A private email from Sony Interactive Entertainment's CEO Jim Ryan contradicts Sony Group Corp's SONY public arguments against Microsoft Corp's MSFT proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc ATVI.
In the email directed to Chris Deering (the former president of PlayStation Europe) and revealed during Microsoft's court hearing with the Federal Trade Commission, the PlayStation boss said that he didn't believe the deal was intended to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive and that Microsoft was "thinking bigger" than that.
See Also: Microsoft Admits 'Xbox Has Lost The Console Wars' During FTC Court Hearing
Ryan also expressed confidence that Call of Duty would continue to be available on PlayStation for years to come.
"It is not an exclusivity play at all," Ryan wrote, according to Kotaku.
"They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair bit of time with [Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer] and [Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick] over the past day, and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see [Call of Duty] on PlayStation for many years to come," the email, allegedly sent two days after the $68.7 billion deal was announced, said.
Last September, Ryan blasted the reported terms of an initial proposal by Microsoft to keep bringing Call of Duty to PS5, calling it "inadequate."
And, more recently, Sony also argued to regulators in the U.K. that Microsoft might intentionally make the next Call of Duty worse on PS5.
Ryan's private comments have cast doubt on the credibility of Sony's public statements regarding the deal. But, of course, it's important to consider Microsoft's motive in revealing the content of the email: securing the approval of the acquisition.
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