Responding to Sony’s words, the company assures that it could not compensate for the losses of something like that.
A few days ago we informed you that Sony had ruled on the agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard due to a query from the Brazilian regulatory body. In the official statements, they assured that it is not possible to compete with Game Pass, something to which Microsoft has responded by accusing its rival of paying third parties to include blocking rights to the subscription service.
However, in those words from Sony, it stood out above all else that they considered the Call of Duty saga is so important that it influences the purchase choice of a new console, being “a triple A blockbuster that has no rival” and a brand comparable to other entertainment brands such as Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings.
It just wouldn’t be profitablemicrosoftAlthough yesterday we told you that these statements have been rejected by Microsoft, assuring that making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox would not be profitable (as collected in VGC), today we expand the words of the Redmond company to explain why it is not something that is currently being considered.
“Not distributing Activision Blizzard games in rival console stores would simply not be profitable for Microsoft,” they comment while explaining that making such a decision would only be viable from a commercial perspective. if a large number of players left PlayStation suddenly and they will go to Xbox.
“The strategy would only be profitable if Activision Blizzard’s games were able to attract a large enough number of users to the Xbox console ecosystem and if Microsoft could get enough revenue from game sales to compensate for losses from not distributing such games on consoles”, they continue from Microsoft.
We could not compensate for the lossesmicrosoftThe statements also emphasize the costs of carrying out exclusivities: “In addition, exclusivity strategies continue to generate a specific expense for each title. The costs, added to the previously estimated commercial losses, have the result that Microsoft could not compensate for the losses obtaining greater income in the Xbox ecosystem as a result of an exclusive application”, they assure.
From the company they also affirm that, if they manage to make the Call of Duty franchise exclusive in some way, “would have no competitive impact” in the market due to the intense competition that exists in it and, above all, due to the fact that rival consoles enjoy a high degree of user loyalty.
While all these discussions take place, the regulatory bodies continue to analyze the situation in order to approve or not the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, which was announced with a closed operation around $68.7 billion. Currently, the United Kingdom’s competition control commission has opened an investigation, assessing whether or not the acquisition harms competition and consumers.
