IT Home October 12th news, in January this year, Microsoft Xbox announced that it would spend $68.7 billion (about 438.306 billion yuan) to acquire the gaming giant Activision Blizzard .
Microsoft Xbox business head Spencer promised that even if the company's acquisition of well-known game developer Activision Blizzard is approved, the " Call of Duty " series of games will still exist on Sony PlayStation consoles for "several years" (more than the existing contract between Sony Sony and Activision ), and the next three "Call of Duty" games will still be released on the PS platform. Phil Spencer also said, "We value our relationship with Sony."
But in fact, Sony SIE has always had some concerns about the Microsoft acquisition, which mainly stems from the future release plans of the Call of Duty series and whether it will be removed from their platform. IT Home learned that the Call of Duty series is usually the best-selling work of the year by PlayStation.
Sony now tells UK competition regulators that it believes that even after Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, some Call of Duty players will still turn to the Xbox platform.
This is partly because Sony believes that if the Microsoft acquisition is approved, the future of the Xbox and PlayStation versions may be increasingly different in Call of Duty. For example, if Microsoft introduces Call of Duty to the Game Pass subscription service, it will bring obvious benefits to consumers.
Although Xbox has repeatedly guaranteed that the "Call of Duty" series, the best-selling game of the year in the United States, will still be available on the PlayStation platform, Sony has gradually fallen into an increasingly public war of words about the deal. SIE President Ryan previously told the media that Microsoft's attitude towards the future Call of Duty is "inadequate on many levels."
UK CMA has previously expressed similar concerns that if Microsoft changes Activision Blizzard’s content to Xbox exclusive, the deal could harm PlayStation and other game subscription services.
In response to CMA, Microsoft said it had “no intention to take Call of Duty away from players” and claimed that doing so would “damage the reputation of Call of Duty and Xbox brands.”
However, in a document released by CMA, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) said that even if Microsoft keeps its promise to keep the series diverse, it can still include exclusive features in the Xbox version of Call of Duty game, so it "may" affects players' choices for consoles.
The UK regulator document reads: "SIE told CMA that even if CoD is still available on PlayStation after the merger, the merged entities can still perform partial foreclosure by increasing the differentiation of versions on Xbox and PlayStation." According to SIE, players may subconsciously believe that Call of Duty on Xbox will contain more and additional content, and will also enhance the interactivity and operability with the console hardware, plus the benefits of XGP members." Therefore, players will still turn to Xbox consoles.
IT Home reminds that Sony understands the appeal of Call of Duty exclusive content to consumers, because in the past decade, Sony has designated its own exclusive content most of the time. For example, in recent years, PlayStation has been used to make a move. Users can often get exclusive rewards such as Call of Duty content updates and free prop packs before other platforms.
extension reading:
"Sony: Acquisition of other studios is to help them rather than to engage in competitions"
"Sony: Microsoft has no sincerity, Call of Duty can only stay on the PS platform for 3 years"
"Sony PlayStation Jim Ryan made a special trip to EU to express concerns about Microsoft Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard"
"Microsoft says that even if Activision Blizzard is acquired, Sony and Nintendo are still the biggest players in the traditional game field"
