Sony has opposed Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard as it believes that the tech giant will make Call of Duty an exclusive title. Sony claims the exclusivity of an upcoming AAA game proves Microsoft will eventually gatekeep Call of Duty.
Once again, Sony is on Microsoft's case, criticizing the Xbox maker for making Starfield exclusive to Microsoft platforms. It plans to use this as evidence that Microsoft can do the same thing to Call of Duty.
Microsoft has recently stated that it intends to keep Call of Duty on more platforms, even going as far as publishing full-page ads in British newspapers saying that it will bring the title to 150 million gamers should the acquisition push through.
The tech giant also inked deals with Nintendo, Nvidia, and most recently Boosteroid.
Microsoft also offered to make Call of Duty available on the PlayStation console, even sweetening the deal by offering to make the popular first-person shoot available on PlayStation Plus.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, Sony isn’t biting on the offers. Sony is using what Microsoft has done and is doing with all of the upcoming ZeniMax Media projects to claim that the same thing will happen to everything that Activision Blizzard owns.
Shortly after acquiring Zenimax, Microsoft announced that it intended to make Starfield and Redfall exclusive to Windows and Xbox. Bethesda later apologized to PlayStation gamers for the exclusivity of the upcoming title.
Sony believes that Microsoft reneged on its past statement to the EU. However, it is worth noting that Bethesda did not have any commitments to Sony to release the two titles on the PlayStation.
Interestingly, Sony has released more exclusive titles for the PlayStation platform compared to Microsoft for the Xbox. For the PlayStation 4 alone, Sony had 299 exclusives, while Microsoft only had half that number on the Xbox One. Microsoft has also released its exclusive titles on Windows on the same day as consoles, compared to Sony, which only recently released its titles on the PC.
The UK CMA will surely take note of Sony’s comment regarding the exclusivity of Starfield. The antitrust regulator recently recommend that Microsoft divest Call of Duty from its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The CMA prefers these structural changes to the deal rather than behavioral ones as it requires less monitoring.
The deadline for the UK CMA to decide on the merger will be on April 26.
