This time, Kevin Cramer, a Republican Senator from North Dakota, thinks Sony is engaging in anti-competitive behavior in the gaming industry.

Axios has uncovered Cramer’s letter to Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. In it, he expresses his concerns about Sony’s actions and demands details of the acquisition agreements. He sees Sony’s anti-competitive behavior as preventing competitors from fighting them…

“I am concerned Sony’s dominance of that market and its efforts to perpetuate its current position imperils an important economic development opportunity for North Dakota, which developed a strategy to lead the nation in computer science and cybersecurity education, preparing students for careers in gaming is an important component of this effort. Given the growing significance of the gaming industry to North Dakota, I am troubled by reports Sony appears to leverage its dominance to exclude competition rather than enabling choice for players and developers. Increasingly, it appears Sony’s dominance is attributable to exclusionary practices, including paying game publishers not to distribute their games on rival platforms,” Cramer wrote.

The senator said it was anti-competitive for Sony to try to prevent Microsoft from owning Activision Blizzard King. It was even more worrying that the lobbying began at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other agencies shortly after Sony had acquired Bungie. So he is demanding unredacted copies from Yoshida to reveal: all agreements that give Sony an exclusive right to distribute a third-party game; all arrangements between Sony and third-party publishers that prevent them from releasing their games on other systems; all internal company documents “describing the strategic rational” for Sony’s decision to acquire Bungie; and all correspondence with US government or regulatory agencies relating to video game competition.

In March, we reported that four congressional Republicans and six Democrats had sent an open letter to Sony accusing it of similar practices hampering Microsoft’s expansion in the Japanese market. Oh, dear…

Source: VGC