Microsoft has been trying for quite a while now to complete the $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently discovered that Microsoft’s takeover of Activision may be against antitrust laws and is likely to try block the merger with legal action.
The news comes after the deal received stern opposition from U.K. and EU regulators, who are keen to rein in Microsoft’s power. The industry is already seeing governments around the globe working to regulate big players like Microsoft, with FTC chair Lina Khan being outspoken about the way monopolies can take hold in tech sectors.
Politico’s sources have mentioned that the FTC staff reviewing the deal has not made up their mind yet, but they seem to be skeptical of the companies’ claims.
On Wednesday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) released conflicting statements the two companies made to investigators in October. Sony is pleading with regulators to block the deal, saying that Microsoft will use Activision Blizzard, especially the Call of Duty franchise, to kill off competition in the games market.
Both companies were put in a precarious position that made them feel motivated to argue that their opponents are significantly more successful than they are, and then bent over backwards to present themselves as the scrappy underdog.
Microsoft has responded by saying that claims that it would deliberately deprive Sony of the Call of Duty series because it did not want to compete with it are not credible. The company denies any such intent and also says that if, in ten years time, the company still wishes to simulatavely continue making a Call of Duty game and Sony no longer sells consoles to consumers, they would do so on PC instead.
Microsoft has a large number of games in its catalogue but is still making some bold claims. The company says that Sony has more exclusive games than it does and many of Sony’s are better quality. This is due to Sony’s “first-party franchises such as God of War, Uncharted,” says Microsoft, “with nearly five times as many.” PlayStation on the other hand has a similar number of exclusive titles.
Sony executives seem confused by the performance of their own subscription service. They even complain about it in a press release: “Game Pass consistently leads PlayStation Plus significantly,” reads Sony’s statement. “Xbox Game Pass has a substantial lead over PS4 and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is expected to grow substantially in the future.” They heap praise on Microsoft for its superior gaming subscription program.
Sony is firing shots at EA’s Battlefield series, thinking that it would be impossible for SIE to compete with it, as Sony claims Call of Duty is too popular in the industry to rival.
Microsoft plans to buy Activision Blizzard at some point before the middle of 2023.
