The possible refusal by Sony at this point in the discussion is not if it would reach its console, but if the popular game would reach the Xbox Game Pass service, which would make it more popular and would be violating an alleged agreement between Activision and Sony to that the title is not available on this platform.
Microsoft has raised these discussions with Sony with regulators, but has not actually formally submitted a proposal through which a solution exists as the review process has not reached that stage, a person connected to the matter told Bloomberg. .
On the other hand, the New York Post reported that some of the Democratic members of the FTC could give Microsoft a thumbs up if it agrees to grant certain concessions to balance the video game market. Also, for Xbox it would be counterproductive to remove the game from PlayStation in financial terms, according to analysts.
It should be remembered that the FTC has been one of the most critical regulatory bodies for technology companies and digital markets since the Biden administration began in the United States.
The other option, therefore, would be for Microsoft to abandon the purchase under a challenge from the FTC, something that already happened in 1995, when the company was looking to acquire accounting software Intuit and chose not to face a lengthy legal battle with regulators.