Jim Ryan: I don’t want a Call of Duty deal, I just want to block the acquisition

A new moment of tension is taking place in the process of reviewing the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft and the name of Jim Ryan came up a few moments ago after an Activision executive criticized Sony’s opposition to any offer that make it the Xbox company.

[BandarHub]

Low point for Jim. This is plain childish
There is no reason for him to be this mad at Xbox owning COD. It's going to be available on PS in the future.
I see no reason for Xbox to make COD exclusive... it's going the way of Minecraft
The number of exclusives that Sony has Money Hatted is astounding.
The deal is going through no matter what. But essentially what Sony is doing is damaging their reputation.

[shinoff2183]

Ms has just as many 3rd party exclusives bandarhub

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Such as? Those same A, AA, and indie games SONY fans claim are GamePass trash?

Does MS/XBOX have anything with the weight of Final Fantasy or Forspoken?

[TricksterArrow]

@343_Guilty_Spark Wha...? All Bethesda titles are essentially exclusives now. Not Sony's fault if MS does not know how to manage them.

[WelkinCole]

You serious? MS is the king of 3rd party money hatting. You forget Bioshock, ME, Tomb Raider and many other time exclusives or console exclusive or first show (lol!) exclusive or DLC exlusive or marketing exclusives that MS pioneered?

There are way too many to count. Sony is just following suit but MS after 4 generations still can't beat Sony now they are buying well established 3rd parties because MS suck at making games. That is cheating.

We are not just talking about huge ass 3rd party franchises like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, starfield, Diablo, COD. No we are talking about complete buy out of the whole fucking pulbisher.

COD is the 3rd party top money maker.

Its bad enough they bought Bethseda. They had to buy out the biggest 3rd party publisher as well. How is that not anti competitive? Whats next? EA? Where is it going to end? Until they can outcompete Sony?

[fr0sty]

I'd have to agree, Sony doesn't buy Publishers, they buy studios to add to their own portfolio as a publisher. MS is using the fact that they are one of the world's wealthiest companies to monopolize the market... so yes, of course the various trade regulators out there are crying foul. then MS is taking it a step further by using even more of that money to try to buy their way through the legal system with lobbying, ads, etc. trying to influence the regulators' decision. Not to mention, they are killing the third party game industry. They've already bought out 2 of its biggest publishers.

[blackblades]

How is it a low point

[aarallen1]

343_Guilty_Spark Forspoken? Are you serious? Superman 64 would be a better exclusive than that game. It's funny mentioning weight. Forspoken is weightless. It's zero gravity.

[-Mika-]

If this deal doesn't go through, Activision and Sony's partnership is ending. The fact that a high ranking employee revealed that information shows how badly they want this deal to go through. If the deal is denied, they are definitely going to make Xbox the new home of COD and the relationship between Sony and ABK dead.

[MaximusTKG]

Most ridiculous thing I’ve heard. Just cut out a multi million console install base because they are mad? Money talks every time. BS

[Godmars290]

By the sound of thing that's done regardless whether out or under MS's umbrella.

[repsahj]

LOL!!!

[Flakegriffin]

You do know there’s a difference between weird fanboy assumptions and actual business sense, right?

You know how silly Activision would have to be to end deals with a company that’s 70% market share? If they want to go from making $1 billion+ to tens of million then that’s on them, I guess LOL

[SeTTriP]

Those are your feelings talking, imagine the deal doesn't go through then simultaneously saying screw the market leader, does that make sense to you and the 20 ppl that thumb this up?

[Tres21]

While I disagree with Mika cause it makes no sense to drop such a lucrative end of the game division and I see the disagrees and the comments saying the same thing they would be fools to drop that no way they would…then why in the same breathe are ppl worried of CoD leaving from Sony system? All that revenue and they’re just going to dissolve the partnership? Does no1 really believe they wouldn’t just do like Minecraft at least for that ip? I get more of the complaints were ms and being able to keep the brand strong but is it really that strong? How much longer does it last neways?

[DarXyde]

Hmm, I don't know about that.

It doesn't matter how the execs feel because ABK is a publicly trading corporation and if their shareholders don't want it, it's not happening.

No matter who you agree with though, you should respect that the "opposition" is just doing its job. Ryan is literally just trying to protect Sony's bottom line. Likewise, Spencer is trying to increase Xbox value/profitability. I'm biased, but I'm particularly irritated by Spencer basically saying he's okay with the scandals. I'm sure if not him, someone else would be doing it, but it really illustrates a character failure to me.

I don't play ABK games, but regardless of what happens, I'm glad Sony is giving them hell. Goddamn soulless pretender corporation has tremendous resources to make the best games and literally REFUSES to do it, preferring to just buy large publishers.

What is the result? That community talks about game pass nonstop (a service... Imagine that), acts like Todd Howard isn't known for vastly overstating the end product, and in true American society fashion, just passively accept the nonsense being shoveled at them.

They're scum and I hope they fail and heads roll at MS, but a part of me wants it to go through so these rubes can understand how right the test of us are about their corporate imperialism they seem painful ignorant of... And the fact that their sub prices are going to go up.

[Extermin8or3_]

More likely the executives involved lose their jobs and are replaced lol

[Chocoburger]

You don't understand business. Not one bit.

