Activision PlayStation Relationship Won’t Be Affected by Sony’s Behavior, Says Bobby Kotick

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, says that the Activision PlayStation partnership will continue despite Sony’s behavior during the contested hearings with the UK’s CMA on the pending Microsoft-Activision merger. In a lengthy letter simply titled “A March Update on the Microsoft Deal,” Kotick addresses the accusation from Sony that Microsoft could “release deliberately ‘buggy’ versions” of Activision’s games on PlayStation consoles.

Kotick finds Sony’s actions “disappointing” in Microsoft Activision deal

In the letter, Kotick is surprised that Sony would even think that Microsoft would release sub-par versions of Activision games on PS4 and PS5 if the deal went through. Furthermore, it finds Sony’s behavior “disappointing” in this legal battle:

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…

That said, Kotick says Sony’s actions will not impact its long-term relationship with PlayStation. A large part of this could be because, as revealed earlier in March, Activision Blizzard makes significant revenue from Sony, especially when compared to Xbox.

He is also encouraged by the merger’s approval from the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and will continue to work with European and UK regulators to see that the acquisition goes through. On that front, we reported on March 24 that the CMA provided a provisional ruling that said it doesn’t believe the deal would lessen competition in the UK.