The most surprising thing about the statement is which company said it…

CADE, the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense, has received a letter from Microsoft in which the Redmond company responds to the concerns of the governmental organization. Thus, the Satya Nadella-led company commented on whether the Call of Duty IP would indeed be restricted if Microsoft were to acquire Activision Blizzard.

According to Microsoft, Call of Duty would need to attract enough players to the Xbox ecosystem to cover the losses from missed releases on rival platforms (PlayStation), and each game would incur additional costs for exclusivity (but we have not been given any more details on it). Recall that Sony previously told CADE that Microsoft’s acquisition plan would affect the gamers’ choice in future console sales.

Microsoft also responded to that comment, saying, “Sony’s implicit concerns about Sony’s content exclusivity [about] Activision Blizzard are unwarranted, and Microsoft’s incentives are to continue making Activision Blizzard games available on rival consoles.” And in the past, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer also mentioned that they would honour existing contracts to make Call of Duty available on multiple platforms, but this reportedly applies to three more games.

Microsoft added, “In reality, not only is Call of Duty not a ‘category of games per se’, but it also faces strong competition from close quarters from games of multiple genres and types.” Of the top twenty best-selling console games last year, only two were from Activision Blizzard in North America (Call of Duty: Vanguard topped the list, followed closely by Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, according to the NPD Group).

The company says it is not part of its business strategy to take content away from gamers (Starfield? And that’s just one example from Bethesda…) and sees subscription services as a way for consumers to access games. In conclusion, Sony’s insinuation that Game Pass could give it an unattainable lead in subscription services ignores the dynamic nature of the ‘blues’ in its PlayStation Plus service…

Suddenly, we’re in the gaming industry’s Jerry Springer show, especially how Microsoft claims Sony pays the developers to NOT put their games on Game Pass…

Source: Gamesindustry