In a document submitted to the Administrative Council for the Economic Defense of Brazil (CADE), the proposed purchase Activision SnowstormMicrosoft claims it’s about Call of Duty is exclusive to Xbox and it is unfounded that it is no longer available on PlayStation because “it’s just not profitable“For Microsoft.
“Regardless of how shocking Sony’s criticism of content exclusivity is – given that the entire PlayStation strategy has centered around exclusivity over the years – the truth is that Activision Blizzard doesn’t distribute its games to make it private. For Microsoft,” the company claims in the documents.
“Such a strategy would only be profitable if Activision Blizzard’s games were able to attract enough players into the Xbox console ecosystem, and Microsoft could earn enough from the sale of the games to make up for the losses from the lack of distribution of those games. games on competing consoles,” the company adds.
“As if that wasn’t enough, exclusivity strategies includes specific costs for securities “, the document says, but no further information was provided, possibly for confidentiality reasons.” These costs are added to the estimated lost sales […] point out above that Microsoft cannot make up for losses by generating more revenue in the Xbox ecosystem as a result of its exclusivity practice.
“This is especially (i) player-centered strategy – Contrary to the ‘device-centric’ Microsoft has experienced with Game Pass and (ii) the fact that PlayStation has had loyal users across several generations.
Continuing to support its argument, Microsoft says that even if Call of Duty’s Xbox exclusivity proves to be profitable, its implementation will have “no impact on competition,” in part due to “intense competition in the broadcasting market.” It is widely adopted in the gaming industry and the fact that rival consoles have a high degree of player loyalty.
In a nutshell, the document concludes that “the hypothetical adoption of any content deduction strategy would not be profitable for Microsoft, and even if implemented, this strategy would have no competitive impact for the reasons described above.”
Additionally, Microsoft accuses Sony of paying to stop games from transitioning to Xbox Game Pass.
Source: Multiplayer
