Microsoft’s Xbox has developed a new way to defend its purchase of Activision Blizzard. Moreover, it is still going through various regulatory bodies around the world: making fun of itself.
In response to concerns raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority [CMA], Microsoft sent a lengthy statement to GamesIndustry.biz. Calling the criticism “unsupported.” This pointed to the fact that PlayStation is the market leader.
What did Microsoft say on the matter?
Microsoft said in a statement that it didn’t believe that the third-largest provider could shut down the current market leader. It has unique and long-lasting market power because it lost access to one title.
Microsoft didn’t give numbers. But the company says that if every Call of Duty player on PlayStation consoles switched to Xbox, “The PlayStation gamer base would still be much larger than Xbox.”
Is Sony vulnerable to Microsoft’s competition?
In short, “Sony is not vulnerable to a hypothetical foreclosure strategy,” Microsoft’s statement said. The Referral Decision wrongly relies on Sony’s self-serving statements, which greatly overstate Call of Duty’s importance to Sony. And doesn’t take into account Sony’s clear ability to respond competitively.
Sony might not like more competition, but it can change and still be competitive. In the end, this increased competition and choice will be good for gamers.
Regarding the CMA’s worries about the streaming market. Microsoft says it has “no advantage” and that Xbox Cloud Gaming has “a number of significant disadvantages” compared to other services because it only works on a few platforms. The company also says that streaming video games isn’t very popular. And doing anything to hurt the market would only hurt its products in the long run.
What about the game distribution and consumers?
“Xbox is last in console game distribution and seventh in PC game distribution. Nowhere in mobile game distribution worldwide has no reason to do this. Instead, it has a reason to encourage as many providers as possible to adopt cloud gaming technologies. This is done to encourage the big change in consumer behavior needed for cloud gaming to succeed”, the statement said.
Tom Warren of The Verge pointed out that Xbox also said Sony “has chosen to block Game Pass from PlayStation” to protect its first-party games.
Microsoft isn't happy with the UK's CMA regulator over its Activision Blizzard acquisition comments. It describes the regulator's concerns as "misplaced" and that it "adopts Sony’s complaints without considering the potential harm to consumers" 👀 🧵 1/3 pic.twitter.com/nIWuVqyvSW
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 12, 2022
A glimpse of Competition for Sony
In its response, Xbox points out how strong Sony is in the market while making itself look like a weaker competitor. This is a significant effort to change how people worldwide feel about the acquisition. This will add Halo, Fallout, and Skyrim to a stable that already includes World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and other major franchises. They even opened a website to talk about the benefits of the acquisition.
On the other hand, Sony has criticized the buyout, saying it will have “major negative effects on gamers” while praising the CMA.
