In his last written reply to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) group., Microsoft uses lots of data to show that buying struggling publisher Activision Blizzard won’t hurt Sony or Nintendo. While the bizarre self-denial madness continues, it even suggests that the deal will actually help the publisher compete with these other game companies. As part of that argument, Microsoft admits that PlayStation has the better exclusives, and gives a bunch of pesky console fanboys more ammunition in their never-ending war to show how much they love their favorite plastic box.
As Microsoft continues its determined attempts to over-consume Activision Blizzard its massive $70 billion acquisitionit keeps running in troublesome governments and regulators who might think only maybe, one of the largest technology companies in the world, should not be allowed to acquire one of the largest video game publishers in history. As a result of that setback, Microsoft and Xbox have spent most of this year dancing from the courtroom to the Regulatory Committee hearing, trying to paint the picture Xbox is a small brand with hardly any salesand no real power compared to Nintendo and Sony.
The latest attempt to do so has come via newly released documents from the UK CMA. In the documents, Microsoft argues that Sony and Nintendo have “better quality” exclusive products that outperform their own first-party games.
Found deep in the rather lengthy document that was published yesterday On the CMA website, Microsoft adds a section where it suggests that even if it were call of Duty an Xbox-exclusive franchise (although it once again hints at that it also has no plans), it wouldn’t matter anyway, because Sony and Nintendo just have better-selling, higher-quality exclusives. In subsection 3.67 entitled “Sony has more exclusive games than Microsoft, many of which are of better quality,“Xbox says that video game exclusives are ‘not uncommon’ and that Sony has its own great exclusive games, such as The last of us and God of War.
“Both Sony’s and Nintendo’s exclusive first-party games are among the best-selling in Europe and worldwide,” Microsoft declared, probably staring at his shoes while pulling out his empty pants pockets. “Current exclusive content from Sony includes prominent first-party players title like The Last of Us, Spirit of Tsushima, God of War, and Spiderman. In addition to the absolutely exclusive content, Sony has also entered into agreements with third-party publishers that require Xbox to be ‘banned’ from the platforms on which these publishers can distribute their games.”
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So basically, Microsoft is arguing that it will never make it call of Duty a console-exclusive franchise, while arguing that it wouldn’t matter in this case anyway since the game isn’t really that important to Sony or Nintendo. Much of the company’s response to the CMA’s investigation revolves around downplaying call of Dutythe importance of by saying it’s not a unique game and pointing to fan polls and reviews to show that other games are far more popular and critically acclaimed than Activision’s annual shooter.
And so it continues the fusion saga of Microsoft Activision Blizzard King. The CMA, along with other groups and regulators, will continue to probe and investigate the controversial deal as Microsoft tries to convince everyone not to worry, and Sony does the opposite. Now bet on how this will all end. And also try not to think about how many terrible people at Activision will end up being a lot richer once this deal closes.
