Guess who’s next.
Although I don’t think PlayStation would remove Call of Duty. I do think you underestimate Sony’s pettiness. Cyberpunk was removed for two reasons. PlayStation had a crappy refund system. Xbox had cyberpunk marketing rights. Clearly PlayStation wasn’t worried about third parties. PlayStation is only out to help themselves, even if it means burning a bridge with a popular publisher like CDPR.
Again it doesn’t mean they would remove Callof Duty. But don’t give PlayStation too much credit. They chose to throw CDPROJECTRED under the bus to hide the fact that their refund policy was pathetic compared to Steam and Xbox. As a bonus, cyberpunk had a marketing deal with Xbox. Don’t think for a second PlayStation would’ve pulled cyberpunk if Sony had marketing rights.
Despite the mainstream narratives, I’m right. This is exactly what happened and not that long ago.
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I mean sure, if the regulators were complete non functioning morons and never stepped outside, touched social media and were entirely disconnected from the world.
I mean they’re protecting Sony but at the same time their provisional findings for ABK were far more favorable than 99% of the other phase 2 provisional findings
I’ve been hearing idiots keep screaming “MONOPOLY” to which I ask…what exactly does MS have a monopoly in? Operating systems ? With cloud, they’re behind AWS and with productivity software they’re behind Google Apps. The reason MS is such a valuable company is because they diversify, its better to be in 2nd and 3rd place in 5-6 different areas vs Google who are basically making like 65% of their revenue off advertising
MS doesn’t want to be a monopoly because they don’t want regulators on their asses non stop. Why do you think they bailed Apple out in the 90’s ? Because if Apple is out of the picture then regulators are going to be laser focused on Microsoft.
Right now Apple and Google are constantly getting fined for anti-trust and routinely have to appear in front of congress…MS loves this because it keeps the heat off of them. They love having good relations with governments because they get those PHAT defense contracts with the Pentagon and the UK Parliament almost entirely uses MS products including Surfaces.
I guarantee if it ever got to the point where Sony was about to go under that Microsoft would likely end up bailing them out, they want Playstation and Nintendo around and healthy. Playstation’s market power and position have been a key arguing point for MS in the ABK deal
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Y’know I was going to post that Sony couldn’t have headlines like, “Sony says ‘no’ to Call of Duty”, “Sony rejects Call of Duty offer”, or " Sony denies Call of Duty a future on PlayStation" as they would be far too negative…
But you’re right.
The reality is that we wouldn’t see headlines that harsh. There would be some pressure from the media but they’ll likely claim to want to be balanced and go into detail why Sony is doing what they’re doing. There would be just as much pressure on MS as Sony. 
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Looks like Epic is on board. Even though Tim Sweeney is an asshole.
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It is a way to bring Fortnite.
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Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) remedies to address European Union antitrust concerns over its $69 billion acquisition of Activision (ATVI.O) focus only on cloud gaming services, with no mention of rival Sony (6758.T), people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
However, the absence of a Sony solution suggests the Commission no longer has concerns about competition in the console market.
The EU competition enforcer has given rivals and customers until the end of this week to provide feedback before it decides on the deal by May 22, they said.
The Commission is likely to accept such licensing deals and clear the deal, other people with direct knowledge of the deal have told Reuters, but it is not clear if the UK watchdog will accept such so-called behavioural remedies.
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Gaming media has been nitpicking and biased
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Makes sense, considering EC concers are now only about cloud.
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Not helpful lol
I dont get why the Media insists on being so flat out wrong on this. The 10 year contract with Nintendo goes towards the console space.
Its as if the media are clueless fish with only 5 minute memories.
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You don’t negotiate with yourself and as Microsoft has said many times, the contract with Sony is there for them to sign.
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They’re not reporting on the deals that MS announced publicly. They’re talking about the proposal MS submit to the EC after private discussions with them over the last week. They make it sound like the EC dropped their concerns over the console space so MS remedies submit to them didn’t require any of those guarantees.
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I tell you what though, I would love to be a fly on the wall at Sony. I believe they have always bet on regulators ultimately insisting on access to CoD even if the deal is approved, so it was always a win win for Sony for the longest time.
However, with the EC seemingly uninterested in the console angle, things are all of a sudden getting a bit dicey for Sony.
I believe Microsoft would still make the deal with them but in business you always minimise risk, and not signing the deal before the decision is starting to increase that risk.
Not any media. Again its the UK media. LOL. Looks like Jimmy Boy has greased nearly all the pockets.