Microsoft poured cold water on suggestions that it might use its Activision Blizzard purchase to the Bogard the Call of Duty franchise.
As the company faces questioning from Brazilian regulators over its proposed purchase, Microsoft has revealed that it has selfish reasons to keep the popular first-person shooter brand within reach.
In some cliched notes submitted to Brazil’s competition watchdog, Microsoft responded to Sony’s concerns that Xbox ownership of Call of Duty would affect PS5 sales.
In the filings, Microsoft targeted its rival to a perceived double standard on exclusivity while claiming that it wouldn’t be profitable to keep Activision Blizzard games exclusively on Xbox and PC.
“No matter how unsurprisingly Sony’s criticism of content privacy – given that the entire PlayStation strategy has centered on exclusivity over the years – the reality is that the strategy of keeping Activision Blizzard games by not distributing them in competing console stores simply wouldn’t be profitable for Microsoft,” she claims. Company notes translated by VGC.
Such a strategy would only be profitable if Activision Blizzard games were able to attract a sufficiently large number of players to the Xbox console ecosystem, and if Microsoft could generate enough profits from game sales to offset losses from not distributing such games to consoles. control the competition.”
It’s not the only interesting news that comes from Microsoft’s response to Sony’s objections to the acquisition. Earlier today, we reported on accusations that Sony is paying developers to keep their games off the Xbox Game Pass platform.
Relations between Microsoft and Sony have been relatively frictionless despite the fierce rivalry over the years, but the rush to acquire the biggest game studios seems to have broken the concept of peace between the tech giants.