- Sony (10 pages)
The CMA's reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational.
The Addendum takes a diametrically opposite approach and focuses almost exclusively on a single economic model on which it places "significantly more weight" than other available evidence.
In conclusion, SIE respectfully submits that the Addendum does not justify the CMA's U-turn on the consoles theory of harm.The revised LTV model is vitiated by errors that bias the model to finding no incentive to Microsoft to foreclose. The Addendum jettisons, without sound reason, the PFs' thorough analysis of other evidence establishing Microsoft's incentives. And the Addendum's partial foreclosure discussion is based on pure speculation, rather than evidence. To reach a robust decision, the CMA should revisit its analysis of Microsoft's incentives and partial foreclosure, correcting for the errors identified in this paper.
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And just last week, two days before the Addendum was published, on March 22, the video game trade publication IGN published fresh evidence in the form of an interview with Redfall's creative director, Harvey Smith, that provides additional insight into Microsoft's strategy.19 Like Call of Duty, Redfall is a first-person shooter game that features both single player and cooperative multiplayer modes. In his interview with IGN, Mr. Smith explained that Redfall was originally planned to be released on all platforms, including PlayStation, but once Microsoft acquired Bethesda, there was a "huge sea change … [Microsoft] said, 'No PlayStation 5. Now we're gonna [sic] do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.'"20 He also explained that ZeniMax "was working on a PlayStation 5 version of the game" until Microsoft bought ZeniMax. After the acquisition, Microsoft "then canned the [PlayStation 5] port."21 Even though the studio had already put in the work to make a PlayStation version of the game, Microsoft decided to terminate this work and make the game exclusive to Xbox.
(Feel bad for Harvey being dragged into this but honestly he said something that was so damn obvious anyway and CMA already knew about it so Sony is clutching at straws by dragging him into it, CMA already acknowledged Microsoft acquired titles to make them exclusive, that Redfall/CoD are completely different and past precedent in regards to both Minecraft and Zenimax is irrelevant)
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Any degradation in the price, performance, or quality of play on PlayStation or any delays on release would quickly harm SIE's reputation and cause a loss of engagement and of players. As SIE's CEO, Jim Ryan, explained to the CMA at the Remedies Hearing, if PlayStation received a degraded version of Call of Duty, it would "seriously damage our reputation. Our gamers would desert our platform in droves and network effects would exacerbate the problem. Our business would never recover."
(This is just fucking hilarious, Lmao)
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Conversations in forums, chatrooms and public gaming sessions confirm that gamers are very conscious of the slightest changes in a game’s performance. 24
24 - By way of example, one player noted (with several others concurring) that at “[t]he 30fps [frames per second] from last gen consoles generally feels fine to me. Play a while at 60 or 120fps and go back to 30fps it feels a bit choppy and weird” and another player explained that “...people have a right to be picky considering a game costs 60 bucks, there should be some certain expectations of quality after paying that amount of money.” Reddit, Gamers, why is everybody so picky now a days? and Giantbomb, Are Gamers To Picky.
(Yes, Sony is using a Giantbomb article from 10 years ago as evidence and a Reddit thread)
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 06 April 2023
