Sony Believes Activision's Buyout Could Influence Console Buying Decisions

thegamer.com:

Xbox shook the video game world at the turn of the year when it revealed plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $70 billion. The deal is not yet finalized, and there's still a chance it might never be. However, Sony's thoughts on what it might mean for the industry have been revealed, including how much the PlayStation creators believe the deal could affect people's decisions when it comes to choosing a console.

The thoughts of those working at Sony come in the form of a questionnaire issued to the company and other major players such as Apple, Ubisoft, and Google. As highlighted on ResetEra, and reported by Push Square, this is standard practice when a deal of this magnitude is in the process of being approved. It needs to receive the okay from regulators around the world. In order to get an idea of how the deal might affect the industry, those regulators ask other major companies in the same line of work for their opinions.

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Brazil is one of the regions that needs to approve the acquisition to prevent it from being blocked. Since the country's government is incredibly transparent when it comes to this sort of thing, Sony's responses, and how worried it is about the acquisition, have been shared online. Sony appears to be worried about the potential of an Xbox-owned Call of Duty, in particular, detailing why the series is such a major player, and that it being an Xbox exclusive would greatly affect what console its loyal fanbase opts for in the future.

“No other developer can devote the same level of resources and expertise in game development,” Sony writes. “Even if they could, Call of Duty is overly entrenched, so that