The mudslinging between PlayStation and Microsoft has now taken an interesting turn. In a hearing, Microsoft lawyers presented an email showing that Jim Ryan was never really concerned about an Xbox exclusive for Call of Duty.
What’s happened so far
Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is running out of time. If this is not completed by 18 July, stiff penalties will follow. We have already explained these to you in more detail in a following post.
Now the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is putting the brakes on this deal further. The FTC wants to obtain an injunction to stop the takeover. In doing so, they want to back up the ruling of the British CMA. The CMA had already vetoed the takeover in advance. However, since Microsoft had already received the green light from the EU, the company is said to have already considered going through with the deal without taking the CMA into account. Now the FTC has gone to court with Microsoft in a five-day hearing.
Jim Ryan’s treasonous email
Yesterday, 22 June, the first day of the trial took place. Already at the beginning, Microsoft lawyers presented a weighty email from PlayStation’s Jim Ryan. In an email to former Sony CEO Chris Deering, he allegedly stated that he was not worried about the Xbox-exclusive deals. Having spent a lot of time with Phil Spencer and Bobby Kotick, he said he was confident that Call of Duty could still be played on PlayStation for a long time to come.
An exciting twist, after all, concern about an Xbox exclusivity for Call of Duty is Jim Ryan’s main argument against the acquisition. Even with the release of Modern Warfare 2 they had continued to follow this ductus. Out of this concern, PlayStation is said to have made long-term exclusivity deals to prevent game releases on Xbox.
What’s next?
How much this mail will really amount to is likely to be decided in the coming days. On today’s 2nd day of the trial, Xbox boss Phil Spencer will in any case be allowed to take the witness stand. In addition, a pre-recorded video testimony of Jim Ryan will be played, since he probably cannot be on site.
For more on Xbox, check out our post on Starfield, while in another post we tell you about the PlayStation-exclusive release of Final Fantasy XVI
