Microsoft and Sony's endless bickering regarding the ownership of Call of Duty has entered into what seems like its hundredth week. Sony is desperately trying to convince the CMA that Microsoft potentially making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox systems is unfair - despite setting up timed exclusive deals with every other third party and their aunties - while Microsoft keeps badmouthing Activision Blizzard games in an attempt to push the deal through. It's messy and will only get messier as time goes on.
However, you could argue that one of Microsoft's more recent reasonings as to why PlayStation doesn't need Call of Duty to be successful is more akin to flattery than an actual argument. Both Microsoft and Sony's full arguments regarding the Activision Blizzard acquisition were made public earlier today, and in an attempt to convince the CMA that the deal should go through, it's pretty much claimed that PlayStation exclusives are better than Xbox exclusives (thanks PushSquare).
Quite a way into Microsoft's 111-page list of arguments, the company states that Sony has a lot more exclusives than Xbox and claims "many of which are better quality." Microsoft tries to explain that PlayStation doesn't need Call of Duty to be successful as its exclusives "rank among the best-selling [games] in Europe" and lists The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Spider-Man as examples. Must not be big Ratchet & Clank fans.
Whether or not you agree with Microsoft's assessment of PlayStation exclusives, it's difficult to argue with its comments on PlayStation's output. Since the beginning of the Xbox Series X and PS5 generation, PlayStation has cranked out far more first-party exclusives than Microsoft. It's had high-profile titles like God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, as well as smaller experimental exclusives like Returnal.
On the other hand, Xbox has had pretty much zero big first-party games releases in 2022. Grounded and Pentiment were both Xbox console exclusives, but they're hardly up there with the likes of Horizon. Even Phil Spencer himself has had to admit that it's "been too long" since the last release. Xbox has managed to survive by offering up big third-party releases via Xbox Game Pass like A Plague Tale: Requiem and Persona 5 Royal along with a handful of great indies.
Microsoft has spent a bunch of years buying up studios to get that prestigious lineup of titles that PlayStation has, and Activision Blizzard is more than likely part of that plan. We're likely to start seeing the results of this buying spree over the next few years, especially with Redfall and Starfield on the horizon. Xbox can point to PlayStation's pretty fantastic lineup of exclusives, but it's doing so knowing that it too is after a lineup like that, and it probably plans on Call of Duty being part of that lineup in the near future.