Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick says the Activision PlayStation the partnership will continue despite Sony’s behavior during disputed hearings with the UK CMA over the pending merger between Microsoft and Activision. In a lengthy letter simply titled “March Microsoft Settlement Update,” Kotick responds to Sony’s allegation that Microsoft may be “deliberately releasing ‘bugged’ versions” of Activision games on PlayStation consoles.
Kotick calls Sony action ‘disappointing’ in Microsoft Activision deal
In the letter, Kotick is surprised that Sony even thought Microsoft would release inferior versions of Activision’s games on PS4 and PS5 if the deal went through. In addition, he finds Sony’s behavior in this legal battle “disappointing”:
Sony even admitted that they weren’t really worried about a Call of Duty deal, they would just like to prevent our merger from happening. Obviously, this is disappointing behavior on the part of a partner for almost thirty years…
That said, Kotick says Sony’s actions won’t affect its long-term relationship with PlayStation. Much of this could be because, as revealed in early March, Activision Blizzard derives significant revenue from Sony, especially compared to Xbox.
He is also encouraged by the approval of the merger by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and will continue to work with UK and European regulators to ensure the acquisition goes through. On that front, we reported on March 24 that the CMA had issued an interim opinion stating that it did not believe the deal would reduce competition in the UK.