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As industry titans Sony and Microsoft continue to play the victim in an attempt to influence regulators regarding the latter’s outrageous near-$70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, we’re beginning to see both companies openly acknowledge their weaknesses. Earlier today, the Redmond firm effectively admitted that its first-party exclusives aren’t as good as PlayStation’s, and now the Japanese giant has responded by revealing that PS Plus is, well, getting its arse kicked by Xbox Game Pass.

Sony is particularly concerned that, if Microsoft were to buy Activision Blizzard, franchises like Call of Duty would be exclusively added to Xbox Game Pass. And to underline how problematic that may be, the firm told UK government regulators that the multi-game subscription tiers of PS Plus “considerably lag” behind the 29 million members Microsoft has. While the actual numbers are redacted, we’re guessing the difference is pretty large, otherwise PlayStation’s lawyers wouldn’t be mentioning it.

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It’s important to underline here that Sony is presumably referring specifically to PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium, because we know PS Plus Essential already dwarfs Xbox Game Pass with 45.4 million active members, as per the organisation’s most recent financial report. Nevertheless, the Japanese giant goes on to argue that, with Activision Blizzard under its umbrella, PS Plus would effectively never be able to catch up, thus harming competition and adversely affecting the industry overall. It’ll be down to regulators to determine whether it has a point or not.

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