Sony has been accused of lying to EU regulators about the Microsoft Activision deal

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What else you need to know: Microsoft’s Frank X Shaw claimed that Sony recently lied to EU regulators about its ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The company is making par with Call of Duty, though Microsoft previously proposed a 10-year deal. Microsoft continues to stress that it wants to bring games to more people, not fewer, and that making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive would “defy business logic.”

With Microsoft’s planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard continuing to attract thorough scrutiny from regulators, the company has claimed that Sony — a PlayStation producer and one of the deal’s biggest opponents — recently lied to the European Union (EU) about its plans to make a Call of Duty. While Microsoft has publicly committed to keeping the popular PlayStation shooter franchise once the merger closes, the company says Sony is suggesting otherwise to Brussels officials. The news comes as the European Union is said to be planning to file an antitrust warning with Microsoft over the deal.

“I’ve heard Sony let people in Brussels know that Microsoft doesn’t want to give them parity in Call of Duty if we acquire Activision. Nothing could be further from the truth,” wrote Frank X Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president of communications. “We’ve made it clear that we’ve offered Sony a 10-year deal to give them parity in timing, content, features, quality, playability, and any other aspect of the game. We’ve also said we’re happy to make that enforceable through contract, regulatory agreements, or other means.”

Call of Duty, a series that is often home to countless players and hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, is one of the largest entertainment franchises in the world. Microsoft initially offered terms to Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years after completing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which CEO Jim Ryan called “inadequate” in a statement. Subsequently, Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year deal, with the two companies reportedly meeting to discuss specific details. The full outcome of these talks is still unknown, but based on Xu’s public statements, it appears that no agreement was reached.

(Image credit: Activision)

Microsoft has repeatedly emphasized that making Call of Duty exclusive to its Xbox consoles wouldn’t align with its plans, with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stating that Microsoft is primarily acquiring Activision Blizzard for its dominant position in mobile games and that the company wants to “be where it’s at.” gamers, especially with franchises the size of Minecraft and Call of Duty.” In an op-ed, Microsoft president Brad Smith also wrote that making a Call of Duty exclusive would not make “economic sense,” as “a vital portion of Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty revenue comes from PlayStation game sales.” Xu reiterates these arguments in his own comments.

“Sony is the leader in the game console market, and it will challenge business logic for us to exclude PlayStation players from the Call of Duty ecosystem,” Shaw said. “Our goal is to bring Call of Duty and other games – as we did with Minecraft – to more people around the world so they can play it where and how they want.”

Regulators are expected to make final decisions on the merger in the spring, with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) planning to share a preliminary decision in late January or February. The EU and CMA are due to deliver their rulings on April 11 and April 26, respectively.

Notably, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already sued to block the deal, citing upcoming Xbox and Windows PC exclusives from recently acquired ZeniMax like Starfield