Sony Reportedly Refused To Extend Call of Duty Marketing Deal

gameranx.com:

Microsoft came out with a major win this week. After facing off with the FTC, the judge decided to be in favor of Microsoft, further giving them momentum to acquire Activision Blizzard. However, that hasn’t fully allowed the company to proceed with the purchase. We’re still waiting to see what the outcome ends up being with the discussions Microsoft is having with the CMA. Still, there are plenty of little bits of information surfacing online from this back and forth in the court systems. One of which has to deal with Sony apparently shooting down any marketing extension with Call of Duty. 

CharlieIntel recently posted on Twitter a small document snippet from Microsoft. The portion showcased has Microsoft making a big claim. It looks like, according to the document, Microsoft revealed Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent attempts to talk with Sony. Apparently, Bobby Kotick was discussing the extension for Call of Duty marketing. We know that within 2024 the marketing deal with Sony will be coming to an end, and Bobby reached out to Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida along with PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan to see about the extension as Call of Duty was still set to land on PlayStation platforms after this acquisition goes through.

Microsoft says Activision's Bobby Kotick offered to extend Sony's Call of Duty co-marketing agreement beyond 2024 to appease Sony's requests on CoD, but says Jim Ryan refused the offer and said he'd rather have regulators just block the Microsoft deal instead. pic.twitter.com/tlQcPOnETl

However, it’s noted that both refused to talk with Jim Ryan, stating that he hopes the regulators do their job and block the deal. Meanwhile, we know that Jim Ryan also referenced the deal in an email, stating that he