The Microsoft Activision circus needs to be over and done with

polygon.com:

Activision Blizzard’s outspoken chief communications officer, Lulu Cheng Meservey, decided last week that it was time for the gloves to come off in the battle of words with Sony over Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of her employer (as if the gloves had ever been on in the first place). On Twitter, she quoted PlayStation chief Jim Ryan directly as saying, “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.” Meservey said Ryan spoke these words at the Feb. 21 meeting between interested parties in the deal and the EU’s antitrust regulator.

This was both shocking, and not at all shocking. It was shocking that Meservey was willing to break the gentleman’s agreement to keep what was said at the meeting confidential. And it was shocking that, if he was indeed quoted accurately, Ryan was willing to state his company’s position so baldly.

Meservey is hardly a reliable witness. As a senior Activision executive, she presumably has a large, personal financial interest in the deal going through. She is also very much a post-Trump communicator, unafraid to look like a bad guy and wield tweets like deadly weapons in the name of “honesty.” As such, she is a useful attack dog for Microsoft, which can maintain the air of gentlemanly largesse it has attempted to project throughout its wrangles with Sony and regulators, and leave it to her to go places it would never dare itself.

But — and here is the not-shocking part — the words Meservey put in Ryan’s mouth are nothing if not an accurate description of Sony’s stance. A deal to protect Call of Duty’s place on PlayStation is on the table from Microsoft, and it’s apparently good enough for Nintendo and Nvidia. At no point has Sony shown any interest in negotiating to