Sony Claims Microsoft Could Increase Prices If Activision Blizzard Deal is Approved - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 23 November 2022 / 6,205 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment in a newly published response to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the UK over Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard claims Microsoft will raise prices of its consoles and games as it would face weaker competition from PlayStation.
"In the short-term, PlayStation users would no longer have access to Call of Duty or would be forced to spend £450 on an equivalent Xbox to play this hugely popular game on their less preferred device," reads the response from Sony Interactive Entertainment.
"In the mid-term, a significant number of PlayStation users would likely switch to Xbox and/or Game Pass. Faced with weaker competition, Microsoft would be able to: increase console and game prices for Xbox users (including those that had switched from PlayStation); increase the price of Game Pass; and reduce innovation and quality.
"These harms would be amplified by the direct and indirect network effects at play in the industry, allowing Microsoft to further raise prices or reduce quality once its position has become even more entrenched."
It should be noted Sony and several third-party publishers and developers have raised the price of their games from $60 to $70 at the start of the latest generation.
Sony Interactive Entertainment also recently increased the price of the PlayStation 5 in most markets it is available. This includes Europe, UK, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, Canada, and more.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer last month did state, "We've held price on our console, we've held price on games for us and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we'll have to raise some prices on certain things.
"But going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices that we have, because we think consumers right now are more uncertain than they have been in a long time and I want our medium of video games to be something they find attractive."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Sony is divorced from reality at this point. They raised first party game prices to $70 this gen and just raised the price of PS5 in several markets (including most core markets), while Microsoft has kept their 1st party games at $60 and Xbox Series S and X have either maintained price or dropped in price in every market except for a handful of small markets where they were forced to increase the price due to currency exchange rates. This is quite the level of hypocrisy by Sony to claim that Xbox is the one who will raise prices.
Sony views Xbox as so little of a competitor to them that they are willing to raise their own prices and still feel like they are safe from Xbox, yet when Xbox does something to become more competitive, acquiring Acti-Blizz, Sony is now doing everything they can to prevent the console market from actually becoming competitive. Closer competition between Sony and MS should actually lower prices for both as they price drop to try and get an edge over one another, it's a win-win for consumers, we saw it in gen 7 with PS3 and 360 getting lots of price drops and special Holiday bundles and such.
As bad as MS was with their infamous EEE strategy years ago, like what happened to them with the supreme courts, the same should now happen with Sony.
This is them blatantly trying to fuck around with the market for their own benefit and control freak mentality.
I disagree that MS throwing 100billion at the biggest multiplatform publishers in the industry is a healthy or desired way of growing competition, but Sony is certainly talking out of their ass here.
Wait what. Sony raised their first party games to 70usd at launch and raised their console prices recently.. So it's kk for them to do it but not their competitors?
Still doesn't change the fact that they're accusing their competition of planning to do something that Sony has already done. They raised the price of games, they raised the price of consoles (in every market but the U.S.), and they increased their subscription prices. So if Microsoft was planning to do the same as Sony claims, what possible basis of complaint would Sony have?
Sony isn't talking about now, they're talking about the future and being a little vague.
What is meant, is that MS has unlimited money to spend, like $70 billion on AB, $1 buck Game Pass, and plenty more if they choose to, so Sony won't be able to compete period if these acquisitions continue.
If the AB deal goes through, there's little else that MS could buy that would be considered too big or too much.
This lack of competition as time went on would mean MS would be able to jack up prices by a lot, more and more.
Sony is charging more for their products, yes, but the assumption is this is to be able to use that money to better compete with MS in the future in whatever way.
Ms have said that cod will be treated like minecraft. So it never go away from Sony in the future.
Sony can easily compete with acquisition. There's alot of Japanese companies that won't let ms buy them with ease but cony would be able to.
Would say take 2 would be just as big if they allowed ms to buy them.
Whats wrong with ms jacking up prices for gamepass? Customers will still have a choice with either getting gamepass or buying physical on all console that will have abk. It was bound to happen.
Sony has alot more money then what people assume. Plus Sony first party game quality speaks for itself so if it was at 60usd it would still sell gang busters and if they didn't increase the price of ps5 it would sell more. I'm nz ps5 is 100 bucks min more then series x. That's quite a bit more. There was no need to increase the price with the assumption that they need it to compete with ms acquisition. Sony has plenty of money
If Sony has so much money, then why didn't they buy AB? Why haven't Sony bought EA or TT?