[ChronoJoe]

Activision get a $3b payout if the deal doesn't go through. A significant windfall for shareholders.

The only party annoyed if it doesn't go through will be Microsoft, and perhaps Bobby Kotick himself who was looking forward to a big payout individually.

[DOMination-]

Whilst I don’t agree with this original comment, what a lot of people fail to understand is that of CoD was exclusive, a LOT of people would get an Xbox to play it. So whilst they would lose PlayStation sales, the projected Xbox sales would increase and probably significantly. This is what MS wants.

They will be hoping Starfield has the same effect albeit it’s not as big as CoD it’s still going to be a huge entertainment release.

Obviously not saying it will completely bridge the lack of PS sales. That’s almost mathematically impossible. But over ten years, ten exclusive CoDs would allow MS to eat into that PS5 lead.

Irrelevant point anyway because I doubt it’ll be exclusive

[Ryzza5]

Bad news for Crash Bandicoot if that were true

[SkwakIdent]

Microsoft in an effort to play victim and get the deal to pass claimed their games were inferior and couldn't compete on a level with Sony, seems like Microsoft has done a fair amount of damaging their own reputation. People have been claiming "the deal is going through" for ages now and here we are with it still not through.

[darthv72]

Sony, in the same effort to play victim to get the deal blocked, also claims that MS would sabotage their version of the games. And that their own first party titles do not generate enough revenue to fund other first party development.

MS at least has some legitimacy to their claims, Sony... not so much.

[Tapani]

Jim is trying to keep the competition alive, which is good for both consumers and creatives.

[Asplundh]

By buying up studios themselves and buying timed exclusive? Yeah right.

[King_Noctis]

Have you seen the news where it says Sony is looking to spend 5 billions dollars to expand their business?

[Tapani]

Microsoft is more profitable and has a 17 times higher topline, and have been more aggressive in the past in M&A. 5bn USD is nothing, Activision acquisition is around 70bn USD. Sony is planning "aggressively" to spend less than 7.5% of what Microsoft is doing here. Even Zenimax was more than that at 7.5bn USD. For comparison, Sony paid 3.6bn for Bungie. So yes, Jim is trying to keep the competition alive and a level playing field. Learn business.

[Asplundh]

Xbox is definitely not more profitable, you'd have to be living under a rock for the last decade to not know that. Not sure if you're a troll or just slow 🤔

[Risky_24]

@Asplundh . I'm sure it was 'Microsoft' not 'Xbox' that was mentioned. One would recommend reading properly before insulting someone by calling them slow, ironically.

[Asplundh]

@Risky
I read it correctly and made a statement, you're the one confused here sir. I'm going to compare the competing products and not the companies as whole in order to make it look better for Sony.

[MontyeKristo]

Asplundh - but, Xbox is not the one buying Zenimax - Microsoft is. So comparing the two in this instance as just Xbox and Playstation doesn't really make sense.

[Risky_24]

@Asplundh You are seriously making yourself look foolish now. The company making the purchase is Microsoft. No amount of spinning to make your statement look better is going to change that. Someone speaks about a company and you speak about a product. Well done!

[Asplundh]

@Risky
The argument is over competition in the gaming console market, so yes I'm speaking only of that market. Tell me how sales of Window products is damaging Sonys ability to compete? The only spin is coming from you as you go off topic of what regulators are even arguing over.

[1Victor]

@ noctis have you seen the news of Microsoft buying ABK for 69 billions instead of using that money to fix their developers teams and ensuring their games are of the best quality, making a console that don’t split between developing between low end/ last gen and current gen,

[Godmars290]

"There is no reason for him to be this mad at Xbox owning COD."

But there is with MS simply buying a good chunk of the established market, especially after decades of questionable attempts at growth on their end.

[HardKnockKid24]

This is funny as many gamers here call those studios that MS bought “trash” and “buggy”…. if that’s true, what’s the harm?

[Godmars290]

@HardKnockKid24:
That under MS they'll get worse, or become another Rare. Be left to rot before either being closed or their IPs given to other - short-lived - studios.

[King_Noctis]

“ That under MS they'll get worse, or become another Rare.”

Lol what? So what is happening to Playground Games? Mojang? Bethesda? Obsidian? InXile?

You just conveniently chose the one that is not as successful didn’t you? If so then where is Evolution studio? Studio Liverpool? Japan Studio? Zipper Interactive? BigBig studio?

[CBaoth]

funny how you cherry pick Sony's failures King yet you can't pick one studio owned by MS that's better for it. Oh and Liverpool and Evolution's former employees formed Firesprite and let themselves be re-acquired by Sony. Thanks for the set up, I couldn't have said it better without your ignorance!

[King_Noctis]

“funny how you cherry pick Sony's failures King yet you can't pick one studio owned by MS that's better for it”

Funny how Godmars cherry picked MS’s failure yet can’t pick the studios that are successful under MS such as Playground Games, Mojang, Bethesda, and inXile.

Hypocritical isn’t a great taste now isn’t?

[HardKnockKid24]

@King, lol let them be… the only approval we will get from them is if we say, “MS/Xbox bad, Sony good” then queue the standing ovations haha. Truth is that Xbox has made some terrible decisions in the last decade but so has Sony. People are just WAY less willing to give the same grace to MS. So when you bring up fair comparisons, it breaks their brains. Millions will still enjoy Xbox no matter what they say, just as millions will enjoy PS.

