Sony has expressed concern to the CMA regarding the possibility of Microsoft deliberately leaving bugs in the PlayStation version of future Call of Duty releases.
In its observations on the remedies notice issued by the CMA to Microsoft over the Activision Blizzard deal, Sony Interactive Entertainment has highlighted with concern that Microsoft may deliberately leave bugs in future PlayStation releases of Call of Duty, post-acquisition.
According to SIE, swiftly detecting any diversions from, and ensuring compliance with, a commitment as to technical or graphical quality would be challenging. In its example, the console maker stated that Microsoft might release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates.
Sony further stated that, even if such forms of degradation could be swiftly detected, any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty.
The console maker reminded the CMA that, as Modern Warfare II attests, Call of Duty is most often purchased in just the first few weeks of release. If it became known that the game’s performance on PlayStation was worse than on Xbox, the Call of Duty community on PlayStation could decide to switch to Xbox out of fear of playing their favorite game at a second-class or less competitive venue.
Other observations made by SIE include concerns over pricing and prioritization of the development and support of the Xbox version over the PlayStation version. Sony claimed that Microsoft has a clear incentive to raise the price of Call of Duty to degrade PlayStation’s competitiveness.
Additionally, the console maker stated that Microsoft may offer different incentives to the Xbox version. SIE clarified that, even if Microsoft operated in good faith, it would be incentivized to support and prioritize development of the Xbox version of the game, such as by using its best engineers and more of its resources. According to Sony, there would be no practical way for it or the CMA to monitor how Microsoft chooses to allocate its resources and the quality/quantity of engineers it devotes to the PlayStation version of Call of Duty, to ensure that it would be treated fairly and equally.
