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Microsoft's outrageously large bid to purchase Activision Blizzard has resulted in a protracted, painful period of negotiations. Without getting too into the weeds with all this, the short version is Sony is trying to prevent the deal from going through, and the Xbox firm is of course pushing for regulators to let it happen. The latest round of statements have been made public, and in Microsoft's take, it claims Sony's first-party output is better than its own.

The company's point is that Sony has more exclusive games, and so it doesn't necessarily need the likes of Call of Duty to succeed. However, Microsoft's statement says "many of [Sony's first-party games] are of better quality" than its own output. To put it another way, the firm has officially documented an admission that its own titles are inferior to Sony's.

It goes on to call Sony "the dominant console provider" and a "powerful games publisher", apparently "equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft's game publishing business".

It's just one of many rebuttals to Sony's own report on this whole song and dance (which, by the way, makes allusions to the inevitable PS6). Microsoft is at pains to point out Sony will be just fine without Call of Duty, positioning itself as an underdog while making claims like the above, all to try and get this acquisition locked down. It's quite exhausting, all this, isn't it?

What do you make of Microsoft's comments about Sony and its first-party games? Do you agree with the corporation that PlayStation games are better? Discuss in the comments section below.

[source assets.publishing.service.gov.uk]