After having received the approval of the European Commission to the Activision Blizzard purchase, Microsoft’s video game division, Xbox, is also trying to get the go-ahead from the US regulator. On the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States -FTC, for its acronym in English- does not seem to be so willing to approve the agreement.
Proof of this is that these days a judicial process is taking place in which Xbox must demonstrate that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for a value of $68.7 billion —some 62,900 million euros at the current exchange rate— would not mean a substantial decrease in competition in the video game industry, that is, the sector would not become a monopoly.
The lawsuit pits Xbox and the FTC against each other, but it is also taking a heavy toll on Microsoft’s direct competition, PlayStation (Sony’s video game subsidiary), which is trying to show that the purchase of Activision would, according to its criteria, be a monopolistic practice.
With that intention, PlayStation is being forced to submit some confidential documents that demonstrate that, indeed, the acquisition would considerably reduce its position of dominance in the video game sector. However, this process is not going as Sony expected, as published The Verge.
The documents presented by PlayStation were redacted with a black marker so that the most confidential parts of them would not come to light. After all, since this is a public trial in the United States, anyone can access that information. But, when scanned, you can slightly see the text that is under the pen strokes.
As reported The Verge, that text reveals some of the biggest secrets of the Sony video game division. Thus, it has been known, for example, that the development of Horizon Forbidden West lasted 5 years, needed 300 employees and cost 194 million euros. For his part, the The Last of Us Part II was carried out with 200 employees and cost about 202 million of euros.
Perhaps the most relevant fact that has been revealed has to do with the saga call of duty, one of the most controversial points of the agreement between Xbox and Activision. The franchise represents one of the biggest sources of income for PlayStation and this has been underlined by the information that has come to light.
In 2021, call of duty it would have generated PlayStation more than 730 million euros in the US alone. According to The Verge, that number would rise to nearly 1.4 billion globally. The data would correspond only to games sold, but if accessories, subscription and others are included, the amount would jump to 14,500 million euros.
