Sabotage?
Sony has again lashed out at Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying its competitor “might release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level of after later updates.”
“Even if such degradations could be swiftly detected,” a portion document prepared by Sony for the UK’s CMA, “any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty.”
In addition to the claim of purposeful sabotage, Sony suggested that Microsoft would always prioritise its own platforms.
“Post-Transaction, Microsoft will need to make choices about the support it will provide to develop any PlayStation version of Call of Duty. Even if Microsoft operated in good faith, it would be incentivised to support and prioritise development of the Xbox version of the game, such as by using its best engineers and more of its resources,” the document continued.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Microsoft responded to Sony’s claims.
“Since the CMA issued its Provisional Findings, we have offered solutions which address its concerns and increase the deal’s benefits to UK players and game developers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “These include a guarantee of parity between Xbox and PlayStation on access to Call of Duty and legally binding commitments to ensure that Call of Duty is available to at least 150 million more players on other consoles and cloud streaming platforms once the deal closes.
“The decision now lies with the CMA on whether it will block this deal and protect Sony, the dominant market leader, or consider solutions that make more games available to more players.”
This news comes as Activision Blizzard EVP Corporate Affairs and CCO, Lulu Cheng Meservey, has accused Sony’s Jim Ryan of purposefully blocking the acquisition.
“I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal,” she alleges Ryan said in Brussels. “I just want to block your merger.”
The CEO of SIE answered that question in Brussels.
In his words:
"I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.”— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) March 8, 2023
Earlier this month, Microsoft said it would strive for Call of Duty parity on Nintendo platforms and made its library of titles available on NVidia GeForce Now.
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