Document is revealed where Sony asks to stop the purchase of Blizzard Activision

As you surely know, Sony has issued several documents where it indicates the dangers that the Blizzard Activision Buy from Microsoft could bring to the industry. Although some of these communications have not come to public light, the British authority of competition and markets, or CMA) recently shared one of these documents.

The CMA has published a document that Sony shared last October, where PlayStation is indicated to the possible monopoly that causes the purchase of Blizzard Activision, as well as the Xbox Game Pass system. In this regard, three groups were mentioned that would be affected in the future. One of these are the players:

Consumers will be harmed. In the short term, it is possible that PlayStation players do not have access to Call of Duty and are forced to spend £450 to play titles of their favorite franchise on a platform that would otherwise not buy. In the medium term, a significant number of PlayStation players could be changed to Xbox or subscribe to Game Pass, and this scenario would allow Microsoft its offer and grow the video game industry.

The second is the competitors:

PlayStation and Xbox are stimulated each other and are driven to improve the quality of their products and innovate to attract more players. Microsoft's strategy would convince many players to remain in Xbox regardless of these factors, including Call of Duty current. It is possible that these users do not have an incentive to change console despite PlayStation's efforts, and this factor would prevent the company from reaching many players, which discouraged the approval of new investments.

Finally, mention of independent developers is made:

Today's independent developers have two main options: PlayStation/PS Plus or Xbox/Game Pass. By placing Call of Duty in the Xbox Game Pass catalog, many independent studies will prefer to publish their games in that service. Independent developers will have less negotiation power and will be forced to accept less advantageous deals, a scenario that would lead them not to have enough funds and incentives to create new high quality games, a possibility that would further harm consumers.

Sony concludes its document pointing out that the purchase of Blizzard activation represents a danger to the entire video game industry:

This acquisition represents a threat to the video game industry. If approved, the transaction would bring an irreplaceable and independent franchise such as Call of Duty in the hands of Microsoft, which currently already has a very successful video game system (Xbox), a popular subscription system (Game Pass), a Strong PC position (Windows) and an important cloud games platform (Azure). The only way to preserve the market status and protect players is to ensure that Activision remains completely independent.

As they could see, Sony has pointed out that basically everything Xbox does today, such as Game Pass and cloud service, are considered monopolistic practices, since there are no more companies that can compete against Microsoft and their resources to create This type of platforms. At the moment it is unknown if Xbox issued an answer, and in the case of this has been the case, this information has not been shared.

In related issues, China rejects the purchase of Blizzard Activision. Similarly, Microsoft offers a contract to keep Call of Duty in PlayStation for more years.

Editor's note:

This case is still quite controversial. While Sony's statements could play a great role when the CMA makes a definitive decision, at the end of the day, nothing will stop the purchase of Blizzard Activision.