Featured Image Credit: Xbox Game Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Topics: Microsoft, Activision, PlayStation, Xbox, Sony
Topics: Microsoft, Activision, PlayStation, Xbox, Sony
Microsoft’s fight to buy out Activision Blizzard in the biggest video game acquisition of all time continues, as the company keeps on defending the idea that it wouldn’t have an unfair market advantage if the deal goes through.
Sony has been strongly opposing the acquisition - it’s been particularly concerned about the potential of Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive (since Microsoft would own the IP if the buyout goes ahead). It’s been repeatedly reiterated that this won’t be the case - in fact, Microsoft has committed to a 10 year deal to bring the franchise to Nintendo consoles after the acquisition goes through.
Take a look at some gameplay footage from Modern Warfare II below.
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It was recently revealed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a suit to block the acquisition, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all over. In fact, as Bloomberg reports (via IGN) Microsoft is now arguing that PlayStation already has more exclusive games anyway, so what’s the harm?
“The FTC’s case is really based on a market that they’ve identified that they say has two companies and two products, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox,” Microsoft’s president and vice chairman Brad Smith said. “If you look at the global market, Sony has 70% of that market, and we have 30%. So the first thing a judge is going to have to decide is whether the FTC lawsuit is a case that will promote competition or is it really instead of case that will protect the largest competitor from competition.”
He continued, pointing out that in comparison to Xbox’s 59 exclusive games, PlayStation has 286. “So the administrative law judge is going to have to decide whether going from 59 to 60 is such a danger to competition that he should stop this from moving forward,” he added.
Clearly, Microsoft and Activision remain confident that the deal will go through - Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told staff that “we believe we'll win this challenge” following the announcement of the FTC’s decision to file a suit.