In an official note sent to the GamesIndustry editorial staff, sony stated that the details on the proposed deal to keep call of Duty on PlayStation have been censored by the latest documents released by the CMA at its request Microsoft and that such an offer in any case “would irreparably damage competition and innovation in the industry”.
Britain’s antitrust regulator recently released responses from Microsoft and Sony to structural remedies proposed last month to finalize the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. On that occasion, the Japanese company asked the institution to block the acquisition or to force the Redmond giant to spin off the Call of Duty brand, which among other things is one of the proposals made by the CMA.
A company spokesperson later sent an official note to GamesIndustry, which reads:
Redacted versions of SIE and Microsoft’s submissions on the CMA’s proposed remedies were made public this week. Information regarding the terms of an offer by Microsoft to provide future versions of Call of Duty on PlayStation was redacted at the request of Microsoft We believe their current offering will irreparably harm competition and innovation in the industry.”
In the document sent to the CMA, Sony said it was skeptical that it could reach an acceptable agreement with Microsoft and that what was proposed to it should not be taken into consideration by the British antitrust.
“SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) is extremely skeptical that an agreement with Microsoft can be reached, much less effectively monitored and enforced,” the company wrote.
“Accordingly, an engagement that was designed to form the basis of an agreement between Microsoft and SIE should not be accepted by the CMA because there is no realistic prospect of reaching such an agreement that would maintain effective competition.”
For Sony, therefore, the only valid options would be the spin-off of the Call of Duty brand or that the acquisition be blocked as “it would ensure that critical Activision content, such as Call of Duty and… World of Warcraft, would remain in independent hands “.
Sony also pointed to Microsoft’s decision to make Starfield exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem as “further evidence why an engagement from Microsoft should be viewed with caution.”
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