Now it’s the never ending story about buying Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Well now it turns out that the owners of Xbox have accused Sony to mislead European regulatory authorities to stop the acquisition of AB. What keeps both companies facing each other for the go-ahead on the purchase and to eliminate the antitrust blockades in Europe and the United States.
Jim Ryan of Sony Interactive Entertainment appears to have been meeting with Margrethe Vestager, the European Competition Commissioner, to voice his concerns over the operation. Microsoft’s head of communications Frank X. Shaw has posted a few messages on Twitter where he makes the accusation.
I hear Sony is briefing people in Brussels claiming Microsoft is unwilling to offer them parity for Call of Duty if we acquire Activision.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) January 28, 2023
Sony is the console market leader and it would defy business logic for us to exclude PlayStation gamers from the Call of Duty ecosystem.
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— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) January 28, 2023
“I have heard that Sony is meeting with people in Brussels to say that Microsoft is not willing to offer Call of Duty parity if we acquire Activision. Could not be farther from the truth.
We have made it clear that we have offered Sony a 10-year contract to give them parity in time, content, features, quality, gameplay and every other aspect of the game.
We’ve also said that we’re happy to make this enforceable through contract, regulatory agreements, or other means.
Sony is the console market leader and it would defy business logic for us to exclude PlayStation gamers from the Call of Duty ecosystem.
Our goal is to bring Call of Duty and other games, like we did with Minecraft, to more people around the world so they can play where and how they want.”
In the Twitter thread, he makes it clear that Sony has been lying to the authorities about Microsoft’s openness to making deals. He talked about the 10-year contract being offered and that he understands that leaving PS players out of the ecosystem would be illogical.
This purchase has had many drawbacks to come to fruition, especially from Sony, which does not want to lose the market it already has for the Call of Duty series. Also, other companies have joined such as Google and Nvidia because they understand that it would give Microsoft an advantage.
