The relationship between Microsoft and Sony it definitely broke during the last week. Situation motivated by the purchase of Activision Blizzard and the fate of franchises such as call of duty, of course. It is that, while the Japanese were the main voice in opposition to the agreement, those from Redmond tried to lower the decibels of the discussion. But both patience and diplomacy ran out, and this was evidenced by the statements of Phil Spencerhead of Xbox, on the podcast second request.
The CEO of Microsoft Gaming lashed out at Sony and accused it of object to the purchase of Activision Blizzard to maintain its dominance in the console market. In addition, the executive assured that the Asian company is the only real opposition that exists today to the completion of the agreement.
“Sony is trying to protect their dominance in consoles, and their way to grow is by making Xbox smaller. They have a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t release their games on PC on the same date [que en PlayStation]nor do they include them in your subscription since launch. […] But Sony is leading the conversation about why this deal should not go ahead to protect its dominant position in consoles, taking call of duty” Spencer stated.
The top executive of Xbox once again stressed that, from the beginning, Microsoft promised to maintain call of duty on PlayStation. He even assured that the first phone call they made together with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, after announcing the purchase of Activision Blizzard was “to the CEO of Sony”, surely in reference to jim ryan.
But Phil Spencer didn’t stop there. He was also surprised by PlayStation’s position, considering that is “twice as big” as Xbox in the console market. “I find it challenging that the world’s largest console maker would object to the one franchise we’ve said we’ll keep on their platform,” he added.
Xbox stands before Sony to defend the purchase of Activision Blizzard
Phil Spencer’s statements in second request They have generated a lot of attention in the last hours, but they came to light last week, just a couple of days before the FTC sued Microsoft to stop the purchase of Activision Blizzard. So, contrary to what the head of Xbox said, Sony is no longer the only voice opposing the agreement. Although it is logical to think that the US authorities have listened to the criticism of the Japanese to intervene in this situation.
In any case, the last word has not yet been said. Let’s remember that Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, recently assured that his company offered Sony an agreement to throw call of duty on PlayStation on equal terms as on Xbox for 10 years. “Same game, same features,” Spencer added.
In addition, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, repeated the concept that eliminating call of duty of PlayStation after closing the purchase of Activision Blizzard it would not make sense. Especially from an economic point of view.
“If we analyze the valuation of this agreement, it is not difficult to realize that a good part of it belongs to the income of call of duty on PlayStation. Paying what we’ll pay for all of Activision Blizzard King, then damaging this asset by saying ‘we’re going to remove the major version of call of duty on consoles from this company’s business model, it would literally wipe out billions and billions of dollars, and Activision would immediately lose all value.”
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox.
Regardless of what the Xbox boss said, the Activision Blizzard purchase will have some tough hurdles to overcome before possible approval. Not only in the United States, where today the panorama is the most complicated; but also in the UK and EU. In the specific case of Europe, the regulators have established March 23, 2023 as the deadline to define the future of the acquisition.