Following his comments about the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)’s investigation of the Microsoft-Activision deal, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has claimed that Sony is “not returning” the former’s phone calls to discuss the future of the Call of Duty franchise and new business opportunities. This behavior, Kotick claims, runs against not only the relationship between the two companies in previous years, but also Sony’s representation of the value Activision Blizzard has to its business in front of regulators.

As one of the most prominent proponents of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Kotick has regularly used his platform to clear up various aspects of the deal, including the future of the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation and the regulatory scrutiny that has been holding up the deal in a number of regions. In a new interview, the Activision Blizzard CEO spoke about his company’s recent relationship with Sony in light of the latter’s concerns about the continued availability of Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles:

Sony’s not on the phone to us; in fact, they’re not returning our phone calls. One of the things that is surprising to us is that this is the time where, ordinarily, we would be talking about the future and new opportunities together for partnership, and they just haven’t been returning our phone calls. And so, I don’t know that we’re as valuable as maybe they’ve represented to the regulators that we are.

Kotick’s comments come right as the UK’s CMA published the provisional findings from its Phase 2 review of the Microsoft-Activision deal today, which identified two substantial lessening of competition (SLC) scenarios in the console and cloud gaming markets and recommended the divestiture of the Call of Duty franchise or parts of the Activision Blizzard business as remedies.

Source: Fox Business