Sony slams UK CMA: It’s ridiculous to favour Microsoft

At the end of March, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revised its interim report on Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, concluding that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not lead to a monopoly in the console market and stating that Microsoft would lose more if Call of Duty were exclusive to the Xbox.

Recently, Sony responded to the CMA in a document stating that "the sudden shift in the CMA's position is surprising, unprecedented and absurd".

In the document, Sony claims that the CMA's latest interim report abandons a full analysis of other evidence without sufficient justification, and that the suggestion that Microsoft will not pursue exclusivity following its acquisition of Activision is based on pure speculation rather than evidence.

There is already ample evidence that Microsoft has the ability and incentive to "withhold" Activision content from gamers, thereby significantly reducing the competitiveness of Sony's consoles.

Sony specifically notes in the document that just two days before the CMA's change of heart, the director of Red Dead Island publicly stated that the PS5 version of Red Dead Island, which was in development, was cancelled immediately after B was acquired by Microsoft.

Interestingly, however, according to a statement released by Microsoft, it never pulled any games from the PS platform, but instead expanded the content released on the PS platform following its acquisition of ZeniMax.

Sony's claim that "there is already a lot of evidence" is basically speculation, similar to the "Red Haze Island" incident, and lacks objective and credible direct evidence.

Microsoft has also pointed to its 2014 acquisition of Mojang Studios, noting that its game My World: Dungeons and the upcoming My World: Legends will both be released on the PS platform.

via CMA