[Godmars290]

@King_Noctis:
???

They've just bought Bethesda. Have literally had no impact on what they've made and wont for years. Likewise what has Mojang done of any real significance, besides some DLC tweaks for the one title they're known for? Quickly forgotten Minecraft off-shoots?

And yes of course Sony's closed studios. Thing is the point people who - somehow - miss when making the comparison is that those studios MADE GAMES, well regarded ones, while under Sony. Unlike, the at best, continued exiting IP with MS.

Again the point is AT BEST the games Activision currently make will continue. Maybe they'll even make attempts to bring old IPs like Starcraft back. Ghost will finally come out. Meanwhile Bethesda will continue putting out buggy entries in their old and established titles.

The reason I mentioned Rare, as one of MS's most notable acquisition for the time, is that for years MS brought out like an old broken sex-slave in a gimp suit whenever they wanted to promote their old IPs - some which that gutted studio didn't even have a hand in reviving.

[gold_drake]

damaging their reputation for standing up to the multi trillion company?

"i see no reason for cod to he exclusive"

ah, we have intel right here. the original intent was to make it exclusive.

[S2Killinit]

Seems the other way around.

[Owlbert]

You are aware this is a Sony fanboy site,hence your dislike ratio...lol,fuck all the fanboys 🤣✌️

[Abracadabra]

I don't mind this being a Sony fanboy site. What irks me is that even the mods are Sony fanboys... that make no effort to be impartial.

[VoiceMale]

@abracadabbra
Yes I wish it differently cause it’s such a good source of daily compiled articles
The first comments are usually off topic or trolling in every Xbox article especially the positive ones
I have been around for years and have yet to see a healthy respectful chat on an Xbox topic
I’m
Sad part is that your comment and @ Owlbery is gonna be marked for trolling

[1Victor]

👎 👎 🤮

[Babadook7]

This fanboy site is about 2-1 Sony fans over Xbox fans. Same ratio as a place called planet earth. Welcome here.

[Abracadabra]

Jim Ryan is like a typical Sony fanboy... hypocrite and childish. "If I can't have it, nobody can".

Reverse the roles: If it was Sony acquiring Activision, all people complaining about Microsoft, would be praising Sony for the purchase... just like they praise Sony presently for all the acquisitions and 3rd party exclusive deals.

[1Victor]

@abra: “ Reverse the roles: If it was Sony acquiring Activision, all people complaining about Microsoft, would be praising Sony for the purchase”
I can’t speak for anyone but myself if the role was flipped I still wouldn’t support the acquisition for the same reasons of not taking 3rd party games from the competition after a contract expire.
Please don’t come with the flimsy defense that CoD will be on PS because Phil said so we all know how it turned out with starfield

[Kakashi Hatake]

It cuts into their revenue, how daft are you guys? MS is doing this to make money, not appease the fanboys. Sony is trying to block this to look out for their bottom dollar. How dare they, right? Cod has been a given on mainline consoles for years. Sony has every right to try to stop it.

[darthv72]

...well duh. Like the saying goes. gotta spend money to make money. MS just happens to have the money to spend and ABK has a price that Sony can't afford. So naturally ABK would go to MS and not Sony. sony is just pissed they weren't offered the first right of refusal. Had ABK decided they were going to part out certain franchises then maybe they would have talked to Sony first. But being the best customer doesn't guarantee you get dibs, especially if ABK were looking to sell the whole lot.

[Bobertt]

I was watching commentary about this from a developer and he said Microsoft was really expecting cloud gaming to take off and for Game Pass numbers to be higher than they are now to make it more profitable. Their idea going into this gen was to get people to give up physical games like they originally wanted to last gen before the backlash and to subscribe to Game Pass so they can get constant revenue. He says this also why they are having issues with delayed or no first party games. Microsoft was focusing on spending money to get third party games on Game Pass and to market it as even though we don't have as many exclusives as Sony you can play most of the third party games for cheaper through Game Pass.

But this didn't work out as they hoped and by focusing on third party on Game Pass they have neglected or mismanaged their first party studios so there are tons of delays for Xbox exclusives. For example the Hellblade 2 was announced by Microsoft way back in 2019 and we haven't seen anything 4 years later. They have even more studios that they claim are working on exclusives but we haven't even heard about most of them this far into the cycle. They know they won't be able to release these exclusives on time so they will lose even more market share while they wait. So they have pivoted to a new strategy of just buying up as many big studios as possible to forcibly take market share by removing some of those games from competitors to become the new exclusives, and to generate revenue to license out those big earners like CoD to their competitors. This strategy is better to them because they don't have to wait for years for the exclusives or build up goodwill with the community to gain market share and it won't just be with consoles. Activision has a huge presence in the mobile gaming market so Microsoft will instantly become one of the top players in the mobile market too. That's why regulators are saying they need to sell off some part of the company for this deal to not be a monopoly. Either they gain some of the biggest games on consoles or they gain some of the biggest games in mobile but not both.

So trying to block this is not childish of Sony it's smart business because if Xbox fails for another generation then people will be hesitant to buy their next system at launch and give PS6 an advantage.

[SeTTriP]

I see no reason for Ms to buy Activision, we just always skip right over this part.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I don’t see how his ruins Sony’s reputation.

