Sony And Nintendo Have High-Quality Exclusives: Microsoft Admits

The Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard is currently being scrutinized by several competition authorities and the different procedures are a treasure trove of industry information of all kinds. Now there are interesting statements about exclusive games.

The European Union and the British antitrust authorities are currently looking at the planned or intended purchase of Activision Blizzard, and the first investigations are also underway in the USA, but so far there is only unofficial information. Of the three authorities mentioned, the UK competition watchdog is the furthest along, with an in-depth Phase 2 investigation underway.

“Sony and Nintendo have better exclusives”

For Microsoft, this means that you have to comment on various questions from the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). And the Redmond company does that too, in the form of a quite remarkable kind of self-denial or making oneself small. Because in its last statement to the CMA, Microsoft announced that it would not buy Activision Blizzard to harm Sony or Nintendo (via Kotaku ).

Instead, Microsoft says the deal will help it compete with other gaming companies. The Redmond group means here that the PlayStation has the better exclusive games, which also have a higher quality.

Microsoft writes that even if they make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive (which they won’t), it wouldn’t matter because Sony and Nintendo have exclusives that sell better and are of higher quality. According to Microsoft, exclusive games are also “not uncommon” in the industry, so Sony also has numerous games such as The Last of Us and God of War that is only available for the PlayStation.

“Both Sony’s and Nintendo’s exclusive first-party games are among the best-selling in Europe and worldwide,” said Microsoft. “Current Sony-exclusive content includes well-known first-party titles such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Spider-Man. In addition to the exclusive content, Sony has also entered into agreements with third-party providers that exclude the Xbox from the group of platforms on which these providers can distribute their games.”