Things are starting to get a lot more tense with only months to go before regulatory bodies need to decide if Microsoft should own Activision Blizzard. One of the people feeling the biggest amount of stress will no doubt be Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick.
The long-time CEO of one of the world’s largest gaming publishers recently sent out a company-wide email and shared it for the entire internet to see.
In a nutshell, what Kotick said is that everything is fine, the deal will push through, and Microsoft has “thoughtful, generous remedies to address regulators’ concerns.” But, there’s one interesting section in the email where Kotick opens up about his dismay “from a partner of almost thirty years.”
Here’s an excerpt from the staff email:
The good news is, regulators who initially had concerns about console competition are starting to better understand our industry. The data and evidence Microsoft has been presenting are tilting the scale. 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. 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. 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.
One of the biggest reasons why this upcoming merger is such a big deal is because of how many lives it affects. We aren’t just talking about Activision Blizzard, Sony, and Microsoft here. Anything that they do going forward will impact the entire industry. Some effects will be positive, and we’re hoping that the majority are, but you can’t deny that some bridges have been burnt, perhaps forever, as a result of the statements made by the involved parties.
Sony has made it clear that it just doesn’t want the merger to go through, but, nonetheless, it might just have to live with it happening.
In that case, Sony is better off preparing for a future where Call of Duty is an exclusive title for the Xbox platform.
Keep in mind that Microsoft has scored several wins in succession after winning UK regulators over as well as the Japan Fair Trade Commission.
As per Kotick, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will “continue to have discussions with European and UK regulators until the decision dates.”
