Phil Spencer’s comment is ridiculous and somewhat cynical, too.

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer appeared as an interviewee on the Second Request podcast, and his comments are a bit funny: “Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller. [Sony] has a different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC [and console]. They do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games.

Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so they grab onto Call of Duty. The largest console maker in the world is objecting to the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform. It’s a deal that benefits customers through choice and access,” said Spencer.

Spencer accuses Sony of what Microsoft would do to PlayStation! Think about it: when Todd Howard announced Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI from Bethesda, then not yet under Microsoft, at E3 2018, both games were rightly thought to be multiplatform, as was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media, and Starfield almost immediately dropped its PlayStation 5 port. The Elder Scrolls VI is rumored to be available only on Xbox and PC. In other words, with this acquisition, Microsoft has made PlayStation smaller.

And it’s not out of the question that if the $68.7 million deal can close (although the US Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, is slowing it down with an antitrust lawsuit), the company could do the same with Call of Duty. Sure, they promise ten years on Sony’s platforms now (as well as Nintendo’s), but they can pull the whole thing off with the stroke of a pen, and since Microsoft has a ton of money via Windows, Office, or Azure, they can afford to break the contract…

So Spencer’s comments have practically backfired.

Source: VGC