UK Government publishes Sony and Microsoft’s full arguments in Activision Blizzard acquisition case

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been investigating Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, has published a major update on the case. The government body has been listening to both Microsoft and Sony on whether or not this would lessen competition in the games industry.

Essentially, each party presented their arguments to support their position. That includes statements, data/evidence, as well as rebuttals to points made by the other side.

The arguments, published earlier today in the Gov.UK websiteThey are quite long. the one from sony is 22 pages [PDF]while Microsoft is a huge 111 pages [PDF].

If you’ve been keeping up with the public statements from Sony and Microsoft so far, you already know very well what to expect. The difference, of course, is that the documents include much more detailed versions, and in many cases reveal how companies view themselves and their competition.

Microsoft, for example, is very inclined to highlight how much better Sony exclusives have been compared to Microsoft, and how many of them there have been. We’re also happy to point out the many other PlayStation console exclusives that Sony paid third-party publishers for, either on a temporary basis or in perpetuity.

Sony, on the other hand, goes on to talk about the importance of Call of Duty and how owning it would allow Microsoft to increase prices for hardware and services. Sony also argues that Microsoft’s habit of citing Nintendo as an example of a platform thriving without Call of Duty is nonsense.

We are reviewing the documents now to see what interesting revelations can be gleaned from them.