Sony Interactive Entertainment stated that the desire Microsoft buy a publishing house Activision Blizzard lurking desire”turn the PlayStation into a second Nintendo“ — a company that stands apart from others and does not compete in the field of realistic shooters with an 18+ rating.
This is stated in a 22-page document by Sony, which was sent to British antitrust regulators after they decided to launch an in-depth investigation into the deal between Activision Blizzard and Microsoft.
Sony is confident that in the event of a takeover of the publishing giant, Microsoft could make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive, and this, in turn, will lead to an outflow of audience from the PlayStation consoles and will negatively affect market competition..
According to Sony, having become the owner of a key franchise, Microsoft can begin to “clamp” independent developers and raise prices for games and consoles, dictating new rules to others..
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Sony document says Microsoft is unfair mentions Nintendo in the context of its deal with Activision Blizzard and discussing the future of the PlayStation. The PlayStation team considers such statements “distorting facts”, since Nintendo has never depended on games with an 18+ rating, and therefore does not care about this deal, unlike PlayStation.
“If the deal is approved by international regulators, Microsoft will become the dominant force in the shooter market. Its true strategy is to make the PlayStation the second Nintendo – in terms of competition in the 18+ shooter segment. Microsoft wants to eliminate competition from Sony, reduce its market efficiency by towards Xbox and remove the similarities between brands.”
Sony is drawing regulators’ attention to the fact that Microsoft already owns many popular shooter franchises, and a deal with Activision Blizzard will make the Xbox a one-stop-shop for fans of the genre.
“Once the deal closes, Xbox will become the go-to platform for the most popular shooters on consoles (Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, DOOM, Overwatch) and won’t actually have to compete with anyone.”.
The PlayStation team also reiterated that the Call of Duty series is “critical to the PlayStation” for the Call of Duty series.
“The franchise is firmly rooted in the minds of gamers: since 2003, each part has consistently topped the charts [далее следуют скрытые процентные показатели доли PlayStation, которая, как считает Sony, будет утрачена в случае одобрения сделки].
“Ignoring these facts, Microsoft claims that Nintendo has been successful without Call of Duty. But she misses the point. In the gaming market, Nintendo offers a unique experience that is different from what the Xbox and PlayStation platforms are known for, as it focuses on family-friendly games that can’t be compared to Call of Duty.”
The UK Competition and Markets Authority states that Microsoft is indeed watching Sony more closely than Nintendo, as evidenced by its internal documents. This indicates that Xbox sees its competitor primarily PlayStation.