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Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is disappointed by Sony's public comments around the former's deal to be acquired by Microsoft.
Microsoft's ongoing bid to buy Activision Blizzard has faced setbacks from a number of regulators from around the world as well as complaints lodged by its main competitor in the gaming space. Sony's latest argument is that, if the merger closes, Microsoft could make Call of Duty a "defacto" Xbox exclusive by adding it to Game Pass or "providing Call of Duty on PlayStation Plus at a commercially unviable price."
Activision Blizzard itself is now defending its deal with Microsoft by targeting specific complaints from Sony, including a recent suggestion that Xbox might give PlayStation a deliberately buggy version of Call of Duty to sabotage sales.
"You may have seen statements from Sony, including an argument that if this deal goes through, Microsoft could release deliberately 'buggy' versions of our games on PlayStation," Kotick said in a publicly available email to staff. "We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity. And, all of us who work so hard to deliver the best games in our industry care too deeply about our players to ever launch sub-par versions of our games."
Kotick, apparently stung by Sony's suggestion that his company's games will somehow be compromised on PlayStation hardware, said he won't let a little mutual mudslinging get in the way of Activision and Sony's long-running business relationship.
"Sony has even admitted that they aren't actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening. This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship. PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation."
Microsoft recently scored a major win when UK regulators walked back their concerns over its Activision deal. Kotick also noted in his email that the Japan Fair Trade Commission ruled in favor of the deal just this week, clearing another potential roadblock.
"We will continue to have discussions with European and UK regulators until the decision dates, which we expect in the coming months," Kotick said.
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