One of the biggest purchases of the year was the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Although everything seemed like just another procedure, as happened with Bethesda, for Redmond it became a huge problem. FTC seems to want to stop buying and it is not very clear whether it will close in the end.
Microsoft faced two main problems. Which, although at first glance it was not a stumbling block, in the end it became. Another, his main competitor. The popularity of Call of Duty is one of the advantages to buying, but also the main problem. And that’s exactly what Sony uses to create all sorts of barriers to purchase.
Xbox knows what Call of Duy means not only for the industry, also for Sony accountsand does his best to shooter fashion is not a problem to buy. PlayStation doesn’t think so and fears that one of the goose that lays the golden eggs will become exclusive in the medium term. Microsoft has dispelled all doubts, but still hasn’t convinced Sony.
Now, in yet another attempt to patch things up with Sony (and with regulators), Microsoft has offered Sony the opportunity to include Call of Duty on its PlayStation Plus subscription service. It is not at all clear whether this will change the position of Sony, which is especially critical in its hearings before the British regulator, including.
According to a report from bloombergMicrosoft offered Sony the right to offer Call of Duty games on PlayStation Plus. All members of this subscription service could access the entire franchise catalog. And if Sony accepts this offer, we could see the first release of Call of Duty games on PlayStation Plus.
The main problem is that this agreement goes against Sony’s model against PlayStation Plus. The company does not need big titles (or their exclusives) in the subscription service, and even more so at launch. In fact, the PlayStation Plus catalog, compared to Game Pass, is pretty bad both in terms of number and relevance of titles.
Putting Call of Duty on PlayStation Plus runs counter to Sony’s business model
Not too long ago, taking advantage of the launch of the new Plus modalities, the head of PlayStation made it clear that the first batch of the Japanese company would not be published at its launch in the new Plus subscription, although he did not. close the door: “So I don’t want to say anything right now. Everything I say today is about our short-term approach. The way our publishing model works now doesn’t make any sense. But things can change very quickly in this industry, as we all know.”
It actually makes sense for Sony. It dominates the console market, at least in terms of units sold. And not only does he take a margin for each sale of a game that is not in the Plus, He too fees for developers to publish on their platform. In addition, users, if they want to use online features, must also pay for Plus.
In fact, Call of Duty is the best example of this strategy on the PlayStation: record sales on the PlayStation, as well as all those who play multiplayer, pay Plus on time. Not needed in free Warzone Plus. but sony takes a good pick from every micropayment, leather sold or purchased bundles of coins. For PlayStation it is win-win in every sense, and putting Call of Duty on Plus would be a bad strategy in the short term. Why spoil a good repair?
For all these reasons, it’s not at all clear whether Sony will accept the new deal. And actually for the Japanese the best news It is that the purchase finally did not take place. But still, if the FTC and the UK regulator end up green-lighting the merger, Sony would be better off doing some sort of deal. You can win a lot or lose a lot.
Source: Hiper Textual
