Japanese technology company Sony has revealed some highly confidential information about its PlayStation business by mistake. At the FTC vs Microsoft hearing, the company showed a document from PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan that had information about the margins Sony shares with publishers, the cost of developing some of its games and Call of Duty revenue.
On a closer look, it seems like someone has redacted the documents using a black Sharpie. Although the court did ask for the document to be removed, the damage was done as it had already been downloaded by the press and Sony‘s rivals.
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According to the document, Horizon Forbidden West cost the company $212 million over five years with 300 employees while $220 million was spent on The Last of Us Part II with 200 employees. The document further revealed that 1 million PlayStation gamers play nothing apart from Call of Duty.
Sony had shown the document at the hearing to show how heavily its revenues would be impacted if Call of Duty was an Xbox exclusive. Sony has made it clear in various filings to regulators that it fears Microsoft making the game exclusive to its gaming console.
Sony’s document also showed (most likely accidently) how much Call of Duty is worth to PlayStation. In just the United States, Call of Duty was worth $800 million, that too back in 2021. It is reported that the document has revealed that the global figure was $1.5 billion. But that’s just the game. If you also pencil in the money Sony makes via accessories, subscriptions and more, the number jumps to a figure that looks like $13.9 (or $15.9) billion dollars.
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It has also been revealed that the company shares what seems like 10% with third-party publishers like Activision. And speaking of Activision, Sony only has one more CoD game of its exclusive marketing deal with the company and that game is scheduled to be released at the end of 2023. The document also said that half of its PS5 owners also have a Nintendo Switch.
This isn’t the first time a tech giant has been affected by document redaction problems. Only earlier this week, a confidential document from Microsoft revealed a lot of information about the company including its Xbox targets. But now, it’s been replaced with a version that’s been heavily redacted.
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