Microsoft opened the FTC hearing with a Sony bombshell

theverge.com:

The first day of the FTC v. Microsoft hearing kicked off exactly as I expected: Microsoft against Sony. We hadn’t even hit the hour mark before Microsoft’s lawyer Beth Wilkinson dropped a bombshell email from Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan during her opening statement. The exchange between Ryan and Chris Deering, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, revealed that Sony’s PlayStation chief didn’t really think Call of Duty would go exclusive to Xbox and that PlayStation would be fine.

“It is not an exclusivity play at all,” said Ryan. “They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this.” Ryan wasn’t concerned about Call of Duty exclusivity because he had spoken to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, and even had reassurances from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Sony was also just about to announce its plan to acquire Bungie, just days after Ryan’s email exchange. “We have some good stuff cooking,” said Ryan, referring to Bungie. “I’m not complacent, and I’d rather this hadn’t happened, but we’ll be OK, we’ll be more than OK.”

The email exchange set the tone for the day, with Microsoft claiming “Sony has known all along we’ll stand by our promise” and that the PlayStation maker was lobbying against the deal to “protect its dominant position in the market.”

The FTC also had the chance to outline its own opposition to Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. The FTC is concerned about Microsoft making Activision games, including Call of Duty, exclusive to Xbox in the future.

The FTC’s lawyer, James Weingarten, explained how important Activision games were to the industry and that the evidence the FTC will put forward over the next few days is “but a fraction”