Formally, the deal to formalize the transition of Activision Blizzard into the ownership of Microsoft’s gaming wing has not yet been finalized, and the companies plan to finally close this issue by next summer. Nevertheless, some problems in reaching this agreement may still arise. The fact that such a serious deal needs to be approved at the level of competition authorities in some of the largest in terms of the gaming market, and it seems that one of the reasons why the deal will be “slow” will be Sony. Or rather, its interests.
So, the Brazilian antitrust regulator received written comments from several companies regarding the deal between Microsoft and Activision. And the only negative comment was that of Sony. According to representatives of the company, Call of Duty – super popular franchise, which no one is able to create a full-fledged competitor. Moreover Call of Duty is so popular that it has become one of the criteria of choosing the game consoles. So if Activision Blizzard will go under the control of Microsoft, and Microsoft will make Call of Duty exclusive for its platforms, Sony will have problems. To prove that Call of Duty is one of the main sources of revenue for PlayStation from third-party games, Sony has provided the Brazilian regulator with the relevant documentation. For obvious reasons, it was not made public.
It is worth noting that other companies do not share Sony’s pessimism. For example, Ubisoft in the same commentary for the Brazilian regulator stated that Activision has no unique games without competitors: the number of gamers, although great, but not infinite, and their free time, in turn, is also limited, and game developers need to fight for it.
Riot Games believes that Call of Duty’s direct competitors are the Battlefield series, as well as separately Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, CSGO and others. Bandai Namco and Google hold a similar opinion. In other words, Sony is proudly alone in this matter.