US Congress Calls For Investigation Into PlayStation (Yes, Really)
Following the news that Senator Maria Cantwell called for an investigation into Sony’s alleged anti-competitive practices in Japan, eleven members of the US Congress have made the same appeal.
These Congresspeople come from both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, and they sent letters with the same message as Senator Cantwell’s to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, as well as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
As reported by Stephen Totilo on Axios, this was the substance of the letter from the Republican Congresspeople:
“Today, we write to bring to your attention the imbalanced Japanese video game market, which we are concerned may be a result of a discriminatory trade practice that could violate the spirit of the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement.
The Japanese government’s effective policy of non-prosecution when it comes to Sony appears to be a serious barrier to U.S. exports, with real impacts for Microsoft and the many U.S. game developers and publishers that sell globally but see their earnings in Japan depressed by these practices.”
The letters also cites the same argument made by Senator Cantwell, that Sony has 98 % of the Japanese high-end console market.
Some fans seem to have been arguing about the source of this figure. It’s true that Sony, and separately, the FTC, have adopted this idea of the high-end console market, to exclude the Nintendo Switch in their arguments against the Microsoft-Activision deal.
But it seems more likely these US officials found the source that Atty Curt Levey used, in his article arguing that the US FTC was colluding with Japan’s regulator to favor Sony over the US-based company Microsoft.
Some gamers also use the argument that Nintendo’s dominant position in
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