Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota has written Sony a letter about their anti-competitive practices, and requesting information about the company.
Senator Cramer is the junior US Senator for North Dakota since 2019, and previously represented the state in the US Congress.
In the letter, Cramer addressed the current CEO and President of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida. He tells Yoshida that :
“I write to express concern about Sony’s efforts to protect its gaming console business from competition. For more than 20 years, Sony has utterly dominated the gaming console market, as the market has been defined by the Federal Trade Commission. I am concerned Sony’s dominance of that market, and its efforts to perpetuate its current position imperils an important economic development opportunity for North Dakota. Therefore, I write to request more information about Sony’s anti-competitive business practices.”
Senator Cramer than goes on to detail North Dakota’s entry into the gaming industry as a part of the state’s economy. They have invested in educational incentives for North Dakotans to enter the video game industry, and even in eSports. According to ESA figures, it already accounts for 221 jobs and $ 20.6 million in income.
Aside from citing the FTC’s definition of the console business, Senator Cramer cites these as anti-competitive practices:
- paying publishers not to distribute games on rival platforms
- lobbying the FTC and regulators abroad to block the Microsoft – Activision deal
- Sony acquiring Bungie in spite of blocking Microsoft’s deal
- Sony refusing to sign Microsoft’s ten year deal
The letter ends with Senator Cramer publicly requesting information from Sony on how they conduct their business. You can read the full letter here.
This goes without saying, but this is a considerable escalation from previous calls for an investigation of Sony by the US legislature. We had previously covered Washington Senator Maria Cantwell calling for US trade representative Katherine Tai to investigate Sony. Shortly afterwards, 11 members of Congress made the same request to Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
This time, there is no lobbying or understated threats involved. A US senator is directly talking to Sony, in the interests of the video game sector in his state. Their concerns that Sony’s practices is harming the video game business is real.
And North Dakota is not primarily known to be a Sony or Microsoft state, either. If Senator Cramer can have these questions about Sony, hypothetically, any US senator can make such requests as well. There are definitely many other US states that have invested in video games for their citizens, and have a vested interest that the game industry is being fair to all parties.
The ultimate irony of this, as Senator Cramer makes clear in this letter, is that Sony drew attention to themselves. Their own intervention in the different regulator investigations of the Microsoft – Activision deal hit headlines around the world. It also made public the kind of arguments that Sony used to try to block the acquisition.
And the discourse around Sony’s actions have brought to light, for example, the hypocrisy of Sony acquiring Bungie to block their games from appearing on rival platforms. Sony can’t complain that Microsoft will make games exclusive without people noticing they have been doing it themselves.
And so, it seems we are looking at a near future, after Microsoft finalizes their merger with Activision Blizzard King, that Sony will still be facing the consequences of their actions.
Did Sony break existing US – Japan trade agreements by securing exclusives for the PlayStation? Was this behavior always harmful to the game industry? Gamers and game press seem to think they know better than members of our US government. But it seems the government is now noticing a situation they believe had previously misinterpreted.
If the US government can pressure Microsoft to replace faulty Xbox 360 units, or compel Nintendo to offer free repairs for Joy-Cons, they can definitely investigate Sony’s practices, practices they have done for decades, and decide they shouldn’t be allowed to do it anymore.
