- The PR blitz is in full force as Microsoft aims to complete their proposed Activision-Blizzard acquisition. Xbox lead Phil Spencer was recently on the second request podcast earlier this week and discussed all things Activision-Blizzard and had a few choice words for Sony.
When asked about the importance of Call of Duty in the regulatory discussions, Spencer said “There’s really only been one major opposer to the deal and that’s Sony. Sony is trying to protect their dominance on console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller. They have a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC. They don’t put their games in the subscription when they launch their games.”
Spencer adds more thoughts, including promising Call of Duty on Playstation, why it doesn’t make sense to remove Call of Duty from other platforms, and his confusion on why regulators are worrying so much about how this will impact Sony.
These comments by Spencer are very honest from his perspective and coincides with a Microsoft that is pulling all the stops to get this deal done. We will have to wait and see how regulators respond and if they buy Microsoft’s point of view.
This has been a disappointing PlayStation generation. They won’t even commit to making next gen exclusives until 3 years into the generation. Also don’t forget they couldn’t even be bothered to do a showcase this year.
PlayStation has 99 problems.
He sounds more exasperated that regulators are actually buying this stuff.
I think this is the first time I have heard him say “if” the deal closes, not “when”
I think it’s obvious that, after last gen, Sonys ceiling is 120-130mil consoles sold. They aren’t going to grow and grab more gamers so they have to drain the wallets of their current fan base. In order to do that, they have to try to prevent gamepass from growing because it will hurt their software sales, which they will need since hardware will stagnate again at 120-130million.
Instead of thinking of ways to grow the industry, they’re only thinking of ways to prevent actual innovative ideas from hurting them.
Sony could easily do what MS does with Gamepass and make obscene amounts of money. Why they refuse to do so is a great mystery to me. As always, the industry is changing and Sony is being dragged along kicking and screaming.
It is and it also predictably isn’t. Their current model is working too well for them, and they don’t want to legitimize the subscription model which could entail increasing investments and diversifying their 1st party. They’d rather double down on what they have + attempt to slow the growth of competition than try to compete with it themselves.
I bet PS5 doesn’t go past 100M. I just think there’s now much more competition and options than there was last-gen.
You got it wrong, they have 100 problems.
They dont have the funding or they dont know how. Sony always does this. They let Netflix eat their lunch and didnt do a damn thing.