MS: Switching From PlayStation To Xbox Would Be Prohibitively Expensive

gameranx.com:

Microsoft has put forward an interesting question in their written response to the CMA’s provisional findings. Did you ever consider how much it would actually cost to move from PlayStation to Xbox?

Sony has claimed that this very scenario would happen if Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard King, and then decided to make Call of Duty exclusive to their platform. But what would a move like that actually entail?

Here’s what Microsoft has to say about this, on page 24 of the document named MICROSOFT’S RESPONSE TO THE CMA’S REMEDIES NOTICE, dated February 22, 2023:

“A PlayStation gamer who would switch to an Xbox would incur between $240 – $500 on a next generation console. In addition to this, if they decided to sell their PlayStation to cover the cost of the new console, they would need a significant investment to replace their PlayStation library of games.

Based on Xbox telemetry data, gamers who played CoD on Xbox purchased digitally [REDACTED] games in 2022. Assuming an average price of $70 per game this would be a cost of $[ REDACTED] just to replace the games they purchased in one year. The cost to replace their entire library of games would be materially higher.”

Not only are these costs likely to dampen the switching rates for CoD gamers, they also act as a huge disincentive to the wider PlayStation user base to follow their friends to Xbox. The Provisional Findings do not provide any evidence to explain how the hypothetical withholding of one piece of content would result in meaningful numbers of gamers being willing to incur these switching costs.”

So that’s $ 240 to $ 500 for the Xbox Series console alone, based on which SKU that hypothetical PlayStation gamer would want. On top of that, they would buy several