In its submission before the Brazils Council of Administrations of Economic Defence (CADE), Microsoft further claimed Sony is intentionally trying to suppress Xbox Game Pass growth, by engaging in anti-competitive practices regarding Xbox Game Pass subscription services. Microsoft says that Sony’s concerns are inconsistent, given that by virtue of the PlayStation dominating market share, Sony is a leader in the digital distribution of games, particularly when, as Microsoft alleges, Sony has been actively hindering Game Pass growth by paying blocking rights in order to block developers from adding content on Game Pass and other competing subscription services. According to documents filed with the Brazilian National Competition Regulator, Microsoft has claimed Sony has paid for blocking rights for developers in order to stop their games from being added to the Xbox Game Pass.
Regardless of whether these claims are true, this would not be the first time that Sony has used financial incentives to lock out game developers. Instead, Microsoft is making an explosive new claim: that Sony is simply paying developers to not make games available for Xbox Game Pass, which apparently means the games will simply sell at full price in both the Sony and Microsoft ecosystems. In its submission to Britain’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), Xbox seems to reveal this is what might happen had Sony not blocked Game Pass on its PlayStation.
Part of Sony’s complaints centered on the fact Sony was concerned Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive would hurt its business, but Microsoft countered by saying that Sony is a clear market leader, and it should stop crying about it not doing this itself. Just last week, Sony claimed at the CADE conference that Call of Duty is an important game, and competitors will be no match for Call of Duty. Last week, Microsoft claimed to Brazilian regulators that Call of Duty was not an essential series, whereas Sony countered that it was.
MS has already told CMA that Final Fantasy VII Remake cannot be released on Xbox. This is because Sony has signed a "Xbox exclusion" agreement with some third-party publishers for several games including FF VII Remake.https://t.co/g5URqGI2HA https://t.co/jbk6hXoQej pic.twitter.com/caChLDNkrH
— Xbox News for Koreans 🇰🇷 – 네이버 Xbox 정보 카페 (@KoreaXboxnews) December 22, 2022
It has also claimed that Activision’s Call of Duty is a gaming category unto itself, which is true, although you cannot argue that Sony would lose a ton of revenue if Call of Duty went exclusively to Microsoft. With the future of the Call of Duty series as a multiplatform product being a major area under scrutiny from global regulators, Microsoft said this week it has offered Sony a legally binding 10-year contract that makes every new installment in the series available to Sony on the day that it arrives on Xbox. The statement came in a 27-page counter-argument against Sony’s recent objections to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, made in the Brazilian Administrative Council of Economic Defence (CADE) as part of its probe.
