As the FTC’s case against Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard gets underway, new details about PlayStation’s concerns have come to light in federal court.
Yesterday marked the first time the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) met with Microsoft in a US court in its attempt to put a pause on its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The bulk of the day was focused on drawing comparisons with how Microsoft previously conducted its acquisition of Bethesda in 2021, with the FTC looking to poke holes in the suggested strategy of how Xbox would treat titles like Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot and other Activision games.
Lots of new details came to light, such as the fact that – as reported by IGN – MachineGames’ upcoming Indiana Jones game was once intended for a multiplatform release prior to the Bethesda acquisition, and how Microsoft has noted 2028 as the “expected starting period” for the next generation consoles. Speaking of next-gen consoles, however, legal documents shared by Axio's Stephen Totilo in a Twitter post also revealed that Sony boss Jim Ryan met with the FTC in April of this year, expressing concern over the deal with regards to PlayStation 6.
"I believe that [Microsoft]'s incentives - their primary incentive will, at post-acquisition, would be to optimise its overall Xbox business, not the business of Activision," Ryan said. He then went on to say that, should the Microsoft Activision deal be approved by worldwide regulators, Sony “simply could not run the risk” of sharing PS6 details with Activision as it has done before in the lead-up to previous console launches.
Most of Ryan’s comments are redacted from the documents, but the general gist suggests that he believes Microsoft could potentially be incentivised to handicap Activision games on PS5 and beyond. Ryan uses Microsoft’s 2014 purchase of Minecraft developer Mojang as an example. Support for the block-based sandbox game continued on PlayStation consoles, of course, but Sony seemingly wasn’t happy with how many PlayStation development secrets Microsoft gained as a result.
Haptic reaction
Jim Ryan's concerns about a Microsoft-owned first-party studio requiring advanced information about future PlayStation console development are well founded, in my opinion, and isn't the first time he's expressed fears of sabotage. After all, it’s not like PlayStation studios like Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games and Suckerpunch Productions will be required to know what Microsoft has cooking up for the Xbox Series X’s successor in order to prep support for it. Why should unprecedented access only work one way?
Even I can admit, however, that Sony is probably playing it a bit too paranoid if only to help the FTC’s case that Activision Blizzard should not be acquired by Microsoft. Historically, at the start of a new console generation, third-party publishers like Ubisoft, EA and Activision have had a limited number of cross-play titles ready to release during the launch window period. Specifically from the Activision camp, for example, the PS5 launched on November 19, 2020, with a version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War being ready on day one.
That version of Call of Duty had specific haptic feedback features for the DualSense controller unique to the PS5 version. Ryan’s comments suggest that should the Microsoft Activision deal be approved, instances like this with PS6 aren’t likely to be possible as it wouldn’t feel comfortable giving a rival-owned studio advanced access to future console development kits. It’s yet another example of how the politics of previously friendly publisher/developer partnerships are prone to get messier, as a result of Microsoft’s attempted acquisition.
