Even though Call Of Duty will stay on PlayStation until 2023, Sony has claimed that the Activision acquisition could be enough for gamers to swap from PlayStation to Xbox for potential exclusive extras.
You'll recall that Call Of Duty has had exclusive extras for PlayStation players for a number of its entries. Glass houses are so à la mode. Lately, Sony has ensured that its opinions on the acquisition are crystal clear, calling Microsoft's offer "inadequate," flying out to Europe to discuss the effects of the agreement with regulators, and now stating that the possible Call Of Duty goodies that Xbox could offer its customers might sway consumers off of PlayStation.
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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (or CMA) is the one scrutinising all of the plausible avenues that this acquisition could take in order for it to avoid detriments to the competition in the industry. Microsoft has told the CMA it has “no intention to take Call of Duty away from gamers” and if it did, it would “tarnish both the Call of Duty and Xbox brands.” Despite this, Sony isn't buying what Microsoft is selling.
“SIE told the CMA that, even if CoD games remained available on PlayStation following the Merger, the Merged Entity would still be able to engage in partial foreclosure by increasing the differentiation between the versions of CoD available on Xbox and on PlayStation,” read the document from the CMA (cheers VGC).
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“According to SIE, gamers may expect that CoD on Xbox will include extra content and enhanced interoperability with the console hardware, in addition to any benefits from membership in XGP. SIE submitted that these factors are likely to influence gamers’ choice of console,” it continued. The key difference between what Sony's been doing for the past few years offering betas, exclusive early access periods and free cosmetic content for those who play Call Of Duty on PlayStation is that Sony doesn't own Activision.
Moreover, Microsoft could put Call Of Duty on Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that has raked in about $3 billion in the last twelve months. Obviously, it's all down to the regulators in spite of the back and forth, so we'll have to sit tight and see.
Topics: Call Of Duty, Activision, PlayStation, Xbox