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Sony was worried Call of Duty on PlayStation could be ruined by Microsoft, whether they know it or not

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It’s time to talk about everyone’s favorite ongoing story in games: the war of words between Microsoft and Sony over Microsoft’s plan to buy publisher Activision Blizzard. In the latest turn of events, Sony has said that it is worried that, if the acquisition goes through, Microsoft could break future Call of Duty games for PlayStation, either on purpose or by accident. This could make players lose faith in the PlayStation as a place to play Call of Duty.

Eurogamer said that in a new document, Sony listed several ways it thinks Microsoft could hurt Call of Duty or “harm PlayStation’s competitiveness.” These ideas came from the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK.

Sony says that Microsoft’s options include raising the price of Call of Duty on PlayStation, lowering its quality and performance (including by ignoring DualSense-specific features), limiting or not prioritizing investment in multiplayer on PS5 or PS4, or just making the game a Game Pass exclusive.

But Sony’s accusations about technical performance parity are the worst. They say that, “For example, Microsoft could make a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors only show up on the last level or after later updates. Even if these problems could be found quickly, it’s likely that any fix would come too late. By then, gamers would have lost faith in the PlayStation as a place to play Call of Duty.”

Sony goes on to say that any kind of “behavioral commitment” from Microsoft “would be hard,” and it also says that Microsoft “has moved slowly, only gotten involved when they thought the regulatory outlook was getting worse, and preferred to negotiate in the media over working with SIE.”

In a statement given to Eurogamer, Microsoft answered Sony’s claims: “Since the CMA released its provisional findings, we have offered solutions that address its concerns and make the deal better for UK players and game developers. These include a promise that access to Call of Duty will be the same on both Xbox and PlayStation and a promise that Call of Duty will be available to at least 150 million more players on other consoles and cloud streaming platforms once the deal is done. Now it’s up to the CMA to decide if it will block this deal to protect Sony, which is the market leader, or if it will look for ways to get more games to more players.”

How do you feel about Sony’s fears? Would you believe that the PlayStation version of Call of Duty would be just as good as the Xbox version if Microsoft paid for it?

As Editor here at GeekReply, I'm a big fan of all things Geeky. Most of my contributions to the site are technology related, but I'm also a big fan of video games. My genres of choice include RPGs, MMOs, Grand Strategy, and Simulation. If I'm not chasing after the latest gear on my MMO of choice, I'm here at GeekReply reporting on the latest in Geek culture.

Gaming

Sony Has a “Monopoly” on the High-End Japanese Gaming Market, According to a US Senator

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The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant.  Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.

The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.

Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”

This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.

What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?

It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”

It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.

Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades?  Let us leave that up to you.

 

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Consoles

Eating trash, Pizza Possum destroys the PS5

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Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered.  It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.

We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.

Your thoughts on Pizza Possum?  Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?

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Consoles

The Mercenaries, a free piece of DLC for Resident Evil 4 Remake, launches on April 7

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Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.

The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.

You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?

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