Laying out their latest strategy in defence of their planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has stated before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it has “lost the console wars”. According to Microsoft’s sales data, Xbox consoles only consisted of 16% of all console sales in 2021, putting them far below both Sony and Nintendo’s efforts. And unless things change, Microsoft is convinced its industry rivals are only going to continue to leave Xbox in the dust. According to their court filing: “Xbox has lost the console wars, and its rivals are positioned to continue to dominate”.
While usually reticent when it comes to sharing sales data, Microsoft have had to change tactics as their struggle to convince the FTC that their acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not grant them an unfair advantage over the games industry. This, of course, has been Sony’s argument against the acquisition, and has convinced both the US and UK to block the merger. A decision that Microsoft is currently trying to appeal.
As reported by The Verge, Microsoft attests that “Sony is the dominant player in consoles”, with a playerbase that only continues to grow. Whereas Microsoft is lagging behind significantly, as “Xbox consoles consistently rank third behind PlayStation and Nintendo in sales”. By admitting to this, Microsoft is hoping to prove that Sony has nothing to fear in the takeover, and that it would instead result in more competition in the video game and console market.
Sony, however, is not backing down. In a recent statement to the FTC, they have said that if the deal goes through, they would cease sharing technology and upcoming console details with Activision. As stated by PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, “We simply could not run the risk of a company owned by a direct competitor having access to that information”. This would spell bad news to gamers, as Activision would be unable to tailor its future games to consoles such as the PlayStation 6 – potentially resulting in sub-optimized games, and giving Xbox a clear advantage.
Sony is still working closely with Activision on its Call of Duty games (as evidenced by its exclusive Combat Packs), but if this deal goes through, all that could change.
