Submissions to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) sony show that the company is concerned Microsoft Substandard versions can be intentionally released call of Duty On PlayStation it should be Activision Blizzard The acquisition was approved.
Sony is also assuming that Microsoft could raise the price of Call of Duty or make it only available through Game Pass, The Verge reported. But its main concern is that the company will deliberately push out buggy or error-prone versions of games so that fans will choose the Xbox over the PlayStation.
“Microsoft could deploy a variety of strategies to fully or partially remove access to Activision content,” reads one of the documents.
“In addition to banning access to existing or future Call of Duty games, Microsoft could employ one or more partial foreclosure tactics to undercut the PlayStation.
“These strategies could include: raising the price of Call of Duty on PlayStation; lowering the quality and performance of Call of Duty on PlayStation compared to Xbox; lowering Call of Duty to ignore PlayStation-specific features (better controller haptics) or not prioritizing investments in Among such features; limiting, reducing or not prioritizing investment in the PlayStation multiplayer experience; making Call of Duty only available on Game Pass.”
The document further states that Microsoft: “May release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty in which bugs and bugs will only appear after the final level of the game or after a later update. Even if such downgrades could be detected quickly, any remediation would likely be It’s too late, and by then the gaming community will have lost faith in the PlayStation as the go-to place to play Call of Duty.
“In fact, as evidenced by Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty is most often purchased within the first few weeks of release. If people know the game is doing worse on PlayStation than on Xbox, a Call of Duty game Gamers may decide to move to Xbox out of fear of playing their favorite games in a second-tier or less competitive venue.”
It doesn’t appear to be just Call of Duty, as Sony clearly doesn’t want Microsoft to have a major developer like Activision Blizzard.
That’s according to comments reportedly made by Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, who allegedly said Sony wasn’t interested in a Call of Duty deal.
Per Activision’s Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President Lulu Cheng Meservey, ryan said so much
According to Meserve“Microsoft offered Sony (the dominant console leader for more than a decade with an 80% market share) a 10-year deal on far more [Activision]”
“[Microsoft] Sony was also promised long-term access to Call of Duty, which they kept declining. Why? The CEO of SIE answered that question in Brussels. In his words: “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to stop your merger.”
Such a comment might seem odd, considering that Sony has signed exclusivity deals with a number of studios and publishers over the years, not to mention the company’s long-term exclusivity deal with Activision for Call of Duty. This is achieved through time-exclusive maps, content, and fully exclusive wardrobe items.
Most recently, Modern Warfare 2 players received the Battle Pass Bundle Bonus, which includes an extra 5-level jump, extra Loadouts, an exclusive monthly double XP event, and a free in-game battle pack each season, which includes Operator skins , weapon blueprints, emblems, etc.
There are also PlayStation-exclusive third-party games that are blocked by Xbox. These include Final Fantasy VII Remake, Bloodborne, Final Fantasy XVI, and Bloober Team’s upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake. Of course, there are many more that we cannot currently recall.
To the extent that Microsoft intentionally released a flawed version of Call of Duty on the PlayStation, it only hurt the company. It’s all about making money, so why hurt your bottom line like this?
It’s hard to imagine any company doing something so reckless. Making games costs money, and companies not only have to recoup development costs, but also make a tidy profit. Plus, if PlayStation does have 80% market share, as Microsoft has demonstrated, it wouldn’t be wise to sabotage a game like Call of Duty on PlayStation and risk losing a major revenue stream every year. This would be harmful and stupid.
