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Is CoD not important enough?

The FTC v. Microsoft hearing has been full of unexpected revelations emerging in public. Not coming as a surprise, the third day of this high-profile case, centered around Call of Duty publisher Activision, also witnessed a lot of interesting and shocking answers coming from the people involved. Notably, responses from experts of both sides.

In case anyone missed keeping track of events, FTC’s Dr. Robin Lee mentioned earlier that Call of Duty is a crucial IP. In fact, he stated that it can’t be easily replaced as it’s a unicorn in the gaming market. Opposite to this statement, Microsoft’s expert has now claimed that CoD is not essential, let alone being a unicorn!

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Call of Duty divides opinions in FTC v. Microsoft hearing

Firstly, the argument made by Dr. Lee was that compared to other IPs, CoD is different as it operates on a yearly cycle of releasing new content. And that most franchises don’t ship games in this manner. “I do think the supply of new content is evidence that it’s scarce, because AAA games don’t come out that frequently,” said the expert during the previous sessions of the ongoing case.

On the other hand, day three of the FTC v. Microsoft legal battle saw the Xbox maker’s expert Dr. Elizabeth Bailey making a bold claim. “Call of Duty is not essential, critical, or must-have. It’s not a unicorn.” It’s quite an interesting line to notice because even Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley had previously described Activision’s game as a unicorn.

In her argument, Dr. Baily mentioned that gamers keep playing a lot of other titles as well. In fact, according to her, there’s a very “good percentage of gamers” who engage in more than 10 franchises on the PlayStation. Furthermore, she once again tried to make her point valid by saying that CoD is not unique when taking into consideration the bigger picture.

READ MORE: FTC v. Microsoft: Call of Duty Publisher Allegedly Forced the Xbox Maker for a Bigger Revenue Share Deal!

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Here, she indicated that if the deal between Microsoft and Activision gets eventually approved, the reach of this IP’s content will expand to more users worldwide.

It looks like Microsoft wants to show Call of Duty as not a very significant factor in the entire case. Because if it ends up being the main focus, the result might shift in an unwanted direction. Obviously, the company is surely not willing to let that happen at any cost. What are your thoughts on this topic though? Do you think CoD is not actually essential for gamers?

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Source: Verge

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