There is plenty of hype and anticipation over the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The company made a massive bid of $69 billion to acquire the company, and that would put a few key franchises under the Xbox umbrella. The biggest is Call of Duty, which has sparked plenty of debate online. Initially, there was a fear that Call of Duty would end up being an exclusive under the line of Xbox and PC consoles. However, Microsoft continued to voice that the franchise was not leaving PlayStation platforms behind. Now a new email surfacing online shows Jim Ryan, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, discussing this deal.
A new email which was shared by Tom Warren on Twitter and discussed at The Verge showed an exchange between Jim Ryan and former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Chris Deering. The discussion from Jim Ryan stated that this acquisition was not an Xbox exclusivity play. Likewise, Jim confirms that he believes they will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come. He went on to state that Sony has their own big moves coming and that they would be more than ok. This email was sent in early 2022, which The Verge notes that this exchange would line up with the Bungie acquisition announcement.
Meanwhile, Chris Deering stated that he views this bid for Activision Blizzard as overvalued and would not meaningfully succeed. As a result, he wouldn’t be losing any sleep over what would happen in regard to the PlayStation because of this deal. But this is all contradiction to Sony’s statements regarding this deal going through.
We’ve seen plenty of reports suggesting that Sony would lose Call of Duty despite Microsoft suggesting the games were not leaving any platforms. In fact, Microsoft went on to write up contracts to give competitor platforms a ten-year deal to ensure that Call of Duty games would land on their consoles, digital storefronts, and digital cloud services. But that prompted Sony to suggest that a PlayStation 5 version of Call of Duty would be made inferior to the Xbox Series X/S version.
Currently, Microsoft is still battling it out with regulators to ensure that they can proceed with the purchase of Activision Blizzard. Unfortunately, it might still be a lengthy road ahead as they are working through a court battle with the FTC and appealing the decision made by the CMA.
