Activision says it develops so much content for Call of Duty that it needs "almost 1.5 lead studios" for each game

A solider stares at the screen during Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's campaign — (Image credit: Activision)

Each Call of Duty game has "so much content" that Activision requires 1.5 lead studios to work on each installment.

Last week the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition claiming that it could damage competition in the gaming market. The regulator's final report on the deal revealed several interesting insights into Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, as well as the gaming industry as a whole. One of these interesting tidbits from the report reveals that Activision requires "almost 1.5" lead studios for each Call of Duty game it releases.

The report reads: "A report by IDG submitted by a third party quoted Activision Blizzard as saying that it has so much content for CoD that it needs almost 1.5 lead studios for each annual CoD." The report continues, "Further, Activision is claimed in the report to have said that it typically uses about 15 outsourcing/co-development partners for a $100 million game, and 20- 30 different partners for a larger game."

As any Call of Duty player will tell you, Activision typically uses three main development studios so that there can be a new installment in the FPS series each year - the studios in question being Infinity Ward (most recently behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty: Vanguard), or Treyarch (Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War) with several support studios - such as Raven Software - assisting with the development of each game.

Another interesting bit of information found in the report reveals that the total cost of the biggest games now reportedly tops $1 billion, which is a sharp increase from as recently as five years ago. Elsewhere in the report, the CMA shares its view on the Microsoft deal which allows Call of Duty games to release on Nintendo consoles for the next 10 years - to which the CMA concluded that the Nintendo Switch isn't "technically capable" of running Call of Duty well.

Want to experience more of Activison's back catalog? Take a look at our best Call of Duty games list.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.