Survey Suggests Just 3% of PlayStation Owners Would Switch to Xbox If CoD Became Exclusive - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 March 2023 / 5,752 Views
Microsoft has commissioned a YouGov survey in January asking PlayStation users if they would switch to Xbox if Microsoft made Call of Duty an Xbox console exclusive. The survey results were shared by Microsoft with Axios.
The survey reveals that just three percent of PlayStation users would make the switch to Xbox if Call of Duty was no longer released on the platform.
"As we have said all along: it makes zero business sense to take Call of Duty off of PlayStation", said the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Competition Law Group Rima Alaily.
Alaily says that the survey suggesting just three percent of PlayStation would make the switch to Xbox was "too small to hurt Sony’s ability to compete and too small to make a withholding strategy profitable for Xbox."
Microsoft's survey also found that 10.5 percent of Call of Duty players who ranked the franchise as one of their two favorites would make the switch to Xbox.
This is in contrast with the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) own study which estimated that 15 percent of avid Call of Duty players on PlayStation would make the switch to Xbox and another nine percent would switch to PC. This includes those who play 10 hours and spent at least $100 on the series in the past year.
The CMA originally stated that "PlayStation is likely to lose a significant share" of Microsoft made Call of Duty an Xbox console exclusive.
Microsoft has continued to state they won't take Call of Duty away from PlayStation and will treat the franchise the same way it does Minecraft.
To mitigate some of the concerns from regulators Microsoft has signed a 10-year partnership with Nvidia to bring Xbox games on PC to the Nvidia GeForce Now cloud gaming service. If Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal is approved it will bring games from Activision Blizzard to GeForce Now, including Call of Duty.
Microsoft has also signed a "binding 10-year legal agreement" with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms if Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is approved.
The CMA has deadline of April 26 to make its final ruling on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition. This is a day after the European Union regulators are expected to make their final ruling.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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What people SAY they will do and what they ACTUALLY do are two completely different things. Rarely does the common person follow through on their own words.
So 0% would switch?
You're right! Most people don't like change. Now we come to the realization CoD's not leaving PS, it would likely be a low number that would actually switch platforms.
most people do not like change butttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt there are tons of hardcore COD players!
You right but factor in that CoD will always stay multiplat so the incentive to change is much lower.
100% correct
I'm sure this survey reached the active cod player base of playstation, lol.
Swear with crossed fingers.
After the deal is completed and more people realise that Xbox owns CoD, that number will grow more.
How much more depends on what else Xbox will do to convert those people. Xbox Exclusive CoD consoles & controllers, heavy advertising for CoD on Xbox......
How has that worked out for Minecraft? It probably sells better on competing platforms than on Xbox. This fear of a mass exodus of players to Xbox is really overblown.
360 led the PS3 for majority of the 7th gen.. becoming peoples favourite place to play games.
Bit of a coincidences when CoD leaves, Xbox fell off drastically.
Ridiculous. Xbox lost 42% of their install base from 360 to Xbox One. Call Of Duty marketing rights were not the reason.
Didnt say it was the sole reason. How ever it's a bit of a coincidence. People dont give CoD much credit for system sales. Seems to be who ever has the marketing rights to CoD has the leading platform at the time. (Excluding Nintendo)
What you're describing is not a coincidence, it's a correlation. We know why Xbox 'fell off drastically'. Microsoft's strategy saw their market decline and cod sales slump along with install base. Sony, conversely, fixed their mistakes and saw their market share increase. A leading platform is determined by known entities like brand, strategy, timing, pricing, hardware innovation and content. There is no coincidence, or hidden meanings, we can literally point to the exact reasons one console maker or the other lost market share, and it has nothing to do with the advertising rights to a single game series.
I dont disagree with the direction that hurt Xbox however if Xbox still had marketing rights to CoD. That would have helped immensely.
If you think CoD marketing was one of the biggest reasons for the big drop in Xbox sales, it becoming exclusive to Xbox would have a major impact into sales of PS and Xbox. So is MS lying in this survey?
Never said its the biggest reason but it definitely helps having control on gamings biggest IP.
