Xbox Argues With UK Regulator Over Activision Blizzard Deal

I’ve read the response to the CMA and it’s gold. The gloves are coming off, ooof:

“Sony engages in conduct today which is reflective of its market power in console gaming, including increasing prices of its consoles without fear of losing market share,”

They ain’t wrong.

I'm guessing someone heading the UK CMA bought their child who loves call of duty a ps5 for Christmas...

Seriously though, if we're going to be petty about competition why don't the CMA look into Sony's timed exclusivity deals? They're definitely not in the consumers best interest if they own an Xbox? Let's ban both Sony and Microsoft from making those deals if we're going to prevent this acquisition on grounds of consumer fairness.

Sony can do no wrong? Am I right?

Just let it end!!!

I don't think that was over 280 'exclusives' released in a Single year (2021), but that as of 2021, Playstation has over 280 'Exclusives' available to play on their system. I doubt very much that Sony had that many 'new' exclusives releasing in a single year - although there was a lot of those 'press' 1 button games for Trophy score...

I do agree that Sony's argument is absolutely ridiculous. Nintendo Switch has sold extremely well - all without CoD releasing year on year. CoD became the behemoth it is today, thanks to the success and marketing of MS during the 360 era and Sony only took over that deal in 2015 with Black Ops 3.

Sony still managed to sell more PS3's - despite the backlash of the Launch and pricing - than MS sold 360's with the CoD marketing deal. Its not as if Sony don't own their own Studio's, their own IP's and could spend 'their' money on 'their' own projects and make their 'own' FPS military style shooter if its 'that' important to them...

Playstation released "280 exclusive first and third-party titles in 2021"

Wow, please show me what they were...

Yet sony don't have the money to buy publishers like Microsoft do.

Microsoft mentioning the pc and mobile as a case against sony is also invalid as sony has no market share in those gaming markets, sonys only major market is console in which this deal will majorly effect hence why they are against it.

@UltimateOtaku91 Nintendo also doesn't have that kind of money and they don't have Call of Duty and they are still highly succesfull.

So their argument is that Sony does anti-competitive things, and so they should be allowed to do them too? To me this whole debacle should result in even further scrutiny of the whole industry. Though that rarely happens unless it's with mergers like this.

MS is upset that their business deals aren't being rubber stamped like usual.

@Lavalera Nintendo are aiming for a different market compared to xbox/playstation, if they were all in on home consoles and no handheld then it would be a bit different

Interested read as well, Microsoft also states "keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation is a commercial imperative for the Xbox business" and that it is "counting on revenues from the distribution of Activision Blizzard games on Sony PlayStation."

So will that be in an official contract? Or is it just word play until the deal gets done.

@PhileasFragg it’s not that simple. Their argument is also that Sony are big enough and strong enough to adapt to changing market conditions and are confidently market leaders proven by increasing the pricing of their consoles in some markets with no fear of a loss of market share. Therefore they can compete.

You can look at it both ways. MS aren’t happy this hasn’t been rubber stamped and Sony don’t want serious competition in a free market that they’re dominant in and will ruthlessly try to keep it that way.

@Clankylad I wouldn’t have used arguing either, responding I think, which they’ve obviously had to do now.

@UltimateOtaku91
"Microsoft mentioning the pc and mobile as a case against sony is also invalid as sony has no market share in those gaming markets"
so Sony don't release games on pc ???? It's not Microsoft's fault Sony were also late to that game

"So will that be in an official contract? Or is it just word play until the deal gets done"

Sony was offered cod to stay on playstation for 3 years after Thier contract to have exactly the same cod as Xbox and jim said nooooooo it's not long enough

For comedy’s sake I want the outcome of this to be that Sony somehow blocks the entire deal, and MS then swoops in and secures a 10 year console exclusivity deal for Call of Duty. That would make all of this nonsense worthwhile.

@Martsmall something tells me that Jimbos been told it's not long enough a lot in his life....

@BartoxAbrasiveness Assuming that Call of Duty revenue accounts for a certain percentage of Sony's revenue, that is somewhat a precarious business to be in where a 3rd party Publisher and IP owner could effectively destroy Playstation by 'collapsing' or by their own incompetence, release a game that 'bombs'. Its completely out of Sony's control.

