In a battle against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout, Sony has made a painful statement.
This year’s battle in the video game industry has not been for the GOTY. The big fight has been Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard. This fight between Sony and Xbox has made both companies leave any kind of filters aside.
Sony, doing everything possible so that the purchase does not take place, presented a document stating the reasons. But what no one expected was that Sony would make such serious claims about EA’s Xbox franchise partner, Battlefield. According to this document, Call of Duty is the benchmark of first-person shooters, something that Battlefield has never been able to achieve and will never achieve.
A tough statement from Sony
If you’re a fan of the FPS genre, or of video games in general, you’ve probably played both Call of Duty and Battlefield. Although every gamer has their favorite, it is undeniable that both have been benchmarks in FPS gaming. Although Call of Duty has remained at the top, Battlefield has left much to be desired with its latest release, Battlefield 2042.
This has been commented on by Sony in the most recent document against the purchase of Activision Blizzard. The Japanese company is on the verge of losing one of the most iconic franchises of a third-party studio associated with PlayStation.
In the document submitted by Sony, the Japanese company in point 16, has said this:
Even assuming that SIE had the ability and resources to develop a similarly successful franchise to Call of Duty, it would take many, many years and billions of dollars to create a challenger to Call of Duty – and the example of EA’s Battlefield shows that any such efforts would more than likely be unsuccessful.
It’s a very painful statement that not only affects Xbox but EA directly. A single bad installment should not call into question all of the great titles in the franchise. If so, Call of Duty has also had great failures. **cough cough Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Vanguard cough cough cough**
Sony desperately seeks to boycott the purchase
Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard purchase was a great business move. The merged companies contain a long list of major franchises and games in development. But the sale has raised a lot of red flags in the industry, especially for PlayStation. Although Sony broke its silence in January with a pretty tepid statement, it now strongly opposes the Activision Blizzard deal.
Since the CMA in the UK is investigating the purchase, Sony has spoken out in several documents stating reasons to stop the purchase. Being the main affected by the Xbox move, Sony has done everything possible for the CMA to continue investigating the move, going so far as to make unfair statements.
The clearest one has been the Call of Duty one. Sony predicts that Xbox will make Call of Duty games exclusive only to its consoles and PC. Despite the claims from Sony, Microsoft insists that it has something completely different in mind. Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox, has previously stated that they do not plan to make this move. It’s up to regulators to decide if they believe it or not.
It’s only a matter of time before the filters fade completely and we see a more upfront confrontation between Sony and Microsoft. In the meantime, we’ll be sitting back and watching the show while eating popcorn.
