Sony Makes Disingenuous Claim About Minecraft

gameranx.com:

Sony made a curious claim about Minecraft to the CMA.

In the document named SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE CMA’S PROVISIONAL FINDINGS, dated March 1, 2023, Sony characterized Minecraft in this way on page 5:

“Microsoft points to Minecraft as an example of an acquisition where it did not pursue exclusivity. But this example is not relevant to an exclusivity strategy regarding future releases of Call of Duty.

Minecraft is a single release game that is already in users’ hands: unlike Call of Duty, there are no future releases of Minecraft.

The CMA correctly points out that Minecraft’s “legacy monetisation model of a one-time fee for lifetime access and updates…differs significantly from Call of Duty, where users buy the new premium iteration of the game every year for a higher fee.”

So, is Minecraft a single game? It’s true that there is one game called Minecraft, that has been released to many platforms, and that those platforms are still growing. So far, Minecraft is available on:

It’s genuinely impressive how far Microsoft has brought Minecraft to since they acquired it and parent company Mojang.

In fact, the company has demonstrated sincerity in making the best versions of those games for other platforms, by allowing 4J Studios to produce the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack for Nintendo platforms. Originally released on Wii U, this was later made compatible on 3DS, and of course the Switch after it was published there.

However, here we are addressing Sony’s spurious claim. Sony suggests that Minecraft isn’t like Call of Duty because there is only one Minecraft. But is there?

The truth is, Microsoft has expanded the Minecraft franchise with multiple spinoff games, also produced by Mojang. This includes