Microsoft says Sony wants to grow by making Xbox smaller

Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision has basically become one big fight vs PlayStation and Xbox, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. While Sony has been strongly opposing the buy-out (for obvious reasons), Microsoft has been defending itself in loads of strange ways, including by saying that PlayStation games are better than Xbox titles. They said it, not us.

Anyway, as reported by VGC, speaking on the Second Request podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer claimed that Sony, as the “one major opposer to the [Microsoft Activision] deal”, is attempting to grow as a company by making Xbox smaller. Which sounds a bit harsh, but given everything that’s been going on between the two, it isn’t exactly a far-fetched claim.

Before we get into it, be sure to check out this super-satisfying restoration video of a broken Xbox 360 below.

“Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller,” Spencer said (via VGC). “[Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC, they do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games.”

One franchise that keeps being brought up in the acquisition discussions is Call of Duty - since it’s an Activision IP, Xbox would own the series if the deal goes though. Despite constant reassurance from Microsoft that there are currently no plans to make future CoD games Xbox exclusives, Sony still isn’t happy.

“Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty,” Spencer said. “The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform. It’s a deal that benefits customers through choice and access.”

Unfortunately for Microsoft, a few days ago, the Federal Trade Commission voted in favour of filing a suit to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision. That doesn’t mean that the takeover is off, but it’s certainly not going as smoothly as Microsoft or Activision would hope.