Sony is acting just like I am as an Xbox owner since x360: they don’t think the largest media buyout in history should be what fulfills M$’s decade-long empty promise of “the games ARE coming.”

I want to see what they have been working on for all of this time, not what they can buy up last minute to make up for lost time.

So, have they really been unable to produce anything but Halo Infinite, Gears 5, and a few Forza titles over the course of 10+ years?

Yeah, I don’t want those same liars to run Activision and their franchises. M$ can thrive or fail on their own efforts, just like Sony.

[senorfartcushion]

It doesn’t matter what company it is; a monopoly is a monopoly

[giovonni]

Which doesn’t apply to this purchase

[Jin_Sakai]

“Low point for Jim.“

Yes the President of PlayStation should just say sure thing to the competition taking over the worlds largest 3rd party publisher and gaming franchise.

[mastershredder]

How much derp sauce can you drink? Sounds like you had a few gallons.

[Crows90]

Except there is absolutely nothing wrong with his statement. He doesn't want a deal to be struck because no deal is going to allow call of duty permanently available on PlayStation. There's also a ton of other IP that would be removed from PlayStation from the other developers. He prefers that all of these developers continue to make third-party multiplats.

That's in the interest of PlayStation gamers ...so if anything a new high because he recognizes the value of the whole company and not just one IP

[TheEroica]

Jim Ryan is a crybaby with no plan other than complaining about competition out menuvering him. Cry more Jim! Cry even more Sony defense force!

[Lifexline]

Well at least they are being honest lol even though it’s not what they want to hear have to respect that. It’s obvious they don’t want to make a deal.

The agreement that MS has offered has been more than fair. They are now offering a lifetime guarantee to call of duty according to activision exec yet that was not enough so pretty obvious where Sony’s mind is at. It seems relations between actiblizz are souring I wonder how it will play out once it’s all said and done.

I just hope the government once it’s done with all this circus focuses on the shady deals that goes on between these companies and fines them. To pay developers to exclude games sounds more anticompetitive.

[DarkZane]

Microsoft are scums and liars, they will definitely go back on their promises the very second that deal goes through, it's why Sony are trying to stop them. They promised Bethesda games wouldn't be exclusives and the first thing they did was make them exclusives. Nothing Microsoft or Phil Spencer says can be trusted. Especially Phil Spencer, everything that comes out of the guy's mouth is lies and bs, he is not better than Bobby Kotick in my book.

[Lifexline]

I agree with that MS sentiment the majority of billion dollar companies are scum I like the Xbox but don't really care for MS. They never promised bethesda games being exclusive that was debunked. Do you not know how a contract works? Go google it if you really are that clueless. Damm you sound really bitter what did Phil do to you that doesn't allow you to eat or have a roof over your head to warrant that bitterness. Some of you guys take this way too seriously.

[MadLad]

What Sony games are on Xbox, besides Destiny? Sony literally pays just to keep certain games off of Xbox. They don't own the company; they just throw money at people to keep them off their competition.

[Imalwaysright]

Oh the irony... No they did not promise such thing. They said they would honor the deals that Sony had with Bethesda wich they did with Deathloop and Ghost Wire timed exclusivity and that Bethesda games being released on the PS5 would be on a case by case basis.

[babadivad]

Most of the derogatory statements you made applies to Sony as well.

[Minute Man 721]

@MadLad

MLB The Show?

[shinoff2183]

Madlad

Care to explain ms 3rd party exclusives then. It's getting very old seeing yall try and trash Sony for 3rd party deals like ms don't do that shit. Come on you had to be around during the 360 days right. 50 mill for gta 4 dlc timed exclusive in top of numerous exclusives , mind you they still have 3rd party exclusives themselves.
Far as Sony fans. I don't speak for all of us but it seems we're more in the camp of being annoyed ms keeps buying up all these multiplatform studios and publishers. Fuck cod I'd prefer to get some of those wrpgs ms bought all the studios thay do them , personally. Were annoyed by that and the fact that ms already has more then sony but hasn't gotten there shit together in 20 years. 20 years they've been in this and there upside was a good stretch on the 360 of 4 5 years.

[richardmmorales]

They did no such thing when it comes to Bethesda. The FTC tried saying that and the European Commission even countered and said that never happened.

At least I see some people have already said exactly what happened. That they said current contracts would be honored and future titles would be done on a case by case basis. Man Sony fans are just as bad as Sony making stuff up that never happened.

@Minute Man 721 the only reason MLB The Show is multiplatform is because of Major League Baseball. They told them make it multiplatform or they'd lose the MLB license.

[MontyeKristo]

Minute man - MLB is not a great example of this. It's not Sony being the nice guy, like "here have this game, on us!" It's the MLB wanting the game to be not exclusive to one system.

[S2Killinit]

Its interesting that people are complaining about PlayStation buying exclusivity. Has everyone forgot that this was MS’s business model? In fact, this was so relied upon by MS that they neglected to foster their own studios leading to the need to spend 70billion to acquire a large part of the industry in the form of Activision. Now all gamers (including xbox gamers believe it or not) will pay for MS’s mismanagement. To put this into perspective, MS has not made 70 billion profit in all the generations they have been in gaming. That is what they are doing.

