Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

We have the decision from Chile:

- Short version (5 pages)

- Long version (38 pages)

Both in Spanish.

I just skipped the long version and it looks very interesting and with new info. A few selected paragraphs:

The information gathered in the investigation makes it possible to affirm that the income generated by the Sony console from ABK are relevant, and that said relevance would discourage a blocking strategy by the parties. As a first background we can consider that Playstation is the console that generates the highest income for ABK, doubling in 2021 the income generated in its favor by Xbox consoles. The results are similar when looking at revenue for the Call of Duty franchise.

The importance of Sony is even more evident when the most successful Call of Duty title in the year 2020, Modern Warfare, is analyzed. For this title, Playstation represented 50-60% of revenue. The rest of the revenue is divided between PC with 20-30% and Xbox with 10-20%. This demonstrates the importance of the Sony console in ABK's products and how relevant would be for the company the loss of income by blocking from PlayStation the games developed by ABK.

The incentives to deploy an ABK game blocking strategy are also affected by the significant investments made during the course of the game's development, in adjustments aimed at meeting the technical specifications of the consoles. Due to the above, for this regulator it is evident that a possible blockade of Playstation would imply the loss of all the investments made years in advance to adapt the next releases of titles on Playstation.

[…]

But even such a partial lockdown scenario might be unlikely, if a low number of players are willing to migrate from PlayStation to Xbox as a result of the lockdown. In this sense, the results of the Survey – implemented by this Division to Chilean video game consumers – shed light on the willingness of players to change their device, given the supposed unavailability of Call of Duty on Sony consoles. The data from the Survey shows that 61% of console players, faced with a scenario of unavailability of Call of Duty, would opt for a different video game, and only 20% would opt to switch to another device.

[…]

In light of the foregoing, this Division considers that deploying a potential strategy of partial or total blocking of PlayStation would imply, in a certain way, contravening the trend towards which the market is projected, and would generate deviations towards competing video games that they do include this modality (crossplay). The importance of crossplay for Call of Duty players is confirmed, for local consumers, in the results of the Survey, which indicates that 72% of Call of Duty players on consoles consider this modality as a relevant factor for choosing your primary device.

[…]

If we analyze the conduct that the merged entity could display with respect to Sony, we have, first of all, that Call of Duty is not the franchise that generates the highest income for it. Illustrative of this is that, by 2021, Call of Duty represented [0%-10%] of the total revenue received by Sony, behind FIFA and Fortnite. Therefore, the removal of Call of Duty from the portfolio of titles available on its platform, while it could have some impact on the company's revenue, would not deprive Sony of its main source of income.

[…]

The damage at the profit level for console providers, such as Sony, is even more limited if one considers that, at least in the Chilean market, the vast majority of Call of Duty players, faced with indefinite unavailability of said franchise, would not change platforms and would only choose to play another video game.

Similarly, when asked: "Based on your experience as a video game player, rate the following contents from essential to highly dispensable", 65% considered the title Grand Theft Auto essential or not dispensable, and 62 % expressed such opinion regarding Call of Duty. It should be noted that these results are even more telling, considering that the respondent base was made up of Call of Duty players and not necessarily Grand Theft Auto players. Thus, the importance of Gran Theft Auto could be underestimated in view of those who make up the Survey sample.

Source: Idas