“Microsoft has been clear since the merger announcement: we have no intention of withholding or reducing access to Call of Duty or any other Activision content on PlayStation,” the company says. “This strategy would directly conflict with the interests of players in the UK and around the world. Rather than limit choice or access, Microsoft intends to use the merger to bring more games to more people on more devices and platforms.”
Regarding Sony’s reaction, it will surprise no one that it is the opposite of Microsoft’s. The company says the CMA’s change in position is “surprising, unprecedented and irrational.” Sony says that the British regulator has made a series of errors when calculating the average value of players on any of the platforms. The company believes that the CMA should revise its analysis, as in its opinion the model used is biased towards Microsoft’s position that there is no incentive to retain Activision games.
Sony also continues to insist that Microsoft could sabotage the PlayStation version of Call of Duty. In this sense, the company mentions the technical analyzes made by pages such as Digital Foundry and the discussions that take place in the forums, as a sample of how important performance comparisons between platforms can be. Likewise, Sony echoes an interview by IGN where the creative director of Redfall says that after the purchase of Bethesda by Microsoft, the PS5 version was discarded.
On the other hand, Microsoft talks about games in the cloud, which today is the only point that the CMA is not clear about. The company recalls that it has proposed solutions to address this situation and as proof of this it mentions the agreements with Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus. “The CMA has found no incentive to retain Activision content on consoles, and evidence shows that it should reach the same conclusion regarding cloud gaming,” Microsoft says.