However, if and as has been stated 'MANY' times, MS continue to release CoD on PS, then Sony can expect to get the 'same' revenue they would get from any other 3rd Party Publisher - whether that's Activision, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, SE, 2K, etc etc. That would likely still be 30% of all 'Digital' sales as that would still require purchases through Sony's online Store. So all that money they get from all those MTX's over the year(s) will still be coming in for Sony.

Yes they may 'lose' some sales as people opt to play on Game Pass or other platforms knowing that they will get the exact same content and not be 'screwed' by Sony's anti-consumer deal to ensure the PS gets 'more' content but there will be a decent percentage who will opt to 'buy' the game on PS because that is their 'prefered/only' hardware, their friends are on it, they prefer the controller and/or its features etc.

I don't recall anyone saying they had to buy a PS5 to play Call of Duty, I heard them say they wanted to play R&C, Demon Souls, Spider-Man, Last of Us, God of War etc etc. I don't hear anyone talking about 'Minecraft' or the spin-offs as a reason to buy Xbox despite the fact that its an Xbox owned IP, made by Xbox owned Studios and a 'bigger' IP than Call of Duty. Point is, people will still buy PS to play some of the Exclusives which are often competing for Game of the Year awards. CoD will still release on PS so they will still get revenue from sales - even if it 'drops' when MS have complete control. They also have numerous years to 'prepare' and make their own games to replace the lost income...

Its not as if as Soon as the deal goes through, Sony's 'CoD' revenue will suddenly cease entirely. The next few will still be marketed by Sony as MS honours that deal, but MS will continue to release games on Playstation beyond that so Sony will get revenue from those too. They can't promises to 'never' stop releasing on Playstation because the landscape may change - not many playing on PS anymore, not worth spending money on porting/advertising/marketing/manufacturing etc just to keep to their promise. Whilst Series X and PS5 are competing, MS have said they will release CoD. They can't promise to release on PS6 without knowing if they'll even get a dev kit - especially prior to launch with MS able to use that to design their 'next' console to ensure it out-performs it or 'borrows' design ideas/features in their chips. At some point, maybe hardware no longer exists and I can't see MS spending a fortune developing CoD only to release it into PS+. That would be like Sony putting their exclusives into Game Pass to help boost MS's subscription service and risk losing their own PS+ subscribers - don't need PS+ (or GP) if they both have the same games available - you just pick one...

I just hope that in years to come people will still be able to play the multi-platform and multiplayer games of their choice, on their platform of choice. Would be nice if the platform features not the grabbing of multi platform games was the draw to one brand or another.

As for defending one brand or another, last time I checked I didn’t have significant shares in either company, so I don’t have a horse in the race financially.

I just wish for choice to remain an option with regards to long standing multi-platform games. That’s all.

As for anyone defending Microsoft or Sony to the back teeth, probably best to leave that to people paid to do so. As neither company will even know when any of us pass away, so best to keep out of this corporate jostling.

@themightyant we should be dubious of any market consolidation I agree. It’s hard not to laugh at Sonys pure hypocrisy with some of the points they’ve put across to the CMA though.

@Krzzystuff Giggity

280 Exclusives? You mean the games that if released o. Xbox would sell like 2800 copies, like when capcom leaked tbe ace attorney games and it was literally like 2000 sales.

@themightyant again I agree but maybe see it a little different. I think consolidation will happen and can’t really be stopped. There are other players out there like Embracer, Tencent, Apple, Amazon and so on who are all looking to buy into or expand their influence within the gaming sphere as well as your more traditional gaming platforms. It’s the sad reality of where the gaming industry is heading imo and if that’s the way it’s going I’d rather have the traditional platforms owning the biggest share. That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Microsoft wants to "encourage the major shift in consumer behaviour required for cloud gaming to succeed".

No thanks.

