Xbox boss Phil Spencer believes PlayStation is trying to retain its “dominance” of the console market by “making Xbox smaller” and objecting to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller,” Spencer said on the Second Request podcast when discussing “the one major opposer to the deal”: Sony.
“Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller,” Spencer said (via VGC).
“[Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC, they do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games.”
Spencer claimed that “Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through”, saying that the company is trying to protect PlayStation’s “dominant position on console” by “grab[bing] onto Call of Duty”.
“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,” Spencer added. “It’s a deal that benefits customers through choice and access.”
Microsoft has agreed a 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo if its buyout of Activision Blizzard goes through.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer tweeted the announcement earlier this week, which also confirms the company’s commitment to continue to release Call of Duty games on Valve’s Steam platform “simultaneously to Xbox”, if the gargantuan $69 billion offer to buy Activision Blizzard is approved. Call of Duty’s latest releases, Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0, are already on Steam.
The FTC reportedly looks set to approve the buyout. Microsoft and Activision have previously said they expect the deal to be finalised before the middle of 2023.
