Microsoft offer “inadequate on many levels,” says Sony

PlayStation’s CEO, Jim Ryan, made the comment after Microsoft offered a three-year deal to keep Call of Duty available for PlayStation owners.

Microsoft, during its bid to acquire Activision Blizzard, stated that it will honour all agreements to keep Activision’s flagship series Call of Duty’s next three games available to PlayStation owners.

It has also promised to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years following the completion of the original agreement, but PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan publicly stated that the offer was “inadequate on many levels.”

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan spoke candidly about the offer from Microsoft’s Phil Spencer: “I hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum,” Ryan stated.

“Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”

Call of Duty’s next game, Modern Warfare II, is expected to sell extremely well. Picture: Activision Blizzard

The acquisition is currently being scrutinised heavily by anti-competitive regulators, such as the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, to ensure that a monopoly isn’t created as a result of the Activision Blizzard merger. Call of Duty is the largest and most popular game in the shooter category worldwide, retaining nearly 100 million players — despite losing 30 million users in one year.

The statement is only the latest in a string of volleys between the two companies since the acquisition of Activision Blizzard was announced. Pending approval from regulatory agencies around the world, the deal would be the biggest in gaming’s history. Saudi Arabia has already approved the $100b Microsoft deal, stating that the country has “no objection.”

Sony, meanwhile, said in a Brazilian court filing that it objects to the merger, stating that it “sees no way to compete” with Call of Duty. Sony does not currently have an active first-person shooter franchise that shares a genre with Call of Duty, although there are IPs the company can draw from to fill that niche, such as Killzone.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.