The Brazilian CADE has become a really interesting field to know the opinions of the major video game companies. A few days ago we learned what the different technology companies think about the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
Sony was the most opposed to this business movement, assuring that turning Call of Duty into an exclusive title represented a great risk of destabilizing the market. Now, Microsoft has responded to this position with great force and serious accusations.
Once again, in Resetera we can see the company’s response, which indicates that the competition is still relevant, with a clear division between physical games, digital games and subscription services. To support this view, Microsoft has taken the views of Ubisoft, Riot, Amazon and Google, which indicate that there will still be a large number of active developers after the purchase of Activision Blizzard.
serious accusations
However, things get much more serious when it comes to responding to Sony itself. Microsoft notes that it is not at all surprised that the Japanese company was the only one to issue a negative opinion on the operation.
For Microsoft, Xbox Game Pass poses an obvious threat to Sony, since the subscription service was proposed as an alternative to the traditional video game purchase model. The success of this planning has been effective with respect to what was proposed in Sony, indicates Microsoft.
“In short, Sony is not resigned to having to compete with Microsoft’s subscription service. Sony’s public outcry about subscription games and the company’s response are clear: Sony does not want attractive subscription services to threaten its dominance in the market for the digital distribution of consoles. games. In other words, Sony criticizes the introduction of new monetization models capable of challenging its business model”.
In fact, the hardest blow is that of Microsoft directly accusing Sony of pay developers for not adding their content to Xbox Game Pass and to other subscription services. This has been an impediment for the company to grow the platform further. In addition, Sony is a regular when it comes to signing exclusivity agreements with third parties, including downloadable content.
In turn, Microsoft reiterates that Call of Duty it does not imply a category of games by itself and reaching this conclusion “is simply unjustifiable under any quantitative or qualitative analysis”. On the other hand, he defends that among the best-selling games of 2021, only two are from Activision Blizzard. Other franchises such as GTA, Assassin’s Creed or FIFA sneak into the list and are also published on PlayStation systems.
Continuing with this defense, Microsoft argues that since the purchase of Activision Blizzard was announced, none of their games have been included in Xbox Game Pass. Regardless, the platform’s success has continued to grow, so it’s not essential that Bobby Kotick’s company’s catalog of games be added to the library.
Assured competition
Regarding a fear of Sony about the potential that Microsoft acquires by increasing its game grid with those of Activision Blizzard, Xbox is clear that it would not be an unmatched advantage in the market. Four reasons support Microsoft’s vision in this regard:
- Microsoft does not intend to remove content from players and has previously reiterated its intention not to make Call of Duty an exclusive game.
- Subscription services are simply one more way to pay for access to video games and naturally compete with traditional methods.
- Sony ignores part of its own policyas there are services like PlayStation Plus that work in the same way that Xbox Game Pass is criticized.
- There is strong competition in the game distribution sector, where companies get access to Activision Blizzard games, but those from Xbox cannot play all the works.
Finally, Microsoft points out that making Activision Blizzard games being exclusive to Xbox would not be profitable. This is because the costs of exclusivity strategies and the potential sales lost as a result would not be profitable for the company.