Microsoft really wants to acquire Activision Blizzard...
Microsoft has admitted that “many” PlayStation exclusive games are of “better quality” than first-party titles on Xbox as part of documents pertaining to its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“In addition to being the dominant console provider, Sony is also a powerful game publisher,” reads a portion of Microsoft’s response to the CMA’s Issues Statement.
“Sony is roughly equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft’s game publishing business,” it continues.
Microsoft went further to call first-party outings from Sony, including The Last of Us, God of War and even newly-acquired Bungie’s Destiny 2 as “iconic”.
“Sony has more exclusive games than Microsoft, many of which are better quality,” reads another portion of the response.
“Both Sony’s and Nintendo’s exclusive first-party games rank among the best-selling in Europe and worldwide,” the statement continues. “Current Sony exclusive content includes prominent first-party titles such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Spiderman.
“There were over 280 exclusive first- and third-party titles on PlayStation in 2021, nearly five times as many as on Xbox.”
As part of a move to prove the merger wouldn’t be anti-competitive, Microsoft also called attention to Sony’s “arrangements with third-party publishers which require the ‘exclusion’ of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on”. Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7 Rameke and Bloodborne were used as examples of this practice.
We’ll keep you informed as this story continues.
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