All gamers used to enjoy these multiplat games including xbox owners. Now they will get the same thing but will have to be happy that “its exclusive” because MS is going to deprive others.

[gleepot]

They never promised that.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Never said Bethesda games wouldn’t be exclusive

[wiz7191]

@Darkzane
Bethesda still releases multi platform games and still support the ones that’s currently out. If anybody thought any new IPs were going to be multi platform are delusional , why would they be ?? I bet the next Doom and Dishonored games like that will continue to be multi platform. Just like with mojang all new games and updates on Minecraft is still multi platform. Hell even Pyschonauts 2 was a multi platform release after Double Fine was purchased. If this deal goes through MS doesn’t want to remove COD from PS , you think they’re spending $68B just for exclusives right ??? Nah it’s to get that money Activision is bringing in currently. Sony doesn’t want that to happen , imagine funding your competitors hundreds of millions even billions possibly.

[Gravesinger_]

My guy...its not that serious, sony are just as scummy as Microsoft and any one who says otherwise is just a, can't believe I havento say this in 2023, a fanboy. They're bith billion dollar companies whose only purpose is to make money. Grow up

[MisterZay0000]

LOL!

[isarai]

What did people think they were doing? Thought this was understood from the start...i dont get it

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

That's what I was saying. Sony is only using CoD as a talking point to get the deal blocked. Keeping CoD on the system isn't the priority, stopping Microsoft from buying up the industry is.

[theindiearmy]

If that were the case, why is Sony on board with UK's idea of only allowing the deal through if COD is sold off? This is all about COD.

[shinoff2183]

Because cod is the biggest console game. That's why the indie army, you gotta put the rest of that together yourself. Look at the bigger picture guy

[blackblades]

They think Sony would give up and sign the agreement. Apparently people dont know signing a agreement means defeat and Jim had them fighting words.

[KillBill]

Fighting words? His words were basically the Monty Python Black Knight "I'll bite your legs off" come back. lol

[MrDead]

What he said: “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block their merger (Microsoft | Activision Blizzard)”.

I'm totally confused by what people thought this was about. This entire thing is to stop the merger as it will hurt PlayStation and give MS control over the industry that it's currently buying up and trying to monopolise... thats why we're here people!

[Christopher]

Exactly. This immensely reduces the competition in the industry. Competition is pro consumer but Microsoft is trying to sell the idea that them controlling more of the market, let alone some of the biggest IPs on the industry (multiple of them larger than anything Sony has and that Microsoft already has two IPs more valuable than any Sony IP - Halo and Minecraft) is better for the consumer.

It isn't. The same way Windows and Office aren't better for the consumer. It's just what there is and is maintained because no other company has the patents Microsoft has to control what features are in such software because as soon as a company comes out with something that could compete in some way they buy them out.

[thorstein]

Yeah. Not that Sony is our shining knight, but Monopolies are terrible for innovation and growth as an industry.

[giovonni]

But this is not a monopoly, so I don’t understand what you’re saying.

[GoodGuy09]

Man oh man.

[-Foxtrot]

Wait. Are they allowed to talk about meetings and the like especially on twitter? I thought it was some lawyer stuff where most things stay in the room and they aren’t allowed to be unprofessional by throwing shade and airing their dirty laundry online

[blackblades]

Imagine that keeping from going through

[gangsta_red]

"..they aren’t allowed to be unprofessional by throwing shade and airing their dirty laundry online"

How is anything of what you said true? MS has been pretty upfront about the deal since the beginning, Sony has been the one using every excuse other than the truth of what we're now reading. If anything Sony is the one being unprofessional, shady and needed to be called out.

[darkrider]

They are desperate. That's why. It's so easy to see. They already told everything they could and made everything they can, now let's spill parts of a discussion. Jim Ryan knows the type of persons they are! Never thought he would say this, because he seems weak. But I was mistaken.

[porkChop]

Unless they signed some kind of NDA they can say whatever they want. Normally it's just professional courtesy to not talk about what's said behind closed doors. But if Jim is publicly lying about wanting a better COD deal it isn't surprising that someone from ABK would set the record straight.

Either way it's clear that the relationship between ABK and PS is severely strained. If the acquisition doesn't go through COD would still come to PS, but it's obvious that ABK wouldn't sign a new marketing or exclusivity deal with PS. So either way PS's COD revenue is going to be impacted with or without the acquisition. I can understand Jim trying to protect PS's business and market lead, but he's done it in such a way that it's causing more harm than good.

[derek]

@pork, have you not been paying attention? Sony does not want this purchase to go through because they think it is bad for them and their customers. That has always been there position publically and they are not obligated to help Microsoft make it happen. Lol.

[SeTTriP]

No it won't Phil will get fired, the Xbox division sold off, Bobby will be fired and money talks.

[-Mika-]

Phil needs to cut the nice guy act. At this point, this is war and he needs to do whatever he can to win.

[crazyCoconuts]

The nice guy act is part of what they need to do to win. This is MS we're talking about. They aren't pulling punches

[SierraGuy]

Good

[Sonic1881]

I actually want this deal to go through because I'm curious to see how Sony will react and how they will spend their 5 billion dollars on their next acquisition🤔 these acquisitions is about to get out of control

[hotnickles]

Gooses! Geeses! I want my geese to lay gold eggs for Easter!

