Battle Of The Gaming Giants: Sony Fears Xbox May Sabotage 'Call Of Duty' On PlayStation

Sony (NYSE: SONY) submitted documentation to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressing concerns about Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s potential moves to undermine the "Call of Duty" franchise on PlayStation, according to The Verge.

The Japanese multinational conglomerate is worried about the tactics the Xbox maker could resort to if its proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) were to receive regulatory approval.

“Microsoft might release a PlayStation version of 'Call of Duty' where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates," Sony stated. "Even if such degradations could be swiftly detected, any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play 'Call of Duty'.”

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“Indeed, as Modern Warfare II attests, 'Call of Duty' is most often purchased in just the first few weeks of release. If it became known that the game’s performance on PlayStation was worse than on Xbox, 'Call of Duty gamers' could decide to switch to Xbox, for fear of playing their favorite game at a second-class or less competitive venue,” Sony continued.

In the text, Sony also pointed out Microsoft’s past commitments to regulators that it did not keep, as well as public statements that were not respected, like Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media in March 2021.

“Sony is extremely skeptical that an agreement with Microsoft could be reached, much less monitored and enforced effectively. Behavioral remedies are unsuited to this case because of the lever they would give Microsoft over PlayStation and the difficulty the CMA would encounter in specifying, monitoring, policing, and enforcing any behavioral commitment,” the document concluded.

Microsoft recently signed two 10-year deals. The first one involves bringing "Call of Duty" games to Nintendo devices on the same day as Xbox, with full feature parity. The second deal involves bringing Microsoft's PC games to Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)'s GeForce Now platform.

It remains unclear whether these moves will be sufficient to secure regulatory approval for Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

However, European Union (EU) regulators are likely to give the green light to the deal, as per IGN.

Next: Sony Controls The Market, Microsoft Boss Says To Justify Activision Blizzard Deal

Photo by Sam Pak via Unsplash