In a statement to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, Sony has stated that it believes that Microsoft is ahead of Sony with its Xbox Game Pass service when compared to PlayStation Plus.
In the statement, Sony admits “beyond doubt that Game Pass is far ahead of PlayStation Plus” when it comes to market share. Sony made the admission as part of the argument that Microsoft has incentives to raise the price of Call of Duty if its acquisition of Activision Blizzard were to go through.
Sony has also stated that this would incentivise Microsoft to also degrade future PlayStation releases of Call of Duty, and make the games available only through Game Pass. Microsoft would also be incentivised to make Call of Duty available on PlayStation Plus at a “commercially unviable price, thereby making it de facto exclusive”, according to Sony. Microsoft has, however, said that it would allow Sony to put Call of Duty games on PlayStation Plus at launch under the same terms as Game Pass.
The admission came in a recent response Sony had submitted to the CMA, alongside responses submitted by Microsoft about its under investigation attempt at acquiring Activision Blizzard.