Activision Blizzard King’s Chief Communications Officer Lulu Cheng Meservey has set out to ruffle feathers once again, though this time it seems her target is clear and her aim is straight on.
Yesterday we covered a story about Sony’s communications to the CMA, in relation to the Microsoft deal to acquire Acquisition. Sony speculated that Microsoft might have Activision make a buggy version of Call of Duty for PlayStation. They told CMA that Microsoft would do this to get players to move towards the Xbox version instead.
Lulu quoted this story when she tweeted her bombshells from today. In her own words:
“Microsoft offered Sony (the dominant console leader for well over a decade, with 80% market share) a 10 year agreement on far better terms than Sony would ever get from us.
We’ve also offered Sony guaranteed long-term access to Call of Duty.
But they keep refusing.
Why?
The CEO of SIE answered that question in Brussels.
In his words:
“I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.”
The CEO of SIE would of course be Jim Ryan, in plainer terms he is the head of PlayStation under Sony. Ryan has been talking to the regulators about this deal for some time now. In fact, he was reported talking to the European Commission as early as September of last year.
Now, when Meservey refers to Brussels, she is talking about a major hearing held by the European Commission last month. Jim Ryan, as well as Microsoft president Brad Smith, Xbox head Phil Spencer, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and more were in attendance, as they each defended their sides in the EU investigation of this deal.
That hearing was important to the Microsoft – Acquisition deal, as it could determine what the EU would eventually decide.
Just to punctuate how important that event was, Brad Smith held a press conference on that same day outlining the same arguments they made to the EU in private. Smith challenged the regulators that killing the deal they made, not just with Activision, but also Nvidia and Nintendo, would cement Sony’s position, meaning that choice would actually be the anti-competitive one.
If you still had any doubts about this however, you can check this reply from Meservey. When asked when Jim said he just wanted to block the deal, she gave the date of that Brussels meeting with the EU.
Meservey being unafraid to share this information simply indicates one thing; this isn’t just her going on a seeming random tirade online like people thought she was doing when she first made some viral tweets.
Meservey is airing this ugly laundry because this is what Activision Blizzard King is doing now. Partnership or not, they are going to do whatever they have to to get the deal to come through. That could mean making even more revelations like this about Sony and their higher ups in the future.