[denawayne]

If Sony had the chance to buy Activision they would do it in a heartbeat.

[darkrider]

Nope. They don't need to. They already made billions with Cod... Microsoft is the one seeking to take the industry and buying everything they can...

[denawayne]

Then why is Sony trying to block the sale?

[ActualEngineer]

CLUELESS.

[CrimsonWing69]

Microsoft didn't seek them out...

https://venturebeat.com/gam...

I guarantee most people here would be jumping for joy if Sony bought them.

[FGHFGHFGH]

"Then why is Sony trying to block the sale? "

Because they make millions off of call of duty without owning them. I think they had like 70% of console sales. Owning them means they have to pay the developers and all the other costs of owning a major publisher. Microsoft buying them is totally anti-competitive and should be blocked.

[Workshyskiver]

How is it anti-competitive if its released day and date, with feature parity as has been offered, with the option of Sony putting it on Playstation Plus if they want to? They would continue to make millions off of COD if they had accepted M$ deal.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

How is it anti-competitive if you have it on a rival platform?

Sony doesn’t get any special deals.

[MADGameR]

It has to happen at some point. But I will side with SONY on this one.

[hiawa23]

No surprise. Of course Sony wants to block it. Good luck, Jim as it will probably get approved.

[ActualEngineer]

My condolences to Jim loosing his job once Sony's stock falls another 20% - 30% if the deal goes through. 🤣 and you people really think they are looking out for you.

[Rainbowcookie]

Sony just had its best month in Japan in a long time...I don't see that happening. Microsoft has close to a monopoly on pc's with Windows. That is the reason when they want you to upgrade...its just like that. Having all that cash systems needs to be in place so that no one company can just buy everything. Just look at what happened to Rare as an example.

[darkrider]

If this is true, damn Jim got balls! No pr, no tricks, the truth. We all know what's in stake. No bending the knee to companies that think that can buy everything and everyone. Can't compete and pay to win. But we know the world we live in.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Hey I'll admit you've guts my friend.

[The3faces]

This is what most of us knew all along. No amount of concessions were ever going to be good enough. Sony doesn't want MS buying Activision and they used their position as market leader to blow alot of hot air. Truly sad.

[ActualEngineer]

Low times for Sony.

[Anunnaki]

He's right. They would make sure the Xbox version is optimismized better than the Playstation version.

[King_Noctis]

And what is the benefit of doing that?

[Anunnaki]

To get more people to play on Xbox?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

@Anunnali

The goal is to make money regardless of the console.

[Anunnaki]

@guiltyspark if that were true Staefield would be coming to Playstation.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

The opposite is happening now. The RDNA2 features that are hardware enabled aren’t even being used in the Xbox.

DF spoke on this regarding titles like Callisto Protocol.

[Pyrofire95]

Shutup and retire old man

[darkrider]

Got more guts that the fake second hand car salesmen

[ActualEngineer]

If the deal goes through, you can bet he will be fired from Sony's board of directors just out of the huge drop in Sony's stock.

[masterfox]

gO AND get them Ryan!!!, fight for that annoying / crappy franchise of averageness!! :D

I wish Sony stopped making famous the COD franchise, Sony with the Playstation maked famous that franchise and they can certainly kill it, Playstation fans don't buy Playstation consoles because of COD imo.

[Gamer_Dude]

Sony didn't make COD famous.

[masterfox]

I do really think so, back in the day 360 had on day one COD in their console, the PS3 was released a year later with no COD it only had their exclusive RFOM, the PS3 was 600 dlls and still was able to outperform the 360 in sales, all COD games ran better on the 360 , the 360 was know of the console for FPS online but that didn't do a damn thing to outperform the PS3(so much for COD sells consoles BS, it does but not at the degree everyone is thinking), COD existed since 2003 on PS2 as an average FPS games, Medal of Honor was better quality in that moment, so it was until the PS4 and their consoles sales that managed to get more popularity , and with the exclusive deals with Sony, COD begun to had momentum, Sony keep giving Activision momentum with their exclusive deals and know you have the COD popularity you have today,

[Minute Man 721]

As much as it pains me to say ..COD sells

[ActualEngineer]

I like how you are describing users of a platform and set software as mindless drones that follow their god-leader Sony. It must be fun being you irl...

[JayRyu]

Wow, so Sony's argument all along was....
MS you can not buy ABK just because

[ActualEngineer]

"...Just because our stock is going to tumble and we are going to get fired and replaced, as executives"

[Hypertension140]

So you understand that's this will hurt sony big time, and you still want the deal to go through? Isnt that what the CMA job is here?
Now you guys have to be honest too, why do you want this deal to go through?

[wiz7191]

It’s not just because , if Sony had the cash to do they so would try to acquire them to ..

[JayRyu]

@wiz Yes, I agree with you If Sony had the cash they might have tried to aquire ABK. Sony just wants the MS acquisition stopped
their main reason... 'just because' they don't agree with it.

[Gamer_Dude]

Jim Ryan wants cod deals, he just wants them to be back room deals that benefit PlayStation and hurt the other gaming platforms.

[Minute Man 721]

COD sells Playstations

[ActualEngineer]

No it doesn't ... exclusives like GOW and Horizon and Rachet & Clank do...

[Stanjara]

I know you are a fan... But COD, Fifa, Fortnite, Minecraft, Genshin... Hogwarts... Are the ones that sell Playstation.

