Sony told the UK antitrust that he was afraid that if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through, the players of call of Duty pass to Xbox regardless of the exclusivity of the series.
The reason? The benefits they could receive in terms of content.
Basically Sony fears that Microsoft will do with Call of Duty what it has done over the last few years, which is to offer bonuses to players that make it more attractive to play the series on its platforms, such as the early availability of Call of betas.
Duty: Modern Warfare II on PS4 and PS5.
The difference is that, in the case, Microsoft would do it as the owner of the franchise, while Sony had to make agreements with Activision Blizzard to obtain certain privileges, as did Microsoft itself in the Xbox 360 era.
In short, Microsoft’s assurances on the maintenance of the multi-platform Call of Duty franchise were not enough for Sony, which fears the overturning of privileges paid over the years, as revealed by the English antitrust (CMA) in a long document, in which it is possible to read: “SIE told CMA that even if CoD’s games remain available on PlayStation after the acquisition, the resulting entity could still partially foreclose the franchise by increasing the differences between CoD versions available on Xbox and PlayStation.
At SIE, gamers will expect CoD on Xbox to include extra content and improved interoperability with console hardware, in addition to XGP member benefits.
SIE said these factors could affect the choice of players on the purchase of consoles. “
