Modern Warfare 2
Modern Warfare 2
There were roughly 600 different individual news stories that broke on Thursday as a result of the FTC hearing about the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which the agency is trying to block with the help of Sony, Microsoft’s chief competitor in the space.
But if there was a single moment that was elevated above the rest, it was the reveal of a 2022 email from PlayStation head Jim Ryan, indicating what he actually thought about the prospect of Microsoft owning Call of Duty, and how it might affect PlayStation.
“It’s not an Xbox exclusivity play at all,” Ryan wrote, “they’re thinking bigger than that, and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair bit of time with both Phil and Bobby over the past day. I’m pretty sure we will continue to see COD on PS for many years to come….We have some good stuff cooking. Keep your eyes peeled. I’m not complacent and I’d rather this hadn’t happened, but we’ll be OK, more than OK.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 04: President and CEO of Sony’s PlayStation division Jim Ryan speaks … [+] during a Sony media event for CES 2022 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on January 4, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Microsoft immediately leapt on this, their response to the wide ranging events of the day focused on this quote alone:
“Today showed Sony has known all along we’ll stand by our promise to keep games on its platform and made clear its work to lobby against the deal is only to protect its dominant position in the market.”
Jim Ryan is not attending the hearing in person, and will testify via video today, and we will see if this quote is addressed.
It’s…essentially undercutting the main PlayStation argument it has been making this entire time. Sony has repeatedly said a significant danger of this deal is the potential removal of Call of Duty from PlayStation, which Microsoft has exasperatedly said would not happen as it would be a terrible business move. Yesterday, they also said they couldn’t do so and withstand the resulting “wrath of gamers” (which is very real, I can assure you).
This email shows that Sony did not actually think that Microsoft would remove Call of Duty from PlayStation, contrary to their public claims. I’ve been saying this all along, that there’s no way someone like Jim Ryan genuinely believes Call of Duty would be taken off PlayStation, and he’s just using it as a cudgel to try to kill the deal. I did not, however, expect to see that fully documented in an email like this.
I don’t know how you could look at an email like this, look at months and months of public Sony positions hand-wringing about Call of Duty, and take anything they have to say seriously after this. Not that Microsoft doesn’t have their own level of BS (“oh we just want to spread the joy of gaming to all platforms!”) but this is just so transparent from Sony after this kind of documentation, it should be impossible to ignore.
We will see what happens on day two here, when we will hear from Jim Ryan and Xbox’s Phil Spencer. Expect a lot more fireworks.
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