They are the one that also bring the most micro transactions.

It's sad but true.

[Aussiesummer]

What, people thought he was nice guy or something? you can tell he is a cut throat corporate maggot just by looking at his head.

[PrinceOfAnger]

🤣

[bleedsoe9mm]

CMA, EC and the FTC should throw out all of SIE information on the subject

[gold_drake]

atleast someones honest about it.

[frostypants]

Is there a more legit source than this? This article reads like something written by a 6th grader. Not sure whether to believe any of it.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

The only source available is hearsay from this clown:
https://mobile.twitter.com/...

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

You all need to understand that if Jim doesn't block the acquisition, MS would be able to make billions from the PS platform. That's why he doesn't want any parity deal.
COD being owned by MS would be like a trojan horse.
It'd be equivalent to Sony paying their biggest competitor hundreds of millions every year.
What company would want that????? It makes no sense.

[Ryuk_2007]

That literally kills all of their complaints about it being anticompetitive. It was never about Sony keeping COD on their system as they made it out to be. It was only about not letting M$ own Activision. So no matter what concessions M$ /Activision pitch.. Sony will always oppose them and aim to make the deal fail. They don't want competition, they want things to remain how it is. (status quo)

[giovonni]

This is exactly what I said above. Man, you have to hear some of the reasoning Sony used to try to block the deal you’d think Sony was the minority market share holders. The reaching was insane

[ActualEngineer]

Trust me brother, the 2.3 trillion Microsoft needs the couple of billions that Sony will bring them in. They are going to go overboard if this doesn't happen. 🤣🤣🤣

Jim doesn't want to have his head cut off from another massive plunge in Sony's stock, like the 20% drop it faced when the acquisition was first announced.

[headshotfrosty]

But they literally just did this with Bungie.....

[headshotfrosty]

Literally F*** Sony. Hating A$$ Bi$%^& lol. #truth

[Hypertension140]

Why are you guys acting like sony is about to take your games away? These games were always coming to xbox why the hell are you guy so mad about?

[headshotfrosty]

Who’s mad about that? This about deal blocking and selective outrage lol. Literally the type of fan I’m talking about. Blind and loud.

[Einhander1971]

Go Jim !!!

[anast]

The rebel alliance is fighting back!

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Rebels would be Xbox and Nintendo. Sony controls the console market.

[blackblades]

You do know Nintendo switch is like 3rd place of most system sold right. Nintendo is doing fine in the console market. Usually you fools leave them out and you can keep doing so.

[kindi_boy]

what a hero /s

[Majin-vegeta]

This is coming from the person who threatened Acti workers with withholding raises cuz Unionize.Let that sink in...

https://www.thegamer.com/ac...

She also stands to make a couple of millions if the deal goes through which is why shes unhinged mouth piece for the deal.

[TriniOutsider]

If y'all legit believe something like that was said. Some of you are very gullible in the comments.

[TriniOutsider]

Well, the hell is this comment getting downvoted lol

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

How are all Xbox owners not as upset as me: M$ doesn’t have the output they’ve been promising for years unless this monumentally large deal goes through.

So, they’ve been lying for over a decade.

Yah, I don’t want them to buy their way out of trouble, either.

Just release some of those games you’ve been promising for years instead.

[boing1]

I would love to hear those words being actually spoken by Jim. For example, I've heard Phil Spencer saying that he will make COD exclusive after MS fools everyone into thinking they will not.

[ChasterMies]

This is the tweet thread that this all came from:

https://twitter.com/lulumes...

I feel like this quote has more paraphrasing than we are led to believe. Sony of course wants a deal with Activision. They don’t want a deal with an Activision owned by Microsoft.

[JayRyu]

I agree about the paraphrasing but the sentiment of the statement is still the same. Sony just wants the acquisition blocked reasoning be damned.

[lonewolf10]

"They don’t want a deal with an Activision owned by Microsoft."

That has never stopped any business before, Sony/Msoft pay each other already for services/licensing etc.

[Chocoburger]

Wow, reading the psychotic crying bitch-babies replies in that Twitter thread. It shows just how far the human race has sunk. They don't even realize what worthless trash they have willingly chosen to become. What a shame.

[Thundercat77]

Good. MS simply can't be trusted on anything and let's not forget that under Xbox Management, COD will probably suffer the same fate as Halo.

[COS]

Yes and Sony can 100% be trusted! ROFLOL

[headshotfrosty]

Pointless trying to talk sense to a Sony loyalist. They walk on water man.

[darkrider]

Jim Skywalker keep fighting the darkbox. It won't be easy, but the force is strong.

[COS]

Sorry to the Sony Defense League, but Jim is looking weak. I also believe when the FTC receives the requested documents from Sony, it will be a prime example of a company leveraging their market share. Anti-competitive behavior, exclusivity contracts, paying 3rd party not to release on Game Pass, how are these behaviors anything but anti-competitive? Sony is able to do this because of their market share, impacting other companies from being able to compete. What I don't understand is why wouldn't gamers want competition in the marketplace. Take Call of Duty, with the MS acquisition, it will be released on more platforms, how is that a bad thing?

