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It is both hilarious and utterly embarrassing reading this release by Sony. It stinks of sad desperation and wild accusations, not one single regulator globally believes them. And so because the CMA has investigated and seen through their lies, they attack the CMA effectively calling them thick and stupid? And yet only 2 weeks ago they were praising the CMA's efforts to seemingly disagree with the deal.

Sony you have lost, you have far overplayed your hand, take the L and save what ever face you have left. And I suggest you start to repair the damage you have done to your own studios, as you effectively threw them under a bus claiming only COD matters.

@Fenbops Well people still make cat videos right? I agree though why was Stray in the list.

Well done to that team! A worthy winner, I haven't played it much but with its simple gameplay I can see why so many love it. It's actually fun rather than trying to tell you 'the message' or some deep story. The Cult Of The Lamb is also very good.

@electrolite77 If you read the story it states they are claiming the acts of Sony and the Japanese government are in breach of an existing digital trade deal. So they already have one that covers this in place.

@Sol4ris Sony will get COD no matter what, Phil kinda has to return on that 69 billion dollar investment for their shareholders. But they won’t get anymore exclusive deals that’s for sure. And if Sony doesn’t sign the 10 year deal, then how long they have COD for is anyone’s guess.

However the majority of the money they’ll make from the investment will come from the mobile market. If they find themselves making a sizeable income from other platforms like mobile, then just how long they’ll support Sony for if it doesn’t sign that deal will be very interesting.

@Fenbops I have to say I see some members like him on here and add the odd reply or just think whatever. Then I go to Push Square and see their comments over there and it quickly becomes very obvious what their game is as you say.

An expected email from the CEO to calm the staff nerves. I suspect the water bottle chat must be rife.
But it will change the relationship the two companies have as the CEO and others I expect will leave after the merger, so it'll be a new team in place.

@UltimateOtaku91 Typical post from you, Sony are using monopolistic anti competitive tactics in its home market, and that’s against an existing trade deal. Hence the call for it to be investigated. Nintendo seem more then happy to work with Microsoft, it also has many first party exclusives, they haven’t been accused of making deals to deliberately keep ‘third party’ games off a competitors platform or streaming service.

Nothing shocking from Sony really, but now with the US government accusing the Japanese government of turning a blind eye, that is an important development and will require Japan to answer.

If Sony wants full access to the US market as it currently enjoys, it must allow US competitors the same level of free access to its market, as does the Japanese government need to, or they face the consequences which can include sanctions I’d imagine.

If you are a foreign entity, and enter a country to compete in its market, and then you actively lie and try to block business of your competitors that are home grown in that said market, don’t complain if the government starts pushing back on your monopolistic anti competitive actions in your own home country against the trade deal agreed.

Excellent update putting this into context, so it’s not ‘one’ US senate funded by Microsoft complaining, but 8 members of the senate complaining, and it’s not in relation to any future Japan US trade deal, but is in fact in breach of an existing Japan US trade deal, that definitely warrants full investigation with punishment against Japan.

You cannot just sign trade deals and then ignore your own laws and regulations when your home companies ignore them in their monopolistic anti competitive behaviour. Sony must have shown some very juicy details in those millions of documents they were forced to submit.

Not surprised considering how many were abusing it. Seemed easy to gain years of Game Pass for peanuts money.

@Titntin I did google it as someone in a video I saw made the claim, but so far I cannot find where it was reported that the Japanese government are investigating it all.
So I may well have spoken too soon on that. And I appreciate your suspicions. But I just think the concerns are justified in relation to any trade deal.
Many Senators are given money by big American companies, but it doesn't always mean foul play.
Still I don't appreciate this separation of high end consoles to low end ones like the Switch. They are all in the same market and gunning after the same customers.

@Titntin Why should it matter who gives her money? That's par for the course with the US and UK government, but that doesn't mean the Japanese aren't allowing advice monopolistic behaviour by their own home companies. We will see what happens but the US will demand and investigate fair treatment of its own companies use before any trade deal is signed.
And I suspect the 'someone told me' came along with some evidence too. Or it's a known practice in Japan that hasn't mattered until they want a trade deal with the US. I suspect there is smoke with this fire.

Guess we will find out as the year moves in. But as I understand the Japanese government has agreed to fully investigate it all. They haven't denied it at all.

Good grief I just read the report on this on Push Square, the article and endless comments are so utterly salty, a huge amount of ‘copium’ as they say. It is literally like someone has killed their mothers or something. Ridiculous, they still get COD but that’s not enough. They all just want ‘exclusivity’.

The story of the US Senator claiming Sony and the Japanese government practice monopolistic anti consumer practices is one to watch too, I believe it, but the Japanese government has promised to investigate, because they want a trade deal with the US and as such the US won’t allow any anti competitive behaviour against US companies.

One I need to play yet, it I know it’s narrative has been praised a lot.

