The console war intensifies. In the midst of the debate over the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoftowners of Xboxis now PlayStation of sony who faces accusations of anti-competitive behavior.
In the United States, the Republican senator from North Dakota, Kevin Cramersent a letter to Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of Sonywhere he points out his practices contrary to free competition.
The official also requests in the letter that the Japanese company disclose all information about acquisition contracts with other studios and exclusivity agreements with other video game companies. That is, those that prohibit the availability of certain ‘third-party’ games on consoles from other firms, among other sensitive information.
“I am writing to express my concern about Sony’s efforts to protect its video game console business from competition. For more than 20 years, Sony has completely dominated the console market as defined by the Federal Trade Commission,” Senator Kevin Cramer said in a statement. release public.
Specifically, the information that the official requested from the CEO of Sony on April 13 is:
- “All agreements that give Sony an exclusive right to distribute a game developed by an independent publisher”, that is, third parties.
- “Agreements between Sony and third-party publishers that prevent them from releasing their games on other systems,” such as Nintendo and Microsoft consoles, as well as PCs and other video game platforms.
- Internal company documents “outlining the strategic rationale” for Sony’s decision to acquire the company Bungie, Halo creators for 36,000 million dollars last January.
- “All correspondence with the United States government or regulatory agencies related to video game competition.”
It should be remembered that Sony has been one of the main companies opposing the merger of Microsoft and XBox with Activison Blizzard. One of his arguments is that said purchase could impede free competition.
With this transaction, the company founded by Bill Gates will keep title franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crushwhich were available on Playstation, which will be offered through Xbox Game Pass.
Now, ironically, that’s exactly Cramer’s argument for investigating the creators of Playsataion and their latest acquisitions.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.