Why is it that MS easily could buy them, to the point where you admit MS going after TT after AB would totally make sense?
If raising prices for Sony didn't work out well as you say, why would it work out well for XB and Game Pass?
MS has also said they're only guaranteeing COD for 3 more years. Why isn't MS specifically saying they'll guarantee COD forever?
Cause Sony doesn't want to? Well there's no many big companies to buy after abk and Japanese ones won't allow ms to buy easily. Hence why I mentioned it. Take two has said they won't be bought. To be fair they don't need to with how well gta v sells.
Phil Spencer has confirmed many times that it will treat cod like minecraft and recently admitted that they offered Sony 10 years of cod.
Sony is doing really well in sales with price increase. Stats show. I never said it wasn't doing well for them. Its just hypocritical of them to complain about ms raising their prices eventually when they started thst already . Ms raising price for gamepass is coming. Every gamepass users know this as the price currently is too cheap for the value it provides. So if it increases by another 5 dollars then it's fine.
So Sony are hypocrites for what they've done with pricing and what they said recently, even though the pricing is inflation related and MS eventually raising prices is monopoly related?
What about MS stating they won't be raising prices like Sony, only to shortly follow that up saying we'll be raising prices soon?
They didn't say they will never increase the price. They said they won't do it this year.
Ms is only increasing the price of gamepass not their first party games or consoles. Nintendo hasn't done that either.
How are they able to not do it but Sony can't.
To answer your question, yes they are hypocrites
MS said right after Sony increased that they wouldn't be increasing. Then shortly after they came out and said, actually yes we will be after the holidays.
So MS increasing prices whenever they feel like it is ok, but Sony doing it because of inflation isn't?
If Sony is so wealthy, why did they increase prices? If MS is so wealthy, why are they increasing prices?
Raising prices just because you can is Sony's point. If you allow MS to become a monopoly that's exactly what you're going to get, and to a point where some gamers won't be able to participate.
Remember, if you can't or don't want to get an XB One, just get a 360? That's what Sony is talking about.
The price increase that will do is only for ms subscription service. Series s has already been discounted..
Xbox is only increasing price for gamepass is because the additional value that abk will. Provide once on gamepass. The current price for gamepass is far too cheap for the value to provide. Everytime they add games to their library they have to pay the publishers money. That cost money. Plus they didn't specify when. It can be next year or year after or yera after that.
Sony don't discount buy increased their consoles and at launch of ps5 said their games are 70us which made other publishers followed suite.
Ms is far from a monopoly as clearly shown. Plus they have a history 9f sharing games that they own as they only care about growing gamepass then selling consoles
. Consoles don't make money but games do.
But the claims that sony is making is bs. People don't buy ps for cod. They buy it for their exclusives. And Sony in itself has a much larger fan base that's not ties to cod plus Sony has 10 times more dormant Fps franchise that they haven't revived.
Plus ms has said they will treat cod like minecraft. Minecraft model has proven to be successful because under ms ownership the game has sold double the amount of copies minimum. Over 230 million copies. They want to replicate that with cod. Its huge financial sense for ms to do that.
If consoles don't make money, then why does Sony increasing their console pricing matter at all?
Sony first party keeps getting better and adds more value, but that doesn't justify a price increase?
Yet AB will add more value to Game Pass and that does justify a price increase?
Why does MS want Game Pass everywhere including PS consoles?
XB isn't a monopoly yet, but again, that's Sony's point. If you allow the AB buyout to go through, you've basically said MS can buy anyone and everyone. Which will lead to a monopoly. Which will lead to more and more price increases and some consumers being told just buy a Series S since you can't or won't buy a next gen Series E.
No, way more people buy PS consoles for third party games like COD or GTA. Only the hardcore buy for first party and that's a minority of console sales. How do you think COD makes so much money and why is Sony so worried about potentially losing COD?
MS says a lot of things. They also make a lot of 180's. Sony clearly knows this so unless MS wants to sign a lifetime deal with COD, which shouldn't be a problem apparently, then the AB deal is no doubt a serious concern for them.
