The Call Of Duty Of It All

Microsoft completed its $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard near the end of 2023, and months later Sea of Thieves and other Xbox exclusives were headed to PlayStation 5. The multiplatform shift followed Halo maker Xbox’s rapid expansion into one of the biggest third-party publishers.

With new CEO Asha Sharma signaling more pain ahead as part of a platform “reset,” Call of Duty’s outsized role in the calculus around upcoming mass layoffs has become hard to ignore. Last year saw strong new releases for Xbox and additions to Game Pass, but not matching sales or subscription growth.

Despite a multiplatform launch, The Outer Worlds 2 didn’t sell enough to keep the franchise viable, and both software and services fell—down 5 percent in the second quarter and another 5 percent in the third. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood pointed to a drop in Call of Duty sales between 2024’s Black Ops 6 and 2025’s Black Ops 7 as a key factor.

microsoft, activision, black ops, xbox, playstation 5, game pass, layoffs, asha sharma, amy hood, halo