In a response to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority’s Issues Statement on its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft states that PlayStation has “many” exclusive games that are of “better quality” than those available on Xbox. The Xbox maker’s attempt to acquire publisher Activision Blizzard has drawn intense scrutiny from regulators worldwide, with some recent reports suggesting a potential PlayStation bias from the EU commission.
Microsoft first announced its intent to purchase publishing giant Activision Blizzard at the beginning of 2022 and has faced questions from gamers and governments about how the deal would affect players ever since. One of the largest hurdles in the way of the deal is determining the future of Activision’s iconic Call of Duty franchise, with Sony expressing worry that Microsoft would harm gamers by making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. While Xbox’s Phil Spencer has attempted to ease these concerns, assuring gamers that Call of Duty would be available on PlayStation for the foreseeable future, the future of the shooter franchise has now become inexorably linked with the acquisition’s success or failure.
In a response to the Issues Statement about the Activision Blizzard deal that was released by the CMA in October, Microsoft is claiming that the acquisition would have “no anticompetitive effect” due to the strong first-party libraries available from Sony and Nintendo. Regarding Sony’s PlayStation specifically, the Microsoft statement notes that Sony has more exclusive games than Microsoft and that many of those titles “are better quality.” Microsoft points to hit franchises like The Last of Us, God of War, and Spider-Man as proof of this strong library of exclusives.
Expanding on its claim that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard wouldn’t harm consumers, Microsoft points to arrangements made between Sony and third-party publishers which prohibit those publishers’ titles from appearing on Xbox platforms. FromSoftware and Square Enix’s PlayStation exclusive agreements for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Bloodborne are two high-profile examples cited in the response to the CMA. Microsoft also notes that exclusive titles made up under 10% of all Xbox sales between 2018 and 2021, while accounting for 10-20% of PlayStation sales in that same time period. The response also highlights that PlayStation exclusive titles receive higher Metacritic scores, on average, than Xbox exclusives.
This whopping, 111-page response is just the latest salvo in the war of words and legal filings between industry juggernauts Sony and Microsoft, and it certainly won’t be the last. As regulators in Europe and elsewhere determine the fate of a deal with a potential to reshape the gaming landscape, gamers just want to know what will happen with their favorite titles. For now, at least, fans of Sony’s console can still enjoy some great PlayStation exclusive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 content while they wait to see what happens next with the franchise.