not doing poorly during the four years.
The record-breaking Call of Duty battle royal, Warzone, was released during this period. The battle royal took the franchise to new heights and brought millions of new players to the FPS series.
However, a game like Call of Duty does not work well with exclusivity, and Microsoft has realized this. As such, the gaming giant plans to keep the series available on nearly every gaming platform.
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