The Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard it is still in the process of being reviewed by multiple regulatory bodies. Although eyes are often focused on regulations in the United States and Europe, the acquisition must also be approved in many other regions of the world. One of them is Brazilwhere these types of topics tend to be slightly more transparent compared to other territories.
This has allowed us to know, for the first time, what are the positions of the different companies that, according to the Brazilian organization, could be affected in some way by the purchase. And it is that the antitrust regulation contemplates that other actors of the industry can express your concerns as part of the review process.
In this case, the Brazilian authorities wanted to know the opinion of Sony, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., Bandai Namco and Riot Games. What do they have in common? All of them are part of the video game industry. Whether in the production of their own games, or in the provision of entertainment services. Therefore, the acquisition of Activision, being such a significant move for the franchises that are included —Call Of Dutyfor example—, also competes.
The most interesting of all is that the Brazilian regulator has made public part of the declarations of these companies (via Resetera). The one that stands out the most is, without a doubt, that of Sony, since it is the first time that those in Japan have expressed some concern. Why? First of all, Sony considers that the offer of content available on consoles influences the purchase of hardware by consumers.
“Gamers choose their platform to play based on price, technical features and types of games available. Available content is the main factor for a player to choose a platform.”
Call of Duty is the real reason for Sony’s concern
So far all clear, even verifiable. But Sony’s real concern is that, in its view, Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard involves a AAA franchise that has no equal rival in the entire industry. Of course they refer to Call of Duty. Therefore, if Microsoft at some point decided to make it exclusive or block part of its content on other platforms, there would be no way to compete directly.
Sony adds that creating an AAA game at the level of Call of Duty it would involve an investment of “hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.” Not only for them, but for anyone else interested in undertaking such a complex mission. Likewise, they doubt that someone is capable of creating a competition to match because Call of Duty it is a unique franchise that cannot be replaced.
“Apart from Activision, there are few developers/publishers capable of producing AAA games, like EA (FIFA), Take-Two/Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto) and Epic Games (Fortnite). These games tend to be long-running franchises with big budgets, multi-year development cycles, and very supportive fans.
Despite all that, Sony believes none of these developers could create a franchise to rival Call of Duty from Activision, which stands out as a category of games on its own. Call of Duty it is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console. In fact, its network of loyal users is so ingrained that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, they wouldn’t be able to create a rival.”
Sony also thinks that put to Call of Duty in a game service like Xbox Game Pass could leave the rest of the competitors at a clear disadvantage. This is because they would allow access to the title in exchange for a reduced rate while the rest can only charge the full price. In this sense, Sony also says that creating an “effective” rival to Xbox Game Pass would take several years.
The good news for Sony is that, as promised by Microsoft, Call of Duty will remain as a multi-platform franchise. In fact, this would have been one of the key points of those of Redmond to avoid that the regulatory organisms put more obstacles to the approval. However, that will not prevent those from Redmond from offering the next installments of the franchise through Xbox Game Pass. A few months ago we explained to you that this was the real blow on Microsoft’s table.
What do the others think?
The vision of Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Riot and Google is quite different from that of Sony. They all consider that there are no games that do not have close competition today. For Call of Duty they set an example to rivals like Battlefield, apex legends, PUBG Y Rainbow Six. Warner Bros., for its part, thinks there are rival companies with enough potential to encourage competition.
Apple and Amazon seem to have no interest in getting involved., which is understandable given his current limited position in the video game industry; at least as far as their publication is concerned.