Featured Image Credit: Naughty Dog, Xbox Game Studios
Topics: Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Xbox, PlayStation
Topics: Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Xbox, PlayStation
Since it was announced that Microsoft is planning to buy out Activision, the company has been forced to justify this decision to regulators around the world as it’s determined whether or not the acquisition would give the company an unfair market advantage. Makes sense, right?
The things that Microsoft has been saying in an attempt to make the buyout look like less of a big deal, however, continue to be surprising. Earlier this year, for example, the company argued that “there is nothing unique about the video games developed and published by Activision Blizzard that is a ‘must have’ for rival PC and console video game distributors that could give rise to a foreclosure concern.” Ouch. Let’s just ignore Call of Duty’s existence, then?
Take a look at some spicy new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II gameplay footage below.
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Seemingly continuing this trend, as Eurogamer reports, Microsoft has now told the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that Sony makes games that are often better quality than those on Xbox, which is a very surprising thing to admit.
“In addition to being the dominant console provider, Sony is also a powerful game publisher,” Microsoft said. “Sony is roughly equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft's game publishing business.”
Continuing, the company pointed out the difference in the amount of exclusive games released for PlayStation and Xbox: “There were over 280 exclusive first- and third-party titles on PlayStation in 2021, nearly five times as many as on Xbox.”
Later, it backed up this point further: “Sony has more exclusive games than Microsoft, many of which are better quality. […] Both Sony's and Nintendo's exclusive first-party games rank among the best-selling in Europe and worldwide. Current Sony exclusive content includes prominent first-party titles such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Spider-Man.”
It remains to be seen how well this argument will hold up - there are currently concerns that the acquisition may end up getting blocked.