FTC vs MS emails: Jim Ryan said he was ‘pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come’
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan wrote in an email “I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come” in response to the news Microsoft intended to buy Activision Blizzard.
The revelation came as part of the ongoing hearing in which lawyers representing Microsoft and the United States' Federal Trade Commission are fighting for the future of the proposed $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard.
The email, viewed by IGN reporter Rebekah Valentine in court today and dated January 20, 2022 - two days after Microsoft announced its intent to purchase Activision Blizzard - reveals Ryan’s relaxed attitude to the deal at that time, and counters Sony’s public-facing concern about the future of Call of Duty on PlayStation that emerged in the year-and-a-half that followed.
“It’s not an Xbox exclusivity play at all,” Ryan wrote in the email, “they’re thinking bigger than that, and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair bit of time with both Phil [Spencer, boss of Xbox] and Bobby [Kotick, boss of Activision Blizzard] over the past day. I’m pretty sure we will continue to see COD on PS for many years to come.
“We have some good stuff cooking. Keep your eyes peeled. I’m not complacent and I’d rather this hadn’t happened, but we’ll be OK, more than OK.”
In a September 2022 interview, Ryan called Microsoft's offer for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends "inadequate on many levels".
In March, Activision Blizzard EVP Corporate Affairs and CCO Lulu Cheng Meservey took to Twitter to claim Ryan had commented on Sony’s true motivation in a behind-closed-doors meeting in Brussels. “In his words: ‘I don’t want a new
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