The UK clearly has a bias for Playstion..

those 280 games skipping Xbox lasted from 2013 to 2021 (an entire generation). That's a real number. Atelier series alone 13 games skipping Xbox, Legend of Heroes series alone 10 games skipping Xbox, Ys series alone 3 games skipping Xbox, all Mana series games skipping Xbox (3 games), and so on.
I think Microsoft also count multiplat games skipping Xbox, aside from 3rd party & 1st party exclusives

It would be easy to be on the side of this that says MS, a giant ologopoly gobbling other giant megalopolies is a bad thing and anything they say is a lie, if only it were possible to take anything Sony is saying seriously. They're their own worst enemy here. Their arguments are just plain bad, and their behavior over years to their own customers makes them entirely unlikable and seem like the even worse champion for consumers. Each statement they've made doesn't seven come across as thinly veiling their demands to not allow anyone to compete against their standing market control.

Sometimes the bullied kid just wants a bigger bully in the school yard that can bully the bully that bullies them. End result to them is the same either way, at least they get some revenge.

Seems like Microsoft are pretty accurate in their responses there. They need to call out Sonys hypocritical moves here, Sony are in effect complaining of their very own business tactics and plans!

But the fact Microsoft is required to point these obvious things out to the CMA is very worrying. The CMA really aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.

@Fenbops Exactly, what Sony is doing is preventing exactly that from happening. If MS don’t buy them then you can guarantee Google of Apple of Amazon will. And they won’t play nice either, they will ruthlessly push to dominate the space and have the money and customer base and reach to do it.

@S1ayeR74 seems the CMA are way out of touch when it comes to some of the technology being talked about and with the videogame industry in general

I said this before and I'll say it again - How is this even a topic? It's done! The check has been cashed. It's going through. All they are doing right now is addressing the crying child withering on the floor. Once that part is done, Microsoft owns Activision! Good Lord, this is beyond pathetic.

Absolutely disagree, @BartoxAbrasiveness, the ONLY reason I have a PS5 is in order to play the big exclusives that I cannot play elsewhere (or at least not in a timely manner). I highly doubt that I am alone in that. Indeed, I would wager that the majority of gamers whose preferred console is the Xbox, but who also buy a PS5 (such as myself) do so only for those big exclusives. After all, everything else that is multiformat is played on the Xbox, because that is their preferred console.

Forgot Activision blizzard only makes call of duty & nothing else lol

@Bmartin001 the US clearly has a bias for Microsoft....

I think you misunderstood my point, @BartoxAbrasiveness, The assertion I was making was in relation to those whose preferred option was the Xbox, and that therefore the only reason to purchase a PlayStation was for the exclusives as if you prefer to play on the Xbox, why else would you buy a PlayStation?

Another scheme to make money.

I was specifically speaking about those that own both consoles, but whose preference is for the Xbox, @BartoxAbrasiveness. However, I think the default choice is more to do with what those buying the platform are aware of. It is a self-perpetuating thing because if a parent buys their child a PlayStation, then it likely follows that child will in turn introduce their child to the PlayStation. This is exactly what has happened with my children; I bought them all an Xbox when they were young, and now they have gone on to buy my grandchildren an Xbox. Obviously, PlayStation has a higher profile than Xbox, and so even the uninformed may well have heard of it, but not the Xbox. Equally, with a far larger install-base, the chances are that if a child asks an unbiased parent for a console, they will seek to have a PlayStation, because it stands to reason that there will likely be more PlayStation gamers amongst his friends, than there will Xbox players, because of this larger install base.

Personally, I've had every iteration PlayStation starting from the PS1. I've also owned every version of the Xbox. For me, the reason Xbox is my preferred console, was initially the shape of the controller, and then achievements. To this day, the shape of the controller is still relevant to me, but the achievements a bit less so, though I still prefer them to trophies (because I like the score element). However, my point is that my bias, has been passed on to my children.

@BartoxAbrasiveness "Consolidation of the market" If this was a hardware/patent buy out I would agree with you. Considering they are buying a publisher and thus would only own the rights to Intellectual Property, I disagree.

There is nothing out there that would prevent Sony from making an exclusive Call of Duty clone. In fact, I would love it if that happened and at the same time made it better. COD has been dominating the market for too long and has turned in to the "2K sports games" of the FPS genre.
COD could benefit from having a fire lit under them.

I just don't believe ownership of Intellectual property would hurt competition.

Sony really seems to be playing dirty here. It seems whoever is the dominant company turns into a maniac. Back during the 360 days Microsoft performed a lot of shady anti-customer behavior. I guess it’s Sony’s turn now.