To the surprise of no one, Sony is still feeling rather disgruntled about the idea of Microsoft acquiring Activision. Ever since Microsoft announced its plans, a new era of console wars began, and it doesn’t seem like things are going to settle down any time soon.
Sony has been understandably concerned about the idea of Microsoft owning the Call of Duty IP (which it will if the buyout goes through), since it could - in theory - be turned into an Xbox-exclusive franchise. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reiterated that Sony has nothing to worry about - in fact, it’s been confirmed that if the acquisition goes ahead, Call of Duty will even be brought to Nintendo consoles going forward.
Take a look at some spicy gameplay footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II below.
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Even so, the back and forth of the rival companies and regulators (such as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority) continues, and as GamesRadar+ reports, in a new response, Sony has taken exception to the fact that the PS5 version of Bethesda’s upcoming FPS, Redfall, has been cancelled.
“Even though the studio had already put in the work to make a PlayStation version of the game, Microsoft decided to terminate this work and make the game exclusive to Xbox,” Sony wrote. “This experience provides further compelling evidence of Microsoft's ability and incentives to foreclose rivals to acquired games, together with its likely conduct post-transaction with respect to Call of Duty.”
However, it doesn’t seem likely that Microsoft will be phased by this when it previously pointed out just how many exclusive titles PlayStation has in comparison to Xbox. In 2021, Sony’s console had “nearly five times as many as on Xbox”, and Microsoft claimed that many of them “are better quality”.
The CMA’s final decision regarding Microsoft’s proposed buyout of Activision is set to be published very soon, so it’ll not be too long before we find out if the deal is going ahead.
Topics: PlayStation, Xbox, Microsoft, Sony, PlayStation 5