In another twist for the surreal, the Biden administration is now being pressured by members of Congress from both sides of the political aisle to take decisive action on a supposed ‘monopoly’ held by PlayStation in the Japanese video game market.
Some need to read this one, because it all stems from comments that Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) made to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Friday about a supposed high-end imbalance which Japanese game market negatively affects American companies.
Count Axios reportednow 10 additional members of Congress have written their own concerns in two letters, one each from Republicans and Democrats.
It is noteworthy that seven of the ten representatives are from Washington, the state of Microsoft. In addition, the company was Cantwell’s largest political donor, which broke away over half a million dollars over the last few decades.
Both letters have different political angles, as you can imagine, and both cite the misleading “98% of the high-end video game market” figure, which completely ignores the enormous impact of PC, mobile, and, you know, Nintendo. That last one is pretty important too, what with the Switch being the console that really dominates the region in reality.
In related news, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is no longer concerned about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, meaning the proposed purchase of the company is more likely to go through.
With both Democrats and Republicans calling for an investigation into the alleged unfair business practices implemented by Sony, we’re guessing this won’t be the last we hear of this particular matter. What do you think of this whole incident? Post a notarized response in the comments section below.
