The FTC recently claimed Microsoft had turned Xbox Game Pass into a ‘degraded product’ by increasing the price of certain subscriptions and removing day-one access to first party titles from a new ‘Standard’ tier. Microsoft begs to differ.
The Xbox maker has issued a reply to the FTC and claims the regulator has pulled together a “misleading, extra-record account of the facts.”
The company fired back in a letter spotted by The Verge reporter Tom Warren and indicated the FTC is attempting to “reinvent” its case against the tech giant after failing to stop its merger with Activision Blizzard.
It claims the FTC failed to take key facts into account when appraising the new Xbox Game Pass tiers and price plans, such as the inclusion of Call of Duty for Ultimate members and multiplayer access for Standard subscribers.
“Microsoft is offering a new service tier, Game Pass Standard, which offers access to hundreds of back-catalog games and multiplayer functionality for $14.99/month. It is wrong to call this a ‘degraded’ version of the discontinued Game Pass for Console offering. That discontinued product did not offer multiplayer functionality, which had to be purchased separately for an additional $9.99/month,” writes Microsoft.
“While Game Pass Ultimate’s price will increase from $16.99/month to $19.99/month, the service will offer more value through many new games available ‘day-and-date.’ Among them is the upcoming release of Call of Duty, which has never before been available on subscription day-and-date.'”
Microsoft feels the FTC is trying to “shift focus” onto the subscription market after the district court rejected its “theory” that Microsoft would withhold Call of Duty from rival consoles like PlayStation. That claim has been debunked for the time being, with Sony accepting Microsoft’s offer to keep the franchise on PlayStation for at least a decade.
Finally, Microsoft says there “remains no evidence anywhere of harm to competition” as a result of its merger, and claims that Sony’s own subscription service continues to thrive. “The transaction thus continues to benefit competition and consumers–exactly what the district court correctly found,” adds Microsoft.