Sony wants to “grow by making Xbox smaller,” says Phil Spencer in regard to the ongoing battle for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard.
When speaking on the Second Request podcast, Phil Spencer said: “Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller,” when discussing Sony’s desire to halt the $68.7 billion deal.
Phil Spencer throws more shade at Sony
Spencer continued: “Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller. [Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games [on day one] on PC. 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”, and that the Xbox rival is trying to protect PlayStation’s “dominant position on console” by holding on to the Call of Duty series.
“The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform,” continued Spencer. “It’s a deal that benefits customers through choice and access.”
It seems Sony is concerned Microsoft will gain a stronghold within the video game industry if it acquires Activision Blizzard. In particular, essentially makes the Call of Duty series a first-party property of Xbox.
Call of Duty won’t be restricted to Xbox, apparently
Microsoft has previously suggested that it has no intention of making Call of Duty an exclusive and will ship the franchise to PlayStation as long as there’s a console to ship to. Additionally, Microsoft has not only offered Sony a 10-year deal to ensure that Call of Duty remains on PlayStation but the same deal has also been offered to Nintendo.
What’s more, there is even a deal already in place that prevents Call of Duty from coming to Xbox Game Pass for a number of years, even if Microsoft successfully acquires Activision Blizzard.
Is the Activision deal good for the industry?
If the Activision Blizzard deal does go through, it seems that even more people will be able to play Call of Duty, regardless of platform. That’s at least what Microsoft has led us to believe. To give it the benefit of the doubt, Minecraft launched on even more platforms when Microsoft acquired the property in 2014.
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