Sony Says Call Of Duty Is An ‘Essential Game’ Series While Microsoft Argues It Ain’t

Microsoft, in an attempt to minimize the possible ramifications of its attempted acquisition of Activision to various international regulatory agencies, argues that the Obligations The publisher you’re spending billions of dollars on doesn’t actually produce any games that can be considered “must haves.” Meanwhile, Sony is backing off and explaining that Obligations games are “essential” and even influence some people’s console buying decisions.

Since Microsoft announced its intentions to buy Activision Blizzard In January of this year, the company spent months circling the globe, arguing with lawmakers and regulatory groups in an effort to show why this deal is right and not bad for the industry. One way the Xbox company is doing this is by arguing that Activision Blizzard doesn’t release games that are so big and unique that the acquisition would stifle competition with other game companies, stores, or console manufacturers.

You can find an example of this tactic in a report from the The New Zealand Commerce Commission published in June. In the document, Microsoft claimed that “there is nothing unique about video games developed and published” by Activision, a company it is spending nearly $70 billion on, adding that none of the games, including the military shooter franchise. Obligationsthey are “must have” games for any rival game company or publisher.

Read more: Everything that happened in the Activision Blizzard lawsuit

Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees with Microsoft’s claim that owning one of the world’s biggest video game franchises won’t give Xbox some kind of edge over its competition. Specifically, Sony has rejected the proposed Xbox/Activision deal in new legal documents from Brazil.

As reported by CVG and users on ResetEra, Sony’s responses to questions from the Brazilian government about the Microsoft/Activision deal were posted online and show that the PlayStation company believes Obligations it’s an “essential” AAA game, one that could help sell more consoles to whoever controls it.

According to a 2019 study, ‘The importance of Obligations to entertainment, in general, is indescribable.’ The brand was the only video game IP to break into the top 10 of all entertainment brands among fans, joining powerhouses like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Y Lord of the Rings.

Obligations it’s so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its loyal user community is so entrenched that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, they wouldn’t be able to compete with it.

Neither Microsoft’s response nor Sony’s pushback should be surprising. When buying a company as large as Activision, it makes sense to downplay the company’s size or influence when talking to regulators or government officials, as these people could cause Xbox headaches or even stall the deal altogether.

And of course, Sony does not want to lose Obligations, a game that regularly tops the best-selling games on the PlayStation charts every year. Sure, Microsoft has pointed out that Obligations will remain a cross-platform franchise, but contractually it is reported that after three games, Obligations could leave PlayStation and become an exclusive console for Xbox. So it makes sense for Sony to try to highlight the importance of the long-running FPS series to PlayStation and the video game industry.

As other regulatory groups and more governments continue or start poking and poking at the Activision Blizzard dealwe’ll likely continue to see Microsoft play down the size and scope of the company, while Xbox competitors do the exact opposite in a bid to stop what could be one of the biggest examples of video game consolidation we’ve seen yet. .