Because of greed that's why and they know people will buy regardless just like how pokemon fans buy pokemon games no matter how bad the games are.
Just look at the stats of the number of consoles that ps sold during cod week vs god of war week. Fair to say that God of war week was alot higher then cod week. That happens whenever Sony first party gets released. Proof is in the pudding. Sony makes alot of money from cod because there's alot people who buy their consoles for first party. People only then buy third party as a filler while waiting for the next first party games. Cod is the easiest one to fill time because of warzone. Warzone is where cod makes the most money.
You do know there's alot more third party developers outside of the western world? Japanese side alone is huge and they will never sell to ms as its well known Japanese companies hate American ones. Bigger ones like take two will never sell because GTAV alone makes bank. They don't need any help from anyone.
You are also forgetting that sony has a much higher chance of buying all the Japanese studios. If ms doesn't buy it , tencent who is the number by quite a bit will just buy it and nobody will care about them.
10 years is easily ps5 and ps6 which is pretty good. When has Sony ever done that kind of deal and shared third party games that they have paid to not appear on their competitors? Have u ever considered that after 10 years ms might want to increase the price of renewing the contract to them?. Since they will own it they can charge whatever they want to their rivals.
All the whining that sony is doing, just shows that they don't want serious competition.. They just want an easy ride.
You pointed out that consoles don't make money. How is Sony being greedy if they aren't making money off consoles?
Only during the PS4 did Sony first party start to become a bigger draw for console purchases over the course of the gen.
How many consoles does Sony sell when no big games are being released? The majority of them.
How many casuals buy a console immediately for a specific game? A minority of them.
Never selling to MS, no matter the studio, isn't the same once XB has become the Windows of gaming. At that point some will have to sell or downsize to stay alive and relevant.
Bungie would never sell, apparently, because they made enough money and wanted to be totally free and independent. Now they're owned by Sony.
Then why hasn't Sony spent all that money you say they have on those Japanese studios who want to be bought up?
Sony never said they wanted to share exclusive games. It wasn't part of the business model.
MS has wanted to share since XB One and cross play. MS says they don't ever plan on making COD exclusive.
So why not a lifetime guarantee to Sony then that COD will be made available to them?
They can renegotiate every so often and if Sony declines then MS has the right to pull COD. What's so hard about that?
PS wants a fair ride, not a free ride, like XB gets off MS. Gamers don't want a monopoly either, so Sony isn't alone.
there is take two/rockstar and square enix. GTA is a must purchase game
Meanwhile you can increase your price and you actually did because Microsoft ain't competitive enough
Sony is so paranoid and just saying whatever they think sounds logical. No evidence needed... just spouting off 'coulda woulda shoulda'. If MS did raise prices... then Sony could say "see, we told you". for that to happen though, the deal has to go through. I'd bet MS doesnt raise prices just to show up Sony and their FUD.
Meanwhile you led the charge for $70 games, and now other big pubs are following in your footsteps...
I swear all the people running companies these days feel super detached from the current reality we reside in, from EG Ceo to Musk, to Sony and others.
Yeah, buying games Day 1 sucks. You get the worst possible product (bugs, delayed content releases) at the highest possible price.
I get the bulk of my games via subscription services these days, and when I do buy a game I buy it years after release so that I get a more complete game for less money. Wait for the "Game of the Year Edition" or the "Complete Collection" I say.
Ubisoft only changed their their minds recently and that’s only after Sony led the charge for 70$ games, Deathloop and Ghostwire are next only games that released while under MS ownership of Bethesda and both launched at 60$.
The problem with Sony's takes on this, the vast majority of their argument relies on MS taking CoD off PS, which there is nothing to say this will actually happen. On the contrary, MS has said time and time again, CoD isn't being taken off any platforms. If anything, MS will expand CoD onto more platforms like Nintendo's.
Just glancing at MS document vs Sony's, MS has over a hundred pages with a bunch of data to back up their points. Sony's is shorter with significantly less data, filled mostly of 'what if' scenarios.
At the end of the day, I don't blame Sony for trying to block the merger, but I can't read these takes and think these are some valid points. Some of them are just silly like the whole Nintendo comparison. Then saying MS will increase game/console prices while Sony actually has increased game/console prices.
