According to a footnote in Microsoft’s recent submission to the Competition and Markets Authority, UK’s regulatory body when it comes to these sorts of things, Microsoft reiterated, “existing contractual obligations that Activision Blizzard may have with other platforms” will continue as is after the $68 billion acquisition pushes through. But, while this is good news for Sony, Microsoft is using this to its advantage. Specifically, Microsoft writes that this will include the agreement “between Activision Blizzard and Sony” wherein the deal restricts the “ability of Activision Blizzard to place COD titles on Game Pass for a number of years.” Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t elaborate further, but it doesn’t take an expert to know what Microsoft meant. It’s amazing that Microsoft considered this. The Game Pass is a proven money maker for the tech giant. If nothing else, this puts Sony in a bad light and paints Microsoft as the hero. For all we know, this is exactly what Microsoft wants to happen. After launching a website detailing the benefits of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft revealed that Sony blocked the Game Pass from PlayStation as well. Now, Microsoft wants to let the CMA know that Sony is the one guilty of “anti-consumer” practices. This should give the CMA a reason to reconsider its reservations about greenlighting the massive merge. After all, it’d be pretty weird to listen to a complainant saying that they’re worried about their platform losing access to certain games when it’s also responsible for restricting them from joining the competitor’s services in the first place. Ultimately, it’ll be a long wait before the CMA comes to a decision. For now, we’ll have to settle with these bits of information about how Microsoft and Sony conduct business. Who knows? We might learn more about what Sony plans to do when Call of Duty becomes exclusive to the Xbox platform. Fingers crossed, Sony will take it as a challenge, much like how Take-Two and EA have.
