Sony is prepared to cut Activision Blizzard from PlayStation 6 plans

gamedeveloper.com:

Sony is prepared to restrict Activision Blizzard's knowledge of its PlayStation 6 plans should the publisher be acquired by Microsoft. Per Axios, an April deposition reveals the PlayStation maker will "no longer share confidential details" of its upcoming console to prevent such information being used by Microsoft. 

Talking to FTC regulators, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said Sony "could not run the risk of a company that was owned by a direct competitor having access to that information."

Late last year, Sony argued a successful merger would hurt the next PlayStation console the hardest. It believes the PlayStation 6 would be "extremely vulnerable" to consumers switching over to the next Xbox, which would (it assumes) tout Activision franchises such as Call of Duty and Overwatch as key selling points. 

With threats to ice out Activision Blizzard on console information, that means future Call of Duty games (or Diablo, Crash Bandicoot, etc.) would be theoretically run worse on the PS6. A move like that would be felt by developers and players alike, and ruin public perception for all companies involved.

Ryan continued this thread in his deposition, saying that under Microsoft, Activision Blizzard could potentially make games that don't take advantage of PlayStation-specific features. Though this section of the document was heavily redacted, he indicates that there was some conflict with Mojang over Minecraft after the developer was acquired by Microsoft in 2014. 

"Their incentives," Ryan continued, "at post-acquisition, would be to optimize its overall Xbox business, not the business of Activision."

Since last year, Sony has said anything and everything it can to make clear it doesn't want the merger to go