Earlier at the beginning of the month, the Federal Trade Authority decided to file an antitrust lawsuit against the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King by Microsoft, in an attempt to stop the deal for fear of harming competition.
Microsoft responded this week to the claims of the Federal Trade Authority, and pointed out that it is Sony that is harming the competition because it had a deal with several third-party keys that made several games exclusive, and they never reached the Xbox consoles.
Microsoft claims in the response document (click here to read it in full) that although exclusive development companies are a common thing in the industry, Sony has unusual agreements with distributors such as Square Enix, Konami or FromSoft, and is the one that prevents certain games from reaching the Xbox consoles, although in practice, None of these companies are exclusively owned by Sony.
"Beyond the exclusive content that Sony offers, it has reached agreements with third-party distributors that skip the Xbox and exclude it from all the platforms for which the games can be marketed. Prominent examples of this are the remake of Paint Fantasy 7 and the recently announced Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix), Bloodborne (FromSoft ), and the remake of Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team)," it says.
Sony praises Sony's exclusives, and mentions the titles from developers not fully owned by Sony and the games that will not come to Xbox. (Photo: screenshot, Microsoft)
Some of the cases cited by Microsoft are actually agreements that Sony reached with some of the distributors and developers, where it gets a year's exclusivity on games.
For example, the remake of Silent Hill 2 will be released for Xbox after this time period.
For example, this was also the case with Deathloop of the distributor Bethesda (before it was acquired by Microsoft).
Other games not mentioned are Square Enix's Forspoken, which is currently only coming to PlayStation 5 and PC.
But it's not just about exclusive games, in some cases it's also about content.
The Call of Duty series for generations has received unique content in recent years that only PlayStation players can enjoy, such as skins, items, and even exclusivity on the zombie mode for about a year.
The game in the Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts Legacy, will also receive a quest and exclusive content on the Sony platform.
On the exclusivity side of Microsoft, it has already announced that Bethesda games such as Elders Scroll 6, Starfield, or Redfall will not come to PlayStation.
In terms of keys it doesn't own, notable indie games like Scorn or High On Life have been exclusive to Xbox and the Game Pass services and are not currently available from Sony.
Starfield and Redfall: Bethesda's games that will be exclusive to Xbox (photo: official website, Bethesda)
If Microsoft does not reach an agreement with the Federal Trade Authority, it will be forced to resolve the matter in court, and this is a scenario that executives at Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft have been preparing for, stating that they are ready to fight for the purchase if necessary.
Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, claimed that in his opinion it is possible to reach an agreement where all parties are satisfied and benefit, both Sony and the regulators.
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