Sony’s List Of ‘Demands’ For Microsoft Owning ‘Call Of Duty’ Is Ridiculous

No one is fighting back harder against Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard than Sony, and this week, it seems they have possibly swayed UK regulators to their side.

This resulted in the release of a lengthy document from the UK’s CMA regulatory body, including a number of eye-popping passages that stand out if you read through the sprawling 76 page report.

One thing that caught my eye was Sony’s cautionary tale about the “dangers” of Microsoft controlling Call of Duty for consumers, which reads like a list of demands of things that Microsoft shouldn’t be allowed to do if they take possession of the franchise. Among them:

• Microsoft would be able to give the Xbox version of Call of Duty extra content.
• Microsoft could give the Xbox version of Call of Duty better performance somehow on Xbox hardware.
• Microsoft could offer a range of attractive incentives about Call of Duty through Xbox Game Pass, whether that’s bonus features or modes or presumably, the idea that they’d offer the game itself through Game Pass, which they obviously plan to.

While both Microsoft and Sony have said some very disingenuous, hypocritical things during this whole process, Sony keeps topping themselves, and even many avid PlayStation fans aren’t really able to support this one. Why? Because Sony is currently doing a ton of the stuff they’re accusing Xbox of conspiring to do. And they’re doing with Call of Duty! Right now!

Due to Sony’s current deal with Activision, there are all kinds of special perks and promotions being offered exclusively to PlayStation players for Modern Warfare 2, as there have been in the past with other installments. Early beta access on PSN! An exclusive operator! Weapon blueprints! An entire zombies mode in Cold War! The point is that Sony is warning regulators that Microsoft could end up doing things that…they are already doing with the exact series in question, and have been doing for years, just because they paid enough to secure this content exclusivity deal with Activision. Microsoft buys Activision, that goes away, but I have no idea how anyone could see this as a coherent argument against the deal given Sony’s behavior.

Yes, it’s true that Microsoft has done exclusive content for many games in the past, and even with Call of Duty back in the Xbox 360 era especially. But Sony is doing this as we speak with the exact series in question. To list complaints like this for actions they themselves are taking presently is absurd, and should undercut their entire argument, though it doesn’t seem like it is, according to UK regulators. Though reading over that entire document, I am skeptical of how well the CMA really knows the industry, as they dismiss claims that Nintendo succeeds without Call of Duty because it’s mostly a “family based console” that is declared not direct competition to Sony and Microsoft. Sure, okay. Tell that to the 20 million 35 year-olds about to buy the new Pokémon game this fall.

Both Microsoft and Sony have laid out very, very stupid, disingenuous arguments throughout this whole process and the back and forth is getting exhausting. I’ve taken issue with Microsoft’s transparently self-serving “we’re doing this for the players!!” rationale, but what Sony is saying here is a level of hypocrisy so blatant it’s almost laughable.

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