Hunting down your enemies on the bustling streets of Amsterdam, along the U.S.-Mexico border or in a Middle Eastern fishing village is just part of the intense action in the latest Call of Duty video game.
The Friday release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues a nearly two-decade run for California-based Activision Blizzard's wildly popular military shooting game franchise. New installments of the game can rival Hollywood's biggest blockbusters in how much they earn on their opening weekend.
But the battle this time is also happening off-screen. Call of Duty is at the center of a Microsoft鈥檚 Xbox and Sony鈥檚 PlayStation over Microsoft's pending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard.
鈥淢icrosoft would have full ownership of one of the most valuable franchises in console gaming,鈥 said Joost van Dreunen, a lecturer on the business of games at New York University's Stern School of Business. 鈥淎nd naturally, Sony does not want that or like that because it will cost them business.鈥
Microsoft has been working to get approval from antitrust regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere to complete the video game giant. But it鈥檚 been trailed around the world by objections from Sony, which is afraid of losing access to what it describes as a 鈥渕ust-have鈥 game title.
Among those listening to Sony's concerns are antitrust regulators in the United Kingdom who last month into whether Microsoft could make Call of Duty and other titles exclusive to its Xbox platform or 鈥渙therwise degrade its rivals鈥 access鈥 by delaying releases or imposing licensing price increases.
鈥淭hese titles require thousands of game developers and several years to complete, and there are very few other games of similar calibre or popularity,鈥 said a September report from the UK鈥檚 Competition and Markets Authority.
At the Southern California studios of Infinity Ward, the division of Activision Blizzard responsible for creating the new game, the Microsoft-Sony fight has been secondary to game developers' more pressing worries about making sure their newest release satisfies legions of diehard fans.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always tough when you have something this popular and everybody鈥檚 got an opinion on what it should be, what it shouldn鈥檛 be,鈥 said Jack O'Hara, the game's director.
Work on Modern Warfare 2 started before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Infinity Ward's headquarters outside of Los Angeles, forcing developers to be more creative in how they drew the game's characters, weaponry, motions and scenery and recorded its voices. It was the same studio that in 2003 launched the original Call of Duty, a first-person shooter set during World War II.
Mark Grigsby, the studio's animation director, first joined in 2005. He said he was feeling 鈥渁 little bit of anxiety鈥 ahead of Friday's release about how players would react to tweaks affecting the feel of the virtual weapons they're carrying, such as how they recoil after a shot is fired.
鈥淓very iteration of the product, you鈥檙e never able to get everything that you wanted to do done in that one edition. So you鈥檙e always trying to up your game,鈥 Grigsby said. 鈥淚t takes an army and a talented army.鈥
The games have gradually grown more visually realistic, interactive and multiplayer in the past two decades. They've also become more contemporary, starting with 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which took the fighting to modern-day settings in the Middle East and Ukraine. Friday's release is a sequel to a popular 2019 game that was itself a refresh of that 2007 game of the same name.
Studio executives said they consulted advisers and experts before incorporating storylines and imagery from the politically-charged U.S.-Mexico border wall, as well as a collection of settings that are meant to evoke a Mexican town and a fictional Middle Eastern country. Ukraine, where the company has some employees affected by Russia's war, is notably absent.
鈥淲e want to have that realism and feel like it鈥檚 a world that we know and it鈥檚 not outside of the realm,鈥 O鈥橦ara said. 鈥淗owever, obviously, we鈥檙e all impacted by current affairs. And so we always want to stay away from something that just feels glib or just not right, essentially. The goal is not to profiteer off of anything.鈥
Infinity Ward executives declined to talk about their pending takeover by Microsoft. But Microsoft is increasingly speaking out about what would be the largest-ever tech acquisition, trying to assure regulators that it will keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation 鈥渇or at least several more years鈥 beyond its current contract with Sony.
While Brazil and Saudi Arabia have already approved the deal, it still awaits important decisions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and authorities in the U.K. and the European Union. Microsoft told investors Tuesday that is still expects the deal to close by the first half of next year. But it's possible regulators could impose conditions that force Microsoft to keep access open to Call of Duty for a longer time and ensure that its rivals aren't getting a lesser version.
鈥淚s it really that important for Sony on a financial basis? Probably not. But it鈥檚 mostly the draw of having all these people come to their platform,鈥 van Dreunen said.
And while important to console-makers and the digital subscription services they are building, Call of Duty and its fanbase is just a portion of what Microsoft would get from taking over Activision Blizzard, which owns dozens of titles including popular mobile games like Candy Crush. Van Dreunen said while the attention is on the Call of Duty dispute, that mobile expansion might be the real 鈥済ravity point鈥 for Microsoft's massive merger.