You're exactly right on every count. I think Microsoft doesn't even want to take Call of Duty on PlayStation. They want it to cost $70 on Sony/Nintendo/Steam, but be included with Game Pass for far less. Call of Duty on PS helps Microsoft as it brings in millions in revenue, while also showing the benefits of Game Pass.
Sony's been claiming a lot of things lately it seems.
I just pulled this tweet from twitter (not mine)
This isn't about call of duty. Recent releases from the investigation all but prove it. Sony real concern isn't call of duty otherwise they would take this deal and shut up. It's about competition. They don't want microsoft to have a strong competitive position.
Sony has remained unchecked in the industry since ps1. They have always been at the top. They get every deal they want because Sony and because playstation. Losing grip on that is their issue. They don't want to have to work to compete they just wanna dominate
PS3 begs to differ.
Talk about hypocrisy...
Wtf is wrong with this company. Its okay to raise your prices but if your competitors do it, its not a good thing? They literally drove the $70 price tag and raised their hardware price.
Didn't they just increase prices themselves? Sony really need to cut out the hypocritical bullshit.
I honestly think there should be some legal repercussions for the shit Sony is saying. They're trying to prevent their WEAKER competitor from gaining marketshare. They're the ones that should be investigated on an anti-trust or monopoly basis.
Sony:
- Raised prices of games.
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Raised prices of consoles.
But worried Microsoft might do the same and match them? Hypocrites...
What's with these Sony articles haha it's like they're the villain in all the recent articles back to back!
This is so ridiculous from a PR standpoint. They must really believe they're fucked if the deal goes through, as they are doing huge damage to their image in the eyes of hardcore gamers (the only ones paying attention). Those gamers are only a small part of the market. But, they drive the trends, create much of the streaming content, and spend lots of money over time, as they play for their entire lives. Making yourself look ridiculous to those people is not a good long-term strategy. Sony knows this, but goes ahead with these statements anyway. That only makes sense if they feel like they have to stop the deal at all costs.
I don’t like this deal for various reasons, which I’ve made known, but wtf is Sony talking about, here? Is there some context that’s missing? Bc otherwise, most of it is nonsense and sounds quite hypocritical.
I fully understood the $10 game price increase—looking at it logically with time/inflation, I truly don’t understand how someone could argue otherwise—but Sony can’t then act concerned about MSFT increasing game prices. It feels very disingenuous.
Also confused about their “short term” concerns. CoD is not a concern short term, but rather long term (possibly).
Honestly, one of the best arguments Sony has is that this would be anti-competitive to Sony’s PS Plus Extra and Premium, bc having CoD in Gamepass will make Gamepass extremely difficult to compete with; yet, I haven’t heard Sony make this argument a single time.
Outrageous that Sony can spread such lies. The major games media are propagandists for not slamming Sony about their obvious lies.
1."In the short-term, PlayStation users would no longer have access to Call of Duty"...complete and utter lie, and Sony know it too. Xbox has offered CoD on PlayStation for years.
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"would be forced to spend £450 on an equivalent Xbox".....another filthy lie......Xbox plan is to have Call of Duty on PC, Switch, and even GamePass, which means you don't need to spend money on Console - which Sony wants to force CoD players to do when playing on Playstation.
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Reduced quality is another lie.
Xbox has given all their teams much longer development to IMPROVE the quality of their game.
If the games media don't call Sony out, then they are propagandists for Sony's lies.
I think everyone needs to be more objective. As I stated above, most of this comment from Sony is kind of baffling, but Microsoft’s PR BS is also extremely cringey and just utter drivel. And MSFT is not making a single pro-PlayStation move for the sake of PlayStation; they’re doing it strictly to get it passed through the regulators so they can increase profit and become a larger and larger and larger company. Every time they speak on how it’s “pro-consumer,” and all the other reasons it’s good for all gamer-kind, I feel like I’m listening to our dear, corrupt politicians. It’s so blatant.
Sony’s feeling massively threatened by this deal, and they’re fighting as much as possible to prevent it, entirely out of self-interest, i.e. money. Microsoft is acting from the same motivations. So I feel if one deserves to be called out, so does the other.
You do know that Sony is making an official reply to CMA instead of paying propaganda, the sites to that for their own clickbait.
if they do that is there choice!
Well Sony done it even without a deal =p
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