Sony: MS Is Hiding Something In Their COD Offer That “Will Irreparably Harm Competition”

gameranx.com:

Sony does not seem interested in the ten year deal that Microsoft offered them for Call of Duty. While we assumed this was only becase Sony was simply trying to block Microsoft’s Activision deal at all costs, there may be something else to it.

In the CMA document titled Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Observations on the CMA’s Remedies Notice, which is dated February 22, 2023, Sony makes new claims that the offer Microsoft makes has provisions in it that will actually harm competition, not help it.

I will run down some of these statements from Sony below, but I need to point out right now that we don’t know what those provisions are. Why?

As reported by Stephen Totilo, Sony has stated that :

“Redacted versions of observations filed by SIE and Microsoft on the CMA’s remedies notice were made public this week. Information regarding the terms of an offer made by Microsoft to provide future Call of Duty releases on PlayStation was redacted at the request of Microsoft. We believe their current offer will irreparably harm competition and innovation in the industry.”

Let’s go through those portions of the document and parse through what Sony actually said about Microsoft’s offer, as best as we can.

On page 5, on a section about distortion risk, Sony states:

“Microsoft’s recent proposal to SIE (Sony) regarding Call of Duty raises this risk as well. The pricing terms Microsoft has proposed for buy-to-play would effectively give Microsoft a lever to raise the prices SIE could charge gamers to play their favorite game.

And for MGS (multi-game subscriptions) services, Microsoft has proposed a licensing arrangement that would [REDACTED]. This would make PlayStation Plus commercially unviable, forcing SIE either to raise its MGS