Microsoft and Activision’s joint opposition to the FTC preliminary injunction vs their deal has been released to the public. This early on, one passage from that filing has blown up online, because of what one observers claims is a real bombshell.
The filing was shared by Florian Mueller on his FossPatents blog, which you can download yourself here. There is one phrase near the start of the document that’s caused an uproar, even though it’s been redacted.
This is the said phrase in the document, found on page 8:
“First, there is no evidence to support the FTC’s central theory that Xbox will take COD away from PlayStation. The FTC does not cite a single document or witness even suggesting that this will happen.
On the contrary, Jim Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”) and the chief commercial opponent of the deal, said privately on the day it was announced [REDACTED].”
Now, some people speculated that this redacted portion was something we already know Jim said. Lulu Cheng-Meservey revealed a few months back that Jim doesn’t care about signing a new deal with Microsoft for Call of Duty. He just wanted to block the deal.
However, Florian Mueller has another theory, as he explained on Twitter:
“This here could be the biggest bombshell in the entire evidentiary record: Jim Ryan was apparently certain that CoD would remain on the PlayStation because of Sony’s market power.”
Just so we are clear here. Florian does not claim to have independently verified or confirmed himself that this is what is in the redacted statement from Jim Ryan. He also does not cite a source.
In his blog, Florian says this in relation to this claim:
“If it is well-documented that Sony wasn’t truly worried about vertical input foreclosure, why is the FTC still clinging to that console market theory of harm?”
It seems Florian is referring to circumstantial evidence based on what we have learned about this case in the past few months. For example, Microsoft did offer Sony a ten year deal for Call of Duty. They had gone so far that Microsoft President Brad Smith personally brought a contract, to a European regulation meeting for Sony to sign on the spot at the event. Of course, there was also Lulu’s assertion of what happened at the event.
Someone may let the word out later that Jim’s statement was something else entirely. But if Florian is spot on about what this is, it would reek of complete hypocrisy on Sony’s part, and could be enough to lead Judge Corley to deny the preliminary injunction. Of course, it won’t take long before the hearings start.
