Microsoft has responded to Sony’s claims that its ongoing efforts to acquire Activision Blizzard will be anti-competitive, especially with regard to Call of Duty.
Last month Sony told Brazilian regulatory body CADE – which like many regions, is currently studying a proposed deal for approval – that the deal could influence players to switch from PlayStation to Xbox.
At the time, he argued: “Call of Duty is so popular that it affects users’ console choices, and its loyal user community is entrenched enough that even if competitors had the budget to develop a similar product, it wouldn’t work. able to match it.”
Now, in a 27-page document relating to the acquisition, Microsoft has hit back at CADE, trying to refute Sony’s claims.
In the report – transcribed by VGC – Microsoft noted that while many third parties, including Ubisoft and Bandai Namco, responded to CADE, Sony was the only company claiming Call of Duty had its own genre without competition.
“Only one third party, Sony, expressed an opinion that differed materially from that of Applicant and other third parties consulted by SG,” Microsoft claims. “Sony was isolated in this understanding and, oddly enough, even contradicted itself in its response to the letter, as will be explained below.”
Microsoft goes on to state that Sony doesn’t want to see Call of Duty games on Game Pass on day one, as it “regrets having to compete with Microsoft’s subscription service”.
“Sony’s public statement about subscription games and its response to SG’s letter is clear,” reads the response. “Sony didn’t want an attractive subscription service to threaten its dominance in the digital distribution market for console games.
“In other words, Sony is against introducing new monetization models that challenge its business model.”
Microsoft also refuted Sony’s claim that Call of Duty is a “game category in itself”, despite the fact that it has a loyal following.
“Stating that Call of Duty has a loyal following is a premise that doesn’t follow the conclusion that games are a ‘game category per se’,” Microsoft claims.
“Sony PlayStation itself, incidentally, has a loyal brand player base. Such findings, however, do not lead to the conclusion that the PlayStation – or any branded product with a loyal consumer – is a market apart from all other consoles.
“Extrapolating from such findings to the extreme conclusion that Call of Duty is a ‘mere game category’ cannot be justified on the basis of any quantitative or qualitative analysis.”
It also lists five reasons against Sony’s claim that the addition of Activision Blizzard games to Game Pass will lead to an unattainable edge in the subscription service for Microsoft.
According to Microsoft, this claim is false because:
Microsoft also claims that arranging exclusivity deals has been at the heart of Sony’s strategy to strengthen its position in the gaming industry, and besides having first-party exclusivity, it also has exclusivity deals with third-party publishers.
It also alleged that Sony was actively trying to stifle Game Pass’s growth by paying some developers for “blocking rights” in exchange for them agreeing not to add their content to Game Pass.
Finally, perhaps the strongest indication that Call of Duty will remain multiplatform, Microsoft claims that not having CoD games on PlayStation doesn’t make business sense, as it will only be profitable if enough people jump on Xbox to make up for it. money lost for not selling a copy of the PlayStation.
In its first response to Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard published in January, Sony said it expected Call of Duty games to remain multiplatform due to a “contract agreement”.
Microsoft’s Head of Gaming also later confirmed his intention to keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation platform after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was completed.
However, it was later claimed that Activision Blizzard was contractually committed to releasing only the next three Call of Duty games for the PlayStation console, including this year’s Modern Warfare 2.
