The legal process to justify why Microsoft should be allowed to acquire Activision Blizzard is still ongoing. In a response to UK Market Regulator Statement on the acquisition, the publisher offers that it makes sense for them to make a “mid-sized” game like the next one Elder Scrolls VI exclusive, while arguing that there is simply too much money to be made by having Call of Duty on PlayStation to pull that from Sony’s platform.

Yes, Microsoft is once again trying to explain why games that sell millions of units are not a big problem. Really. Pay no attention to The Elder Scrolls VI Where star field on the horizon as Microsoft tries to crash into this $70 billion through regulatory bodies around the world.

ZeniMax and Bethesda games released before the acquisition are still available on the PlayStation Store at the time of writing. Death Loop and Ghostwire: Tokyo were previously planned for the PlayStation under Sony’s contracts with ZeniMax. However, the fate of the new games is still uncertain. red fall and star field, which will be released in 2023, are expected to be Xbox and PC exclusives. Which begs the question: how does Xbox decide which games will or will not come to PlayStation consoles? Microsoft has helpfully provided a table.

First, cross-platform games are less likely to become exclusive. After that, Microsoft divided the games into three categories: niche, new IP/uncertain audience, and mass market audience. Mass market and niche titles will supposedly have the least console exclusivity value, while new IPs with an uncertain audience will have the most.

I understand that star field is a new IP, but it seems a bit dishonest to see Microsoft claiming the fan base is “dedicated” rather than broadly appealing. Where Fallout 76 is a niche title although it commands a playerbase of 13 million people. Of course, this isn’t the first time the publisher has made such outlandish claims. Two months ago he disputed this Call of Duty is a must-have game series. Now it’s finally admitting that CodThe size of the player base of is not comparable to most of the other AAA games it publishes.

Microsoft also seems to claim that doing Elder Scrolls VI an Xbox and PC exclusive wouldn’t significantly hurt Sony, which definitely suggests the upcoming title could skip PlayStation. By placing a statement about this in a section on “mid-sized games”, it argues that old scrolls is nowhere comparable to the popularity of Minecraft Where Call of Duty, which are two titles that will remain available on PlayStation. The company also points out that the latest old scrolls The game was released in 2011 in an attempt to further refute claims that it was “depriving” PlayStation gamers by not releasing it on the platform. Kotaku emailed Xbox asking whether or not Elder Scrolls VI will be exclusive to its platforms, but did not receive a response as of press time.

I’m sure the news must be devastating for old scrolls Fans. But for now, I’m laughing my head off at the mental backflips Microsoft is asking regulators to perform.