Sony does not want Activision Blizzard to join the Xbox studios. That has become clear to us since Microsoft’s own announcement, more than a year ago. The blow to PlayStation can be enormous and more and more countries, through their regulatory bodies, They find no reason to prevent it..
Recently, the United Kingdom, who questioned Microsoft’s move on occasion, put its provisional conclusions regarding the acquisition of the creators of Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot or Warcraft on the table and they are not to Sony’s liking either. Furthermore, through your own observations makes it clear that finds them irrational.
The reversal of the position of the CMA (Competition and Market Authority) on the theory of damage to its consoles is surprising, unprecedented and irrational.
Sony has not expressed interest in acquiring Activision Blizzard. In fact, you’re not competing with Microsoft for it. He seeks the CMA to reconsider its position
Among other things, because Sony’s proposal not to include Call of Duty in the purchase doesn’t make much sense for Microsoft or Activision Blizzard.
Why Sony rejects a purchase in which it does not participate
What would Sony gain from this? We know that Call of Duty directly influences the sale of consoles. Sony knows this firsthand. And yet, according to came to indicate Lulu Cheng Meserveyexecutive of Activision Blizzard, the president of PlayStation himself declared in February that they were not even interested in a new agreement around Call of Duty, but rather to block the purchase.
The argument: Sony does not want the purchase of Activision Blizzard lead to new exclusivities for Microsoft, either in games or in content. He even went so far as to declare that the PS5 features would not be used and it was even suggested that Activision games for PlayStation in the future could include bugs.
Meanwhile, Xbox has not stopped adding alliances with Nintendo, NVIDIA and other partners to bring their series, including Call of Duty, to new platforms.
The investigation by UK regulators is expected to be completed by the end of April. Does it mean that PlayStation gamers will run out of Call of Duty? On Xbox they intend to continue publishing Activision Blizzard games on all consoles, iincluding those of Sony.
The most interesting thing is that Phil Spencer and Microsoft offered them a deal under the conditions they estimated to continue publishing it for 10 years on PlayStation. Only the signature of Sony is necessary or that they request new conditions. Except for one, of course: that Xbox sells the Call of Duty franchise before closing the purchase.
Activision Blizzard looks confident that the British CMA will approve its accession to Xbox
in statements a The VergeActivision Blizzard spokesperson, Joe Christinat is very positive about this new move by the UK Authority.
Because it is worth remembering that, although Sony publicly opposes the purchase, Activision Blizzard itself will fight to defend the acquisition of Microsoft if necessary.
We appreciate CMA’s investment in an industry they helped pioneer and which will continue to be vital to growth in the UK.
That foresight and understanding of our industry is why the UK has been a leading source of innovation in video games; We trust that it will continue to be so in the future.
The CMA’s updated interim findings show its deeper understanding of console gaming and demonstrate a commitment to supporting players and the competition.
The soap opera around the Activision Blizzard acquisition has lasted much longer than we all expected. Microsoft has put $68.7 billion on the table and a plan to bring the sagas to new platforms. Sony, for its part, does not seem willing for the purchase to be formalized and he is taking care to record it.