How much does it helps?
As much as it helps Sony. Clearly alot since Sony are fighting tooth and nail to ensure MS dont have it.
MS is claiming 3% so is it right?
There are multiple surveys that show different results.
And I'm asking about MS one, is it truthful?
That more has to do with the 360 getting a year lead and the PS3 doing everything possibly wrong.
Just like the PS4 destroying the xbox one started with the XB1 doing everything wrong.. and not losing COD marketing rights in 2015.
You can say that with all console generations.
Probably a very select set of people surveyed. Maybe MS management???
Oh so Microsoft commissioned this Survey!!! Well we know for sure it can’t be accurate!!!!
It is as accurate as their official Xbox sales numbers =p
I dunno. When CoD switched from 360 to PS4 shows otherwise.
COD switch to Sony because Sony was beating the Xbox one that badly. The xbox one didn't start losing AFTER cod switched. They started before.
So ABK can see into the future? Or do you think Sony signed that deal with ABK at the end of the PS4 life?
The damage to Sony isn’t only loss of users but also loss of revenue being generated on the platform.
MSFT doesn’t care a bit about the profitability of its games division, only that their actions hurt the competition.
If ms keeps cod away from Sony, it will hurt ms financial by quite a bit. They lose more money then Sony themselves
As the friend above you said, MS doesn't need Xbox money. They can operate at "0" profit, they can start "Dumping" and realy hurt other publishers. If Gamepass becomes "big" and starts to make people think "I only need gamepass" Xbox wins, and CoD at the lowest possible price is Key for this. It's not just about exclusives, It's about making Gamepass stronger and the same go for mobile game front
Share holders will disagree. Companies need to always have a focus on profits.
True but Xbox is pocket money for MS
Sure but their focus would be on profits. They would simply argue that the loses now are temporary while they severely hurt the competition. Drive people towards game pass and then start to make a profit.
Yep, MS has the moolah to clear the board of other players even while taking losses themselves. Then, when most things are behind Game Pass only, they can start setting the real prices and become profitable again. But a lot of people seem to believe in free lunches.
This is nonsense. Microsoft cares only about profitability and doesn't care at all about hurting their competition. They're a business, not a fanboy with childish emotions. They exist only to make money.
Good chances of Long term big profit and market domain Vs. Short term small profit while behind market Leander.
"Dumping" to hurt competition is a nasty and very efficient move to gain market leadership, and i have no doubts MS can do If allowed.
Sure. But, carrying out a strategy to generate profit clearly indicates that they care about generating a profit.
Activision will not drive profits for Microsoft. It will contribute 1-2 billion per year (and that’s before you eliminate the Microsoft portion of the income). Microsoft I believe made $83billion last year so it’s a tiny fraction.
So, you think they want to buy Activision for fun, or what?
Are you ok with "Dumping"? This is not just about Playstation, a "big Dumping" can cause very big damage on every publisher! Worst case, it can give MS power to dominate the market on long term (+10 years).
I don't see how that's relevant to the conversation. We're talking about whether Microsoft cares about generating a profit, versus playing with PlayStation's emotions. Or something like that.
But, as for dumping, assuming you mean selling things for less than they cost, yes, I'm fine with it. It is done all the time, in every industry. Amazon has been doing it for their entire 30 year history. Every grocery store is doing it every day. Every retailer does it on Black Friday. It's a normal business practice.
The actual number might be somewhere between the 2 results. 8-9% would be my estimate.
idiots
That number is to neglilible, I would think it is a little higher.
But if this is the reasoning for keeping it multiplat what about Starfield, Elder Scrolls, etc. Doesn't seem to have made people consider swapping platform so does it make sense to make it single platform MS?
Xbox still needs big "system seller" exclusives just like Nintendo and Sony. None of those games you mentioned have even released yet so how would you know what has gotten someone to buy an Xbox? Constantly bringing up Bethesda doesn't make your argument better or prove anything when it's 2 different situations.
CMA seething at this news.
Torture the numbers until they tell the story you want. That is the way of statistics.
The old saying there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
