Gaming News Call of Duty: Sony resists Microsoft acquisition of Activision, Xbox reacts
As you probably know, Activision-Blizzard is poised to be acquired by Microsoft for the hefty sum of nearly $70 billion. For its part, Sony is not particularly enthusiastic.
Sony says no
As you must have heard, Activision-Blizzard and all of its franchises such as Call of Duty, Diablo, Crash and others will be transferred to Microsoft. Nevertheless, The purchase is not yet complete and the various regulators are still evaluating the acquisitionto avoid a monopoly that would unbalance the market. In Brazil, this organization is called CADE, and Sony sent them a filing last month to oppose this takeover.
One of the main arguments? The arrival of Call of Duty under Xbox control. Sony is a loyal partner in the saga, which smashes the stats every year with its phenomenal power. the Japanese manufacturer is simply afraid that the industry (and himself in particular) will suffer from this takeover.
Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users’ choice of consoles, and its community of loyal users is so vast that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it couldn’t match it.
Not so happy that his rival is filing such a complaint, Microsoft then split a 27-page file, also submitted to CADE to counter Sony’s arguments.
Microsoft speaks
It was inevitable that the Redmond company would not go overboard. First of all, it seems good to point out that other publishers such as Ubisoft and Bandai Namco have approached CADE regarding the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. but only Sony has picked up the Call of Duty argument.
Only one third party, Sony, submitted observations that differed in form from those of the complainants and the other third parties consulted by the General Secretariat. Sony is alone with this statement and strangely even contradicts itself in its reply to the letter, as explained below.
And to continue his attack Microsoft followed up directly on its best argument, Xbox Game Pass.
Sony doesn’t want to see Call of Duty games on Game Pass from day one, annoyed at having to compete with Microsoft’s subscription service.
Sony’s public statements on subscription gaming and its response to the Secretary-General’s letter are unequivocal. Sony doesn’t want attractive subscription services to jeopardize its dominance of the digital console game distribution market.
In other words, Sony is protesting the launch of new monetization models capable of challenging its economic model.
Ouch. The fight is real and everyone is (logically) defending their steak in a supposed war that hasn’t gone unnoticed for decades. However, Microsoft allows itself to return to Sony’s number one criticism in its file, namely what Call of Duty would be like “a category of games unto themselves”. Something that Microsoft completely refutes in its answer using Sony itself as an example.
Incidentally, Sony’s own PlayStation has an established base of gamers loyal to the brand. However, such a finding does not lead to the conclusion that PlayStation – or any branded product with loyal consumers – is a separate market from all other consoles.
Coming to the extreme conclusion that Call of Duty is a “category of games unto itself” is simply not justifiable in any quantitative or qualitative analysis.
Call of Duty will not be exclusive to Xbox
Finally, as if to justify itself one last time, Microsoft returned to the case of exclusives. If Call of Duty becomes an Xbox exclusive, it could hurt Sony and even many other players in the video game space. But remember A few months ago, the American giant said that was not the case.
In its filing with CADE, Microsoft returned to this desire to maintain the multiplatform franchise. The company therefore claimed that not having Call of Duty games on PlayStation would make no commercial sense. for this simple and good reason: It would only be profitable if enough people left their platform to come to Xbox to make up for lost money selling PlayStation copies. Which is obviously the case.
In short, the battle rages on and Everyone will find arguments to protect their market share. Continued in the next episode.
