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The last time Sony and Microsoft fought hasn't been long ago, but it seems like it has been a lifetime. As you might expect, the topic for discussion is once again the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, in particular the Call of Duty franchise.
Sony has submitted documents to the British market regulators expressing its concern over the future of the Call of Duty series on its consoles, based on documents sent to the Japanese company by the British regulators. Sony has stated in its contract that Microsoft does not have to violate the terms of the contract as long as they want to harm PlayStation's market position by weakening its presence in the market.
There are several possible scenarios outlined by them, in which Microsoft will not breach its contract and will not breach its obligations to the client: Increasing the price of Call of Duty games for PlayStation consoles In comparison to the Xbox version, the PS version suffers from a decrease in quality and performance Degrading the game so that special features related to the PlayStation are not taken into account, as a result of ignoring the features CoD's multiplayer version may not be prioritised, downgraded or limited in its investments, depending on the situation
Game access
As a result, only subscribers to Microsoft's Game Pass will be able to access the game.
Microsoft is also claiming that its priority will always be the Xbox version of the software, according to them. "After the purchase, Microsoft will have to choose a strategy around the support it will provide in the development of the PlayStation version of Call of Duty.
Even if Microsoft has good will, it will still be an incentive to support and favor the development of the Xbox version, by putting the best people and resources into it." - it says in the document. Upon receiving the reply, Microsoft stated that they had offered a solution that would benefit players from Britain, as well as developers from the country.
Once the download is complete in the next few days, it is a guarantee that within a few months, Call of Duty will not only be available for Xbox and PlayStation, but it will also be available to 150 million new players via consoles and the cloud.
In their view, it is now strictly up to the market regulators to decide whether to accept the benefits of Sony's acquisition, or to block it, as that would protect Sony's position in the industry and its leading position as far as consumer electronics are concerned.
Additionally, Activision Blizzard's corporate vice president confirmed in a statement last week that PlayStation president Jim Ryan told him that he does not wish to make a deal on Call of Duty, but only wants to block the Xbox and Activision Blizzard merging.
That is to say, regardless of the type of offer Microsoft might make, the idea that Activision Blizzard belongs to a competing company is what's at issue, not the specific terms of that offer.