U.S. Congress representatives are concerned with Sony's console business practices in Japan

Usually when we talk about Microsoft and Sony in the same sentence these days it's related to the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This time it's not directly about that (even if this is probably a new tactic to get the deal approved in the U.S.) and is rather about Sony's console business practice in its home country of Japan, which Microsoft believes could breach U.S.-Japan trade deals.

The issue has been raised by a bunch of members of U.S. Congress who are pressing the Biden administration to take action on the "imbalanced Japanese video game market, which we are concerned may be a result of a discriminatory trade practice that could violate the spirit of the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement" as a letter signed by concerned Congress members states (thanks, Axios).

The letter even notes that Sony has a 98% share of the high-end console market in Japan and that the company signs deal that look to keep Japanese games from Microsoft's devices, which, if true, breach antitrust laws and would be "a serious barrier to U.S. exports with real impacts for Microsoft and the many U.S. game developers and publishers that sell globally but see their earnings in Japan depressed by these practices."

Microsoft's usage of the term "high-end console" is its way to remove Nintendo from this conversation, as when we look at console sales across Japan as a whole, it has generally always been a two horse race between PlayStation and Nintendo's latest device. But coincidentally enough, as Microsoft and Nintendo seem to be the best of friends right now during the ongoing Activision Blizzard acquisition process, Microsoft isn't roping in another Japanese titan into these antitrust and trade deal breaching claims.

Following this letter, U.S. Senate representative Katherine Tai has promised to look into the situation.