It has been revealed by PlayStation’s CEO, Jim Ryan, that if the buyout of Activision Blizzard were to close, the company would no longer be able to share details about upcoming consoles (think: PS6) as that would give their rival a potential advantage ahead.
This piece of news comes from news site Axio’s own Stephen Totilo, who posted the docs on Twitter detailing that Jim Ryan stated that they would no longer be able to share confidential information around upcoming consoles with Activision should the buyout deal go through for Microsoft.
Q: Do you think that this collaboration with Activision has lead to better features on PlayStation’s Gen 5 consoles?
Jim Ryan: I believe that to be the case.
Q: If you look at the next sentence of the very last sentence on the page, that reads: This partnership would be lost. And it goes on to the next page, it continues: Once Microsoft acquired Activision and SIE could no longer share confidential details about its next console in development. Do you see that language?
Jim Ryan: I do.
Q: Why could SIE no longer share confidential details about its next console and development once Microsoft acquired Activision?
Jim Ryan: We simply could not run the risk of a company that was owned by a direct competitor having
access to that information.
Q What would be the risk of your direct competitor having access to that information?
Answer: REDACTED
Q: Looking at the next sentence that reads: Even if some Activision games remained on PlayStation, SIE could not share in-development console features with a Microsoft controlled Activision and Activision would have less of an incentive to develop its games to take advantage of unique Playstation features or help SIE develop better consoles. Do you see that language?
Jim Ryan: I do.
Q: Why, in your view, would Activision have less of an incentive to develop its games to take advantage of unique PlayStation features or help Sony develop better consoles?
Jim Ryan: I believe that Microsoft owned that division would not be incentivized to develop games that take advantage of features that Playstation has or that Xbox does not have?
Q Why do you think that a Microsoft-owned Activision would not be incentivized to do that?
Jim Ryan: I believe that their incentives– their primary incentive will, at post-acquisition, would be to optimize its overall Xbox business, not the business of Activision.
It’s understandable reasoning, as you wouldn’t want someone you’re competing with to have information on what you’re doing next. But this goes without saying that it’s also ironic, as Bungie was and still is a multiplatform developer that PlayStation now owns. Of course, not knowing the whole story of all this, that could also be the case too, where Microsoft isn’t sharing details with Bungie anymore, but then this would just be more of business, a usual kind of situation.
The case will continue to progress later this week, as a hearing related to the injunction request is scheduled for June 22 and 23. We’ll have more details on the outcome of that, otherwise for now, the deal is expected to close sometimes next month.
From now onwards, Bungie will not know the specs of Microsoft’s consoles that are in development. Bungie will only get the devkit after the console specs have been publicly announced by Microsoft.
Lmao, this lad gonna get torn apart at the hearing.
“We want CoD…we also want it to be a late release and unoptimized trash”
Never forget #4TheGamers
Edit: Wow I was just trying to make a joke but his responses are actually god awful :/
No he won’t, it’d a totally understandable position to take. Also the comparison with bungie is correct except the difference is that’s one studio right. Whereas activision is like 19+ studios….
Eh, in this context that doesn’t matter because all it takes is one studio to be given specs to know what X competitor has.
They could have 1, or 1000 studios. Granted the other number a higher count, but again, all it takes is one for them to get specs. It just means the latter has a higher chance.
But it is a understandable position anyway, and others need to understand this isn’t Jim Ryan just coming out and announcing it, it’s a deposition, he was asked to answer and he answered.