PlayStation makes it clear to Microsoft: it does not want to conclude an agreement on Call of Duty, it will simply block the purchase of Activision

The tension between Sony and Microsoft over the purchase of Activision continues to grow. Today, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) released part of the talks the two companies recently had. Event summoned Lulu Cheng Motherwaydirector of communications for Activision, revealed a strong phrase from Jim Ryandirector of Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation).

According to the directive, the head of PlayStation stated that his company did not intend to enter into a satisfactory agreement regarding call of Dutybut just prevent Microsoft from closing its purchase of Activision.

“I don’t want a new agreement for call of Duty. I just want to block their merge.”

It should be noted that Cheng is currently the only source to share this information. The CMA does not include it in public documents.

An aggressive statement would have been made after Sony disclosed their concerns because they believe that Microsoft can sabotage the work call of Duty on PlayStation consoles.

“Microsoft may release call of Duty for the PlayStation, in which bugs and errors occur either in the final version of the game or in subsequent updates. Even if such downvotes could have been discovered in time, any fix would likely have been made too late, and by then the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a place to play. call of Duty“.

Sony.

PlayStation believes that this situation will put the brand at risk, because if they confirm – in a hypothetical case – that call of Duty offers the best results in competitions, your players can move to the Xbox platform:

“As attested Modern Warfare 2highest sales volume call of Duty this happens in the first weeks of its release. If it were known that the performance of games on the PlayStation is worse than on the Xbox, gamers would call of Duty they may decide to switch to Xbox for fear of playing their favorite game in a second-rate or less competitive venue.”

Sony.

But aside from the bugs, PlayStation also believes that Microsoft could influence exclusive features. call of Duty on their consoles. For example, integration with the PS5 DualSense controller.

Microsoft only negotiates when it’s convenient, PlayStation says

One of the CMA claims that gets the most attention is that, according to PlayStation, Microsoft only showed willingness to negotiate when the Activision purchase became difficult. Even more interesting they claim that the people of Redmond were the first to communicate their intentions to the media. before discussing it with participating companies.

“Microsoft has shown no real intention to reach an agreement. They procrastinated, only got involved when they felt the regulatory framework was deteriorating, and preferred to do business with the media over Sony Interactive Entertainment.”

Sony.

In this sense, it is true that Sony followed a communications strategy that is very different from Microsoft’s. The latter overwhelmingly reached out to several media outlets to discuss the topic. The Japanese, for their part, tried to fight this domestically and with the authorities.

In September 2022, when Microsoft told various media outlets that it had offered PlayStation a permanent call of Duty “a few years,” Jim Ryan replied, “I didn’t mean to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion., but I feel the need to clarify because Phil Spencer brought this up in a public forum. Microsoft just suggested this call of Duty stay with PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony expires.”