That Sony is concerned about the possibility that Microsoft could buy Activision Blizzard is a fact that no one can dispute anymore, and that this has led the Japanese company to use hypocritical and meaningless arguments is not something that we cannot deny either. The latest “wonder” that Sony has launched to try to convince the UK competition authority is that Microsoft could release bugged versions of Call of Duty on PlayStation.
The concept of Call of Duty builds with issues is very broad, and seems to include from less optimization to content limitations. He also says that he could apply that strategy to rival consoles like the Nintendo Switch. That Sony comes to criticize something that it has been doing for years is traca, because I am sure that you all remember the “first on PlayStation” that has always been associated with Call of Duty, or the exclusive benefits of Call of Duty Modern Warfare II on PlayStation.
Sony comes to say that the purchase of Activision Blizzard should be blocked because thinks Microsoft could do something she’s been doing for years, and that this could adversely affect free competition. So, if Sony does it for years, nothing happens, but if there is a possibility that Microsoft does it, it is terrible and it must be prevented at all costs, right? The hypocrisy that this gives off is tremendous.
The Japanese company insists that it would be necessary to remove the Call of Duty franchise from the Activision Blizzard purchase operation, and that not doing so would harm the competition. Sony had a hard time answering to the agreements that Microsoft signed with NVIDIA and Nintendo, in which it guaranteed that said franchise would reach both GeForce Now and Nintendo Switch, but we already see that even in that situation their hand has not trembled when it comes to resorting to an absurd and hypocritical argument.
On the technical front, Sony has said that those buggy versions of Call of Duty could be coming to PlayStation loaded with problems that would affect the gameplay experience, and that they could also have poor optimization and lower graphic quality. This would be enough, according to Sony, for the game to sell worse on its console, and even if it is fixed later with patches, the damage would be irreparable because Call of Duty only sells really well in the first few days of release.
Again Sony counts a manipulated version far from realityBecause nowadays it’s rare for a perfectly optimized and polished game to hit the market that doesn’t need at least a couple of patches, and because each Call of Duty installment maintains a good level of sales throughout its life. The problem with all this is that in the end these arguments can work because the regulatory bodies do not know the reality of the market they regulate.
On the other hand, Sony seems to forget the numerous graphical parity impositions that he used in the days of PS2, a console that was much less powerful than Xbox and GameCube. This imposition meant that cross-platform games had the same graphic quality on these two consoles as on PS2, something that was obviously unfair. With PS5 and Xbox Series X we have also seen cases of games that They have arrived optimized for the first and that have given problems in the seconddespite the fact that the latter is more powerful.
We’ll see how Microsoft responds to this argument, but that Sony is so concerned is a clear indication that the Activision Blizzard purchase operation could end up receiving the thumbs up from europesomething that we already told you a few days ago.
