Sony responds to Microsoft claim that Activision has no \u201cmust-have\u201d games In a clearance application for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft argues that the developer has no \u201cmust have\u201d games, but Sony argues otherwise. In January of this year, Microsoft confirmed that it would be acquiring the video game holding company, Activision Blizzard. The company is known for its iconic franchises which include Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga, and Call of Duty. Of course, the news was met with concern for fans of these franchises that were team PlayStation. As the console wars rage and Xbox confirmed its other acquired studios wouldn\u2019t develop cross-platform games, CoD fans, in particular, were leery of the news. But Microsoft would later confirm Call of Duty titles would continue to release on the PlayStation 5. Now, as we near the final steps in the acquisition process, Microsoft argues that there is \u201cnothing unique\u201d about the games Acti-Blizz develops. However, Sony has responded with an adverse opinion. Sony and Microsoft argue Activision\u2019s importance In a clearance application to the Commerce Commission of New Zealand, Microsoft argued reasons why the commission should allow the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Among the 81-page document, Microsoft made a rather jarring argument. They stated, \u201cWith respect to Activision Blizzard video games, there is nothing unique about the video games developed and published by Activision Blizzard that is a \u2018must have\u2019 for rival PC and console video game distributors that could give rise to a foreclosure concern.\u201d But in order for the acquisition to be allowed, Microsoft also needs legal confirmation from competition regulators across the globe. The review process started in Brazil on May 20th, and one of the third-parties questioned was Sony. A recap of all of the questions and answers was posted to Resetera by user Idas. Sony was asked whether Activision Blizzard offered any titles that had no \u201cclose competition\u201d and how the market would be affected if Acti-Blizz titles were to become Xbox exclusive. Idas wrote, \u201cSony believes that none of these developers could create a franchise to rival Activision\u2019s Call of Duty, which stands out as a gaming category on its own. That\u2019s why they believe that Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users\u2019 choice of console. In fact, their network of loyal users is so ingrained that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to create a rival.\u201d Of the competitors questioned, Sony offered the most negative responses. However, with Xbox already confirming that Call of Duty would remain playable on PlayStation consoles, Sony\u2019s arguments are a moot point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sony responds to Microsoft claim that Activision has no \u201cmust-have\u201d games In a clearance application for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft argues that the developer has no \u201cmust have\u201d games, but Sony argues otherwise. In January of this year, Microsoft confirmed that it would be acquiring the video game holding company, Activision Blizzard. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}