The Elder Scrolls 6 Exclusivity Is A Bigger Threat To Sony Than Call of Duty

Until recently, Sony has done a good job of keeping quiet on the fact that Microsoft has been gobbling up some of the biggest third-party publishers in the industry, but it finally looks like Sony is starting to feel the pressure. They didn’t exactly go public in admitting that they’re feeling the weight of MIcrosoft buying up companies like Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard, but in an official response to Brazil’s regulatory body (via VGC), Sony admitted that the importance of Call of Duty “is indescribable,” and effectively said that the game is capable of single-handedly swinging the console war. Here’s the key point:

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“Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its community of loyal users is entrenched enough that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to rival it.”

Now, Sony isn’t wrong. Call of Duty is one of the biggest game franchises in the world. Just a couple of months ago, it hit 420 million historical sales, making it the third best-selling game series of all time. Iits last outing, Modern Warfare (2019), recently crossed 30 million sales, and is on course to be the most popular Call of Duty entry to date.

Call of Duty is in fact such a commercial franchise that it’s the kind of game that more casual gamers buy without even thinking about. Go to the house of a person who doesn’t play that many games, and they’re likely to have Call of Duty, some triple-A exclusives for that console, possibly an Assassin’s Creed or two, and [EA Sports game of choice] on the shelf. It’s the kind of game that many gamers who perhaps don’t have the time to find their ‘dream online shooter’ will buy automatically – reviews and opinions be damned. I know because I used to do this myself, queuing up outside the local supermarket to get heavily discounted versions of Modern Warfare 1-3 on launch day on the PS3. I never even counted CoD among my favourite games – it was simply something of a default game to get, a baseline for a 20-something console owner like myself.

Call of Duty Warzone Cheaters, Warzone Gas Grenade GlitchCall of Duty Warzone Cheaters, Warzone Gas Grenade Glitch
Credit: Activision

Of course Call of Duty also has a highly committed hardcore community that genuinely loves these games, but it also relies on a more casual gaming audience – an audience that may not necessarily be assed to go through the discomfort of following it over to another games console should platform exclusivity kick in. 

The next Elder Scrolls, however, is a whole other story.

The Elder Scrolls series may not be as prolific as Call of Duty, but that’s part of what gives it its prestige and mystique. The frequency with which Call of Duty games get released means that their annual or bi-annual releases become almost background noise – as surely as there’ll be an annual FIFA release, so too there be an almost-annual CoD release. The next Elder Scrolls, meanwhile, will be coming out a good 13-15 years after its predecessor, and part of the reason for that is because the 11-year-old Skyrim has continually brought Bethesda commercial success through its many ports, re-releases, and the modding community.

The pulling power of RPGs has grown exponentially since Skyrim in 2011 (largely thanks to the game itself). Just look at the incredible popularity of The Witcher 3, or Elden Ring, which I can confirm from many a bemused Facebook post was not the game many were expecting from an ‘open-world RPG.’ Yes, Elden Ring is wonderful in many ways (even if Cuphead is better in some of them), but there’s no question that part of its success can be attributed to a strong marketing campaign, George R.R. Martin, and the modern-day allure of the epic fantasy RPG, rather than the nature of the game itself, which was a brutal reality check for many players naive to the FromSoft way.

Skyrim Elder ScrollsSkyrim Elder Scrolls

With all that in mind, The Elder Scrolls 6 launch may well be one of the biggest events in gaming history, and it’s an event that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has already suggested that Playstation-only owners will not be a part of. I’d imagine that Sony’s console may get it a few years later, but by that time the console war may well have pivoted in Microsoft’s favour. The cultural capital of Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity will be unparalleled, especially as the series is known as being multiplatform (though technically only the last two entries, Oblivion and Skyrim, were).

As a commercial asset, Call of Duty will no doubt be valuable to Microsoft, but the company itself has already effectively acknowledged that it’s better off keeping the series multiplatform than restricting it to Xbox. Back in February 2022, Microsoft President Brad Smith said that Call of Duty . “We have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love,” says Smith. That’s by no means a ‘forever’ promise, but also suggests that Call of Duty may simply be more lucrative for Microsoft as a multiplatform game rather than the ‘prestige’ exclusive that The Elder Scrolls 6 may be.

If Sony doesn’t seem as perturbed by the prospect of Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity as it is by Call of Duty, that’s perhaps it’s because the game is still some time away. The good thing about that for Sony is that it can brace itself for seismic impact of an Xbox-only Elder Scrolls 6 by working on its own stellar exclusive output over the next couple of years, as well as acquiring its own stable of third-party publishers. The bad news is that it’s hard to see what could possibly fill the Elder Scrolls-shaped (or more specifically, High Rock and Hammerfell-shaped) hole in the future Playstation roster.

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