Sony: Xbox’s Call of Duty Offer Will ‘Irreparably Harm Competition’

Sony is claiming it’s not happy with Microsoft’s latest Call of Duty offer, as the company said it would “irreparably” harm competition and innovation.

Earlier this week, reports filed from Sony and Microsoft to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority went public. From these documents, we learned that Microsoft is confident it can get Call of Duty running on Switch, and that Sony is worried Xbox will find ways to sabotage Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Also in these documents, however, were redacted details about Microsoft’s proposal to Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for the next decade. In a new statement regarding these documents, Sony claimed that the 10-year deal in its current state would be bad for competition.

“Redacted versions of the observations filed by SIE and Microsoft on the CMA’s remedies notice were made public this week,” Sony wrote in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz. “Information regarding the terms of an offer made by Microsoft to provide future Call of Duty releases on PlayStation was redacted at the request of Microsoft. We believe their current offer will irreparably harm competition and innovation in the industry.”

In Sony’s filing to the UK CMA, the company wrote that it is “extremely sceptical that an agreement with Microsoft could be reached, much less monitored and enforced effectively.”

Some of Sony’s listed concerns included Microsoft raising the price of Call of Duty on PlayStation, lowering the quality of the PlayStation version, not investing in the multiplayer experience on PlayStation, or making Call of Duty available only on Game Pass.

This new statement from Sony is the latest entry in PlayStation’s ongoing opposition of Microsoft’s attempts to push its acquisition of Activision Blizzard through. The year-long battle has included Microsoft calling PlayStation too big to fail and comparing Sony to Blockbuster. Meanwhile, Sony has said Battlefield can’t keep up with Call of Duty and claimed that “Game Pass leads PlayStation Plus significantly.”

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.