Also personally I don’t really care what Metacritic thinks of anything, it’s a fake site where games are review bombed and it has suspicious activities deleting negative reviews.

@bobbypaycheque @bobbypaycheque I recall an interview Phil Spencer made last year I think, and he said what happens is most people go into a store, and walk out with a Nintendo Switch. He was honest about it.

@Tharsman That won't work, the courts cannot overturn the CMA's decision. All they can do is order it is reviewed again by the CMA and it'll be the same team who said no in the first place. That's the CMA appeal process, as such very very few appeals get a change in verdict.

Excellent news! It's as good as done! And the sweet sweet icing on the cake is Sony has got nothing, it overplayed its hand way too much, made up totally obvious bull crap, claiming MS would deliberately cripple their games on PS and the adults saw that as a child throwing a tantrum and treated Sony as such, HAH! Go and cry in the corner Ryan.
Sonys only option now is to sign the deal or get nothing.

I think I I'm addicted to it lol. So so easy to play one handed too. That's how a mobile game should be. Tons of fun too.

Well I hope he didn't write the last Doctor Strange film as it was utter garbage. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Said it many times on here, this is the game series that made me buy an Xbox 360 all those years ago. I have played this game too. I love all the Gears games.

@fizban3332 That’s false actually, the split for Sony and Xbox is a bit more even then many think, including the CMA, it considering that’s British Government Civil Service staff it’s not really surprising the bias they have, they literally have no clue what they are talking about, making claims what the technical abilities of the Switch are even, and they probably asked their children for advice.

@Kaloudz Sony’s laughable complaints claiming Microsoft will deliberately cripple COD on PlayStation etc have been thrown out by the EU competition commission, because they were a joke, so they are happy with the 10 year deal being offered.
The regulators are now doing their job in the EU and looking for guarantees over future markets for fair competition and that’s in cloud gaming, they don’t care about Sonys dominant market leading position as they shouldn’t do.

@Bleachedsmiles And I can tell you as a fact you are 100% wrong on the store space, I’ll argue it all day if you like, you are still wrong, you have selected what looks like one or two stores and decided that the entire nation and all stores are the same.. you are also wrong on console sales fact, Xbox sales increased in the UK. It was even reported on this website. Overall sales are down bit that’s the opposite of the UK market which is the one you are attempting to slander and belittle.

Odd strategy, which is what this is, I doubt the game isn’t finished, I suspect it’s been done for a while now I fact and this is a marketing decision to release in September.
Still I was expecting more form the June E3 showcase then one game.
This means Forza end of the year and nothing else. They really need to get Avowed out before mid 2024 then,

@PeteyPiranha Hmm bit like the vast majority if not all PS5 games especially exclusive ones, as they are all on the PS4.

@themightyant Agreed, developers seem to use the Series S as an excuse not to work and optimise the game. Because then they make more profit off a poorly optimised title and just blame the hardware as a convenient excuse.

@Bleachedsmiles I do and it's a 'fact' they do not. Xbox has just as big a presence as any other console.
And as for advertising, go and look at Sonys PS4 campaign to see how bad they are at it... the ONLY ads I see are for games and none for Sony games at that. You seem to be desperately trying to undermine Xbox I have the say.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Nope you are completely wrong, I never see a 'smaller display' or selection fact! And il die on a hill deer song that fact. What you've stated is total rubbish or based on one store.

@Jenkinss Millions and millions still only buy and use games consoles to play COD, FIFA, Fortnite with their mates. The market dominates as you said over ALL of Sonys exclusive games sales combined, and that's yearly.

@Bleachedsmiles Funny, I can visit any supermarket, Argos, any UK games store, CEX and many others to prove to myself you're absolutely utterly totally 100% wrong! In fact UK sales went up last year for Xbox. The complete opposite to the picture you are attempting to portray.

@Kaloudz Yeah I think something like £20, they'll need to make up for some of that 69 billion dollars spent, but won't want to stunt the growth of Game Pass or increase its churn rate. Bring it on I say! I fully believe next year we'll have some huge AAA MS studio games too, I'm hoping for State Of Decay 3 but think that's a 2025 game, but Avowed will be out next year I think.

I expect that the CMA will align with the EU and by end of April BOTH will approve the buyout, without anything needing to be sold off, we already know it will be as MS has abides by their requests for behavioural changes.
The FTC will then be forced to backdown as they have no case anyway. And I'll be seeing COD in Game Pass by July probably! However I also fully expect to see a price rise this year for Game Pass then too.

@Kaloudz I'd love it, I'd probably hook up a keyboard and mouse to my Series X for that!!

@Tharsman You can't do that, the CMA decision is final. All you can do is appeal and the court cannot overturn the decision so all they will simply state is go look at it again CMA, and it will go back to the same team who refused it in the first place, I think something like over 80% of appeals fail against the CMA, could be higher. But you can't take them to court as it doesn't work like that. This is the UK not USA.

