Activision Demanded Higher Revenue Share from Microsoft to Keep Releasing Call of Duty on Xbox

Whether or not Call of Duty will become exclusive to Xbox if Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through has been a topic of discussion for a while now, but funnily enough, the franchise was close to dropping Xbox releases and close to becoming exclusive to PlayStation consoles.

The same was revealed by Xbox’s corporate vice president Sarah Bond as part of her testimony at a recent Microsoft vs FTC hearing (via TweakTown), where she revealed that at the outset of the Xbox Series X/S console cycle, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick threatened to pull Call of Duty from Xbox consoles if Microsoft did not agree to a higher revenue share for Activision from software sales on its platform.

“It was clear that Call of Duty would be on PS5 and that would not have been good if it was not also on Xbox if it was launching at the same time,” Bond said. “It was clear if we did not move beyond the standard revenue share, he would not place Call of Duty on Xbox.”

The standard revenue share for games released on consoles has typically been a 70/30 split, with the publisher receiving 70% of all revenue generated from sales, and the platform holder taking the remaining 30%. According to the FTC, following Kotick’s demands, Microsoft agreed to an 80/20 split with Activision Blizzard.