Xbox Calls PlayStation Too Big to Fail Following UK Agency's Criticism of Activision Blizzard Deal

ign.com:

Xbox has developed a novel tactic for defending its Activision Blizzard acquisition, which continues to wind its way through various regulatory bodies around the world: self-deprecation.

In response to claims by concerns raised by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority [CMA], Microsoft released a lengthy statement to GamesIndustry.biz calling the criticism is “unsupported” and pointing to PlayStation’s leading place in the market as a reason why.

"The suggestion that the incumbent market leader, with clear and enduring market power, could be foreclosed by the third largest provider as a result of losing access to one title is not credible,” Microsoft said in a statement.

While Microsoft didn't share figures, the company says that if every Call of Duty player on PlayStation's consoles switched to Xbox, "the PlayStation gamer base remaining would be significantly larger than Xbox."

"In short, Sony is not vulnerable to a hypothetical foreclosure strategy, and the Referral Decision incorrectly relies on self-serving statements by Sony which significantly exaggerate the importance of Call of Duty to it and neglect to account for Sony's clear ability to competitively respond," Microsoft’s statement said. "While Sony may not welcome increased competition, it has the ability to adapt and compete. Gamers will ultimately benefit from this increased competition and choice."

As far as the CMA’s concerns about the streaming market, Microsoft says it has “no advantage,” and says Xbox feels it has a “number of significant disadvantages” in comparison to other competitors because of the relatively limited platform support for Xbox Cloud Gaming. The company also says that adoption of video game streaming is relatively low, and that