Sony has earned the right to be a market leader based on quality of first party games, I don't dispute that. I for one want more competition as it spurs innovation. Everyone is so worried about MS buying up companies, guess what, they can buy up all the companies they want, but if they don't produce great games, they will not increase market share.

Hopefully closer competition will benefit gamers and not the BS all of the shady back office deals these companies make.

[headshotfrosty]

Exactly. But why make sense to the loyalists? Nothing MS does is right and everything Sony does is angelic. #please

[Gravesinger_]

Finally. A reasonable and logical explanation of events.

[Rainbowcookie]

"A Wild Jim appears"

[OneLove]

Lmao salty ain't ya

[Soulsborne]

I dont know why anyone would be surprised by this? Imagine being shocked they want to keep playstation number 1... touch grass please.

[YourMommySpoils]

Being direct and honest compared to the douchebag at Microsoft.

[UltimateRacer]

Hopefully as a neutral who just loves gaming this deal doesn’t go through because it will only hurt the consumer in the long run. AB doesn’t need to be sold and MS doesn’t need them.

[rippermcrip]

And this is exactly right. I haven't understood for months why all the focus on this deal was on Call of Duty. Yes, I understand it is one of the biggest, but they have dozens of franchises.

[ChronoJoe]

I mean, that's what they also say in their document. It says they don't believe behavioral remedies are possible and they want to either block the merger, or change the structure of it. It does not say that they ever believed a deal would help.

It's worth considering they also have nothing to gain from a deal in the same vein as that offered to Nintendo. 10 years of Call of Duty on Nintendo hardware? Call of Duty is already on Sony's hardware. Hard to imagine why Sony would jump at the opportunity to strike a deal that's worse than their current relationship.

I don't know whether I agree if the deal should be blocked, but I certainly do think Sony's stance makes sense.

[mudakoshaka]

You think 10 years matters to Sony? It's a company that has been around for almost 100 years and their gaming division has been around for over 30 years. They are looking at this for decades to come. If Microsoft is offering such a great deal for 10 years, then that means that they really stand to gain from this acquisition in the long run.

[Hereandthere]

Lets say if this all gets approved and Activision and blizzard games are exclusive to xbox. Can someone make a list of the franchises playstion will lose out on.

1. crash bandicoot
2. tony hawk
3. overwatch
4.diablo series
5. starcraft
6.spyro

That's just off the top of my head. So no this deal should not get approved because microsoft took Bethesda games from playstation owners.

[darkrider]

World of Warcraft, guitar hero and of course candy crash. Are some that I remember.

They also took all beteshda games from Nintendo. The two biggest seller on gaming.

[COS]

If you understand the business case, MS is trying to leverage the mobile gaming market, Activision is a big part of it. Look at the industry, the biggest gaming segment is mobile gaming. Sorry console and PC lovers, the numbers don't lie. MS is looking at the big picture. I have a PS5, Xbox XSX and a decked out PC with a RTX 4090, I don't mobile game lol, but the fact of the matter a lot do, and that number is doubling the rate of everyone ranting about consoles.

[babadivad]

This is getting pathetic...

[Gamer_Dude]

Whether the deal goes through or not I would say Sony has burned it's Activision bridge.

[TheLigX]

Whether it was Sony or Microsoft, I would want to sink this deal as well. It’s terrible for the industry and consumers.

[giovonni]

How is it terrible for the industry and consumers? Please explain?

[Gravesinger_]

I do find it funny of all the major people innthis industry..nobody really cares except Sony. No other major player has said anything about this, even Japan..JAPAN!! Is cool with the merger LMAO

[Father__Merrin]

I hope the deal doesn't go through. COD is on playstation either way but it's just the concept that Microsoft should not have control over it. I hope the powers that be fail this application

[Gravesinger_]

Hahaha Sony out here self-reporting, they're really exposing what they do to everyone else. The walls are closing in on them now.

[Ryzza5]

Why don't they just make another game that's better than CoD? (PS I don't play shooters)

[Profchaos]

Ofcourse he's basically been saying this but in a masked way since the start.

Somedays I miss when Shawn layden was running things that was the golden era of Sony in my view even Sony fans can't stand Jim Ryan I don't think he's ever actually played a PlayStation

[GrmpyolGamer]

Good. Once the deal goes through MS should only offer to put the game on PS for 10 years. No parity clauses at all

[GhostScholar]

Jim is like a spoiled child that doesn’t want other kids to have the same toys he has. I don’t care about the Sony va Microsoft war I’m just saying that is one of the most petty and gross comments I’ve ever heard from a company exec. That quote is gonna make the deal happen way more than prevent it. What a foot in the mouth statement

[giovonni]

Truth be told, Sony is afraid of losing that number one spot. All because they are ill equipped to compete in an all digital market. This is why they are making the deals they’re making. The Sony Loyalists can say what they want, but it’s the truth. Why else would they be paying companies to keep games off game pass, because it’s a threat to Sony’s position, plus they’ll be forced to compete. If you look at the documents submitted by Sony in reference to why they want it blocked it’s speculative, untrue, or just plan ludicrous. ( I’ve provided a link Below as proof to what was said in the case) it’s to the point where all Sony is doing is making up stuff to stall the sale. And sony is using the ignorance of the CMA to block this deal.

https://youtu.be/AX4Nm5TBpo...

[InUrFoxHole]

Came for the tears but stayed for the tears... love it!