Eleven members of the United States Congress believe that Sony, or more specifically, its PlayStation brand, is acting unfairly against Microsoft and its Xbox range in the Asian island nation.

Axios reported the situation between PlayStation and Xbox in Japan. According to lawmakers, Sony’s business practices actively discourage U.S. companies from competing in the gaming market. Since Sony is Japanese (even if the PlayStation brand is not so much…), as is Nintendo, the only company that can be considered American in this context is Microsoft!

Thus, because of “below the belt” moves, Xbox has not been able to compete with PlayStation in Japan. During a trade hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell raised the issue with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. The Biden administration then received two letters to put the distorted Japanese gaming market situation in the spotlight: PlayStation had unfairly gained a 98% share of the “high-end” console market and had made several deals to keep games off Xbox.

Using the term high-end is odd, but it probably means current-gen consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S). Among the deals, you could mention Final Fantasy XVI, for example, if you have to think of Japanese studios and publishers. In the meantime, Sony wants fair competition from the CMA (U.K.) and the FTC (U.S.) and is therefore blocking Microsoft from closing the $68.7 billion deal to give the U.S. tech giant Activision Blizzard King and, with it, the Call of Duty I.P. (the main reason why Sony is protesting because many people play CoD on PlayStation).

The letter, written by the Republicans, says Sony’s agreements in Japan could violate the country’s antitrust laws: “The Japanese government’s effective policy of non-prosecution when it comes to Sony appears to be a serious barrier to U.S. exports, with real impacts for Microsoft and the many U.S. game developers and publishers that sell globally but see their earnings in Japan depressed by these practices.”

Republicans and Democrats want to investigate Sony and PlayStation’s business practices. A Microsoft spokesman told Axios that Sony should be discussed for its anti-competitive tactics. At the same time, there has been no mention that it is all coming up when Microsoft wants to pull a prominent publisher to itself. They have also asked that this issue be taken to the Japanese government to identify ‘further obstacles’ facing U.S. companies that could prevent them from entering the Japanese gaming market.

We find the timing suspicious.

Source: WCCFTech