Amid the ongoing battle to get its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by Brazil, Microsoft has accused Sony of paying for “blocking rights” to prevent developers from adding its games to Xbox GamePass.
The company filed a claim before the South American country’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) on Tuesday, commenting that Sony has been actively trying to inhibit the growth of Game Pass by preventing certain games from appearing on Microsoft’s game streaming service. In the claim, Microsoft says that Sony is paying developers to keep their games out of Game Pass over exclusivity fears. In other words, it’s concerned that some of the Activision Blizzard games that are on PlayStation Plus, like games in the Call of Duty series, could become Game Pass exclusives once the deal closes, a concern that Microsoft considers incoherent.
“Given that exclusivity strategies have been at the heart of Sony’s strategy to strengthen the company’s presence in the games industry and that Sony is a leader in the distribution of digital games, Sony’s concern with any Activision’s content exclusivity is inconsistent, to say the least,” Microsoft said in the document, roughly translated from Portuguese. “Microsoft’s ability to continue to expand Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth. Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.”
Earlier this month, Sony said that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and by extension the Call of Duty franchise, would influence gamers to choose Xbox over PlayStation. Microsoft reiterated more than once that Call of Duty, as well as other games in Activision Blizzard’s portfolio, will remain cross-platform even after the deal closes later this fiscal year.
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