• Since it announced its intent to purchase Activision Blizzard at the beginning of the year, Microsoft has faced mounting opposition. 
• Regulators in both the UK and US have been questioning how much power in the gaming industry it will hold if the deal is completed. 
• In response, Microsoft has cited the superior offerings of PlayStation and that the acquisition would help it get onto an equal footing.

At the beginning of the year, Microsoft laid out its plan to purchase the embattled Activision Blizzard, which has seemingly done little to address the toxic culture within its company.

At the time we noted that the deal could come under heavy scrutiny as it would give Microsoft an even larger sway in the gaming industry than it already holds. As it turns out, we were right, as regulators in both the United Kingdom and the United States have begun to ask questions, with the former being the first to do so.

On that front, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is in the process of conducting an in-depth review of the proposed acquisition, but in a rather odd turn, Microsoft is adopting a strange tactic in order to convince the CMA.

To that end, it’s citing the power of its competitors in the gaming industry, highlighting the fact that PlayStation has better quality exclusives in its stable compared to Microsoft.

“In addition to being the dominant console provider, Sony is also a powerful game publisher,” Microsoft wrote in an exhaustive 111-page CMA document (PDF).

“Sony is roughly equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft’s game publishing business,” it added, with the company also noting that, “there were over 280 exclusive first- and third-party titles on PlayStation in 2021, nearly five times as many as on Xbox.”

We tend to agree with Microsoft on the fact that its exclusives are generally poorer than that of PlayStation’s, especially as the brilliant God of War Ragnarok recently surpassed 5.1 million copies sold in its first launch week.

Microsoft added that its exclusives also score lower than that of PlayStation’s. “The average Metacritic score for Sony’s top 20 exclusive games in 2021 was 87/100, against 80/100 for Xbox,” the company asserts.

While there are some fair points being made here, Microsoft is seemingly forgetting one thing – Game Pass. The service has been a massive console seller for the company in recent years, and continues to deliver better value for money than any subscription service that PlayStation can muster at this stage.

As such, adding the catalogue of Activision Blizzard to Game Pass would indeed prove a move that would change the gaming landscape, despite Microsoft noting that the likes of Call of Duty will remain available across platforms and consoles.

Regardless, it is a weird tactic from Microsoft in order to convince regulators. Ultimately though, we will have to wait to see if the regulators agree and allow the acquisition to be completed.