Microsoft Says Their Deal Will “Spur Sony To Invest In Its Subscription Offering”

Microsoft has made an interesting claim in their communication about the Activision Blizzard King deal to the UK CMA.

In the document named Microsoft’s Response to The CMA’s Remedies Notice, which is dated February 22, 2023, they shared this statement, in the section about offering content on Game Pass:

“Inclusion of Activision content in Game Pass will spur Sony to invest in its subscription offering: By enabling Microsoft to compete more effectively against Sony, the Merger can also be expected to push Sony to improve its subscription offering, to the benefit of its more than 46 million subscribers, which would in turn result in lower prices, higher quality and/or greater choice for console customers.

This is reflected in the consumer feedback to the CMA which stated that “the Merger will push Sony to innovate, such as by improving its subscription service”.

Indeed, Sony has already significantly improved PlayStation+ in response to the announcement of the Merger (introducing new tiers and adding additional content). Even without Sony first-party titles day and date, Sony’s monthly prices for PlayStation+ are higher than Game Pass prices.”

This is found in pages 8 to 9 of the document.

Microsoft makes a very particular claim here. If Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard, and puts their games on Game Pass, Sony won’t give up and yield the market to them.

Instead, they’ll try harder to compete, particularly in the game subscriptions market. By making this claim, Microsoft is also suggesting that Sony hasn’t been trying to make PlayStation Plus a viable service at all.

We reported late last month that Sony lost 2 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, following a change in the program that added tiers and extra products and services.

That program refresh was beset with its own problems, including the controversy surrounding the PlayStation 3 emulation only being available via streaming instead of being ported natively. Also an issue for many players were the issues with getting those cloud streaming services running with cloud saves on PC.

Even if the program recently has run into some concerns, Microsoft has overall ran a considerably more successful program with their Game Pass service.

Weeks ago we reported Microsoft’s staggered launch for Game Pass to 40 new countries and regions. When Microsoft finishes launching their service, there will be a total of 86 countries and regions which will have Game Pass. This puts them far ahead of other competitors in the game subscription and cloud gaming space.

On a personal level, I don’t know if Sony will necessarily change PlayStation Plus to match Microsoft in this situation. They seem to only see PlayStation Plus as a supplemental service, and put more value in getting as many full retail sales of games and other products as possible.

But the core of Microsoft’s argument, that it should spur competition, still remains valid. If Sony refuses to commit to game subscriptions the way Microsoft has, they will find other ways to compete. For example, it isn’t hard to see Sony put Bungie at work to make one or a few major live service games that eclipses Destiny, and will outdo the revenue Microsoft makes on Game Pass.