Finally, a key area of dispute may also be around pricing. Sony takes the view that it needs to be enabled to price Call of Duty competitively to what Microsoft could offer, said the third source familiar.
A factor here is the shifts in the industry from console gaming offers, where games can be priced at around EUR 70 for and where the revenue split is typically 30% to the platform and 70% to the publisher, to a subscription service model, said the source.
Under the subscription service model, publishers are typically either paid upfront for the rights to their game, which can be good for smaller gaming studios but less beneficial for blockbuster games like Call of Duty, which would likely see limit to their upside, said Rietveld. Another model for subscriptions is the Spotify-style model where it would be paid for share of time spent on a game, he noted.
A third option would see a licensee, such as Sony, paying the wholesale price for Call of Duty multiplied by the number of users who play the game for more than a set amount of time, he noted.
Sony is likely to take the view that the contract on offer by Microsoft result in diminished revenues for PlayStation, leaving it unable to put investments into its own games, said the third source. It would be forced to offer its PS Plus subscription service at a higher price than GamePass, they noted.