@Kaloudz Seems the stampede has already started.

I'm all for COD, StarCraft would be amazing but that really is a PC game at the end of the day.

One down two to go. Will be interesting to hear what these remedies are. I thought the 10 year deal covered that?

@Savage_Joe Yeap, they have not made this 10 year deal part of their reviews other than an acceptance to approve it. If Sony doesn’t sign it gets nothing. Sonys entire strategy has spectacularly backfired on them and now they will be forced to accept the deal, and they will never get exclusive deals on COD again. If the buyout is approved.

I bet Sony suddenly thinks they 10 year offer is rather enticing…. Well done Microsoft and thank you FTC for approving these subpoenas, I expect lots of dirty juicy info on Sony and it’s ‘deals’, it could very well lead to anti trust investigations in Sony.

@Kevw2006 Probably the fact the Switch 2 will be out this year or next. Officially MS has not stated specifically that COD will be on 'Switch'.
However the Switch can run games people don't expect it to. And Splatoon runs incredibly well on it. I think with the resources they could get COD running on it in some form, then again it may stream off the cloud.

@Gamer83 4 is one of my favourites and 5 the least but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I've bought all of them despite being on Game Pass.

@Kaloudz How the hell does the CMA, who are a bunch of civil servants at the end of the day, know anything about what the Switch can and cannot run..?? Considering COD has been on Nintendo consoles before. What a ridiculous stance if that's true. Even the Vita had a special COD version on it. And let's not rule out most people are expecting a new Nintendo console this year or next to be launched.

@Tharsman He ONLY referred to brand new IP or current exclusive IP with that statement, because in that same breath he also stated, they would not be removing any IP that is currently on any other platform at the moment. And he wants to expand heavily their IP onto as many platforms as possible.

I watched the video and he could not have been anymore clear on this, but I bet Sony will STILL cry it's concerned about MS becoming a monopoly etc etc etc, and then it'll announce endless exclusive deals with games.
Sony are only annoyed that Phil has destroyed the PlayStation business model and Sony doesn't want to compete or change tactics, Nintendo aren't bothered but of course they embarrass Sony in their sales and approach to gaming anyway.

@NEStalgia And the ONLY reason they want to kill off the subscription model, is because the PlayStation business model is not built on it and they don’t want to change it, they like having the money roll in as is, with all their exclusive deals and lock outs to other platforms. They don’t care about Plus or Cora’s gameplay and have been dragged into it kicking and screaming like children. They don’t want to innovate at all.
Thankfully Spencer does and has turned the games business on its head with Game Pass, and for the better IMO.

@UltimateOtaku91 Wrong, MS already stated Sony can put the game on PS Plus if they want, that makes your points invalid.
As others have stated repeatedly, all Sony wants is exclusive content or other rights to COD on PS, including ones Xbox won’t have, they want the exact same status quo as they have now.
And thankfully they will not get that no matter what anyone says.

Always appreciate any news on the game franchise that made me buy Xbox in the first place all those years ago

@Chaudy Yes and the moment the signatures are made on the contracts, before the ink is even dry, Sony will be making every Square game entirely PlayStation exclusive, oh the hypocritical irony.

@Somebody And that’s purely to try and save face and their share price, everyone knows full well it was entirely Google’s fault Stadia failed, but of course Google are using all this as a perfect excuse for deflection and mis-direction from the fact it was their fault, instead attempting to blame Microsoft for their multi billion dollar incompetent loss.

@Fenbops Usually in business money talks above all else, but if the deal fails because of Sonys actions, that won’t help then with Activision as it will cost them billions most likely in lost share price, and the relationship will most certainly be damaged, probably beyond repair.

Sony are literally banking on the regulators refusing the deal. Well the EU is happy for it to go through, EVERY other company involved bar Google seems happy for it to go through, the FTC has its own ridiculous agenda to change the US law so it’ll lose anyway when MS take them to court and proves, as has happened many times now, that the FTC has broken the law.

The UK regulators who know what those idiots will do, they seem to not have a clue how cloud gaming works but are using their lack of knowledge as an excuse to question the deal?

So Sony is just being utterly disingenuous to everyone involved, it’s ignored Microsoft repeatedly and seemingly point blank refuses to enter negotiations with them, it’s refused subpoenas from the FTC and MS, and it’s lied to the FTC and we don’t know but most likely the EU and UK regulators as well. They are a joke of a company acting like spoilt brats, we all damn well know Sony wants the EXACT same treatment with COD as it currently gets, including all the exclusivity deals it has, and I can bet they want a clause that states COD will never be allowed on Game Pass too, but CAN be placed in their own streaming service.
Sony just making themselves look bigger and bigger and bigger fools. They’ve put me right off them personally and I believe others too. Arrogant monopolistic idiots.