Electronic mail reveals PlayStation boss wasn’t really fearful about Name of Responsibility changing into Xbox unique: ‘We’ll be OK, greater than OK’

Sony is ferociously against Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, largely out of purported concern that the ultra-lucrative Name of Responsibility sequence may ultimately be made an Xbox console unique. However an e-mail revealed throughout at the moment’s FTC listening to on the deal, reported by IGN, point out that the corporate’s preliminary response to the deliberate buyout was very totally different, and virtually totally untroubled by the prospect.

In an e-mail written on January 20, 2022, two days after the proposed acquisition was introduced, Sony Interactive Leisure CEO Jim Ryan stated the buyout was “not an Xbox exclusivity play in any respect.”

“I’ve spent a good bit of time with each Phil [Xbox chief Phil Spencer] and Bobby [Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick] over the previous day,” Ryan wrote in an e-mail. “I’m fairly certain we’ll proceed to see CoD on PS for a few years to come back.”

Ryan additionally expressed confidence in Sony’s personal lineup of unique video games: “Now we have some good things cooking. Hold your eyes peeled. I’m not complacent and I’d quite this hadn’t occurred, however we’ll be OK, greater than OK.”

That e-mail was despatched the identical day that Spencer stated on Twitter that Microsoft will “honor all current agreements” if and when the Activision acquisition is accomplished, and goals to “preserve Name of Responsibility on PlayStation.”

Ryan’s e-mail would appear to fly within the face of Sony’s professed issues about shedding entry to the Name of Responsibility sequence on PlayStation {hardware}. Specifics weren’t publicly mentioned on the time however in November 2022, Microsoft supplied Sony a 10-year deal guaranteeing entry to Name of Responsibility video games on PlayStation consoles, a proposal Sony rejected. A number of months earlier, Ryan had additionally stated “no” to Microsoft’s earlier provide of assured entry “for at the very least a number of extra years past the present Sony contract,” describing it as “insufficient on many ranges.”

The true extent of Sony’s issues concerning the Name of Responsibility video games beforehand got here in query in March, when Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Cheng Meservey stated on Twitter that Ryan had instructed executives on the firm that he did not need a new deal for Name of Responsibility, he solely needs to “block your merger.”

It might appear to be some extent scored for Microsoft, however Sony bought one again—to an analogous, which is to say imprecise, extent—when it got here to mild that MachineGame’s upcoming Indiana Jones game was initially deliberate as a multiplatform launch, however was made an Xbox console unique following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda. Again in March, Arkane Austin studio director Harvey Smith stated the identical factor had occurred with Redfall, which was additionally being developed for PlayStation5 previous to the Microsoft deal.

Slicing the PS5 variations of these video games is perhaps good for builders—Smith described it as “one much less platform, one much less complexity”—nevertheless it additionally lends credence to Sony’s fears that Microsoft can and can leverage console exclusives to get a leg up within the console wars. Neither Redfall nor Indy are remotely corresponding to the Name of Responsibility sequence past the truth that they’re all videogames, however there isn’t any doubting that CoD has the potential to be a really massive stick.

At this level, neither aspect has struck a decisive blow, however that is solely the primary day of the FTC’s listening to on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The entire thing is scheduled to run till June 29.