Call of Duty changed the landscape for online multiplayer games. Phil Nachum wonders whether the genre is getting ready to change again
Alexander Morton, the Scottish actor probably best known for starring in British comedy drama Monarch of the Glen - but known to me for being the hilariously foul-mouthed dwarf Zoltan Chivay in The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3 - has died aged 81.
The latest revenue report from CD Projekt Group shows Xbox only made up 10% of sales for The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 in 2025.
3x less sales than Playstation.
3x less consoles sold than Playstation.
Per captita, it averages out that the same number of users are buying CDP games regardless of platform, no?
The exact same or possibly more because a series S, initial investment and effort to Port to Xbox consoles for a third of the return.
Simply not worth it
A third is a pretty big number to be honest. Like would you rather make 15 million or 20 million? That's the difference that a third makes.
Hey it’s ok. They are really impressed with XBOx’s new CEO so exclusivity is on the way. 😂
Ok but I mean be logical ... modern PC, Switch, PS4 PS5 then you have XBOX, of all of those XBOX is probably only 10 percent... I mean, what do you expect? 10 percent increase in sales is still nothing to sneeze at, remember - this is CD projekt red and they sell a lot of software. 10 percent of their sales is probably what most studios DREAM of selling .... just playing devils advocate..... its easy to say LOL haha XBOX.... but.. I mean we know what it is at this point. I havent bought on since my xbox one X and before that I only used other peoples xboxes since the OG XBOX and stick with PC and Playstation and switch OLED, but .. I mean.... theres nothing WRONG with an xbox considering its just not the best - but they work fine. make no mistake.
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In honour of PlayStation's 30th birthday yesterday in the US, data company Circana has dug out figures showing the top 20 best-selling PlayStation video games ever (date-range Jan 1995 to July 2025). Don't get too excited.
This is a great reminder of how game sales have become more concentrated in a smaller number of games/series over time. In the PS1/PS2 era a game was a success if it sold a million or a few million copies. The GTA games (3/Vice City/San Andreas) were pretty big outliers in selling as much as they did during the PS2 era. So in the minds of a lot of gamers something like FF VII feels like it was as big of a PS1 game as God of War 2018 was for PS4, but in reality far fewer people bought it (though it has obviously reached additional people through remasters, etc.).
What this says to me is, not many people are buying a PS to play PS exclusives. Like so many false narratives, like Xbox gamers don't buy games! It seems Playstation as a default system is a vanilla system to play call of duty, Minecraft, GTA games and a sports games.
if you look back into the PS history, it has always been the 3rd parties who sells the most games. it was just that the PS1 and PS2 were so dominant that many of those 3rd party games were exclusives. so, back during the PS1 and PS2 days, the strategy was "to sell as many consoles as possible in order to sell more 1st party exclusives" to ride on that wave. The strategy to push many 1st party exclusives to sell consoles only started with the PS3 when many of those prior 3rd party exclusives went multiplat but more accurately, it started with the PSP.
Sony saw with the PSP, which was being trounced in sales by the DS, that 3rd party exclusives are hard to come by if you're not dominating the market. So they started building more 1st party games and when the PS3 were facing difficulties in sales, they knew they had to rely on their own to differentiate the PS3 from the 360. So the strategy back then changed to "release more 1st party exclusives in order to sell more consoles".
the only manufacturer that is still consistently selling their hardware to play 1st party exclusives, is Nintendo, and that was because they gave up the armrace for power thus they can't rely on 3rd parties anymore as all multiplats play better on competing consoles. AND that's also why they are the most ominous in going after emulators and also patent trolling!
so, you're not wrong there, but not an "aha!" moment or anything. it has been this way since the last, at least, 15 years for Playstation.
@zerobalance
So... what this tells you is that Call of duty, being the absolute check writer that it is, has been outsold by Last of us, God of war, 2 Spider man games..... Saying Playstation exclusives doesn't sell is like saying call of duty doesn't sell because they have outsold some of iterations. Does that make sense to you?
In the future I'd really like to see games take an approach to multiplayer similar to what Dark Souls has where the effects of other players can be seen in the signs they leave behind, but I want it to be taken a step further where others players actions can be seen in your world, but the players themselves can't.
I like multiplayer games needs some new idea its always the same deathmatch and catch the flag
I want devs to try new multiplayer modes(not saying that all multiplayer modes are the same just the majority)
Well it's getting tacked onto just about every single game, so there is that.
I just whooped a black phantom's ass a few minutes ago... I love creative MP, and/or good co-op. I prefer both to the traditional TDM and its ilk. Don't get me wrong... Battlefield and others are fun, but I really prefer something different. Most recently, GoW Ascension has added its take on the traditional, and it's refreshing.
Rush mode on Bad Company 2 cannot be beaten. I'm unable to play any other multiplayer game because it lacks the scope and excitement of Rush.