Xbox's major new exclusives have PlayStation sweating

Sony is adamant that Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision would be a recipe for disaster. For Sony, that is. Microsoft would have it made.

To cut a very long story short, Sony has been fervently opposing the deal going through since it’d mean Microsoft would directly own loads of major franchises. From Overwatch to Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot and the holy grail, Call of Duty, the buyout would make Xbox way more powerful than ever before.

Take a look at some spicy gameplay footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II below.

Sony is mainly concerned about Microsoft potentially making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive franchise, despite claims from Xbox boss Phil Spencer that doing so wouldn’t be beneficial to Microsoft at all. As TweakTown reports, in a recent response sent to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony has pointed out a number of exclusive titles Microsoft has on the horizon, and noted that the company previously claimed it “would not have the incentive” to make them Xbox exclusives.

“As the CMA is aware, since Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, Microsoft announced that future ZeniMax titles – including Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI, and Redfall – will be Xbox exclusives,” Sony’s response reads. “In so doing, Microsoft reversed assurances made prior to the ZeniMax acquisition that Microsoft ‘would not have the incentive to cease or limit making ZeniMax games available for purchase on rival consoles’ and statements that it ‘highly encourage[s] cross-platform play [because] if it’s good for the gaming ecosystem, it’s good for us… What we’ll do in the long run is we don’t have intentions of just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony.’”

Although it feels like the back and forth between Sony, Microsoft and the CMA has been going on forever now, it’ll be over soon. The CMA’s final report regarding the acquisition of Activision is currently set to be published on 26 April, so we should have a clearer idea of whether or not things are going ahead by the end of this month.