Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says Sony’s ‘disappointing behavior’ won’t damage their long-term relationship
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has claimed Sony’s bid to thwart the Call of Duty maker’s sale to Microsoft won’t be held against the PlayStation maker in the long-term.
In an email sent to Activision employees on Tuesday, Kotick provided an update on the status of the $69 billion deal in which he called Sony’s recent behaviour “disappointing”.
His message referenced Sony’s recent claim that Microsoft could release deliberately buggy versions of Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles should it acquire Activision.
“We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity,” he said. “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.”
For its part, Microsoft has repeatedly claimed it has offered Sony a 10-year, legally enforceable contract to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox – with full content and feature parity.
Last month, Activision Blizzard’s EVP of corporate affairs and CCO, Lulu Cheng Meservey, claimed SIE president Jim Ryan had told Microsoft and Activision: “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.”
Notice: To display this embed please allow the use of Functional Cookies in Cookie Preferences.
Kotick also seemingly referenced this comment in his email to staff on Tuesday.
“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,” he wrote. “This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior
Read more on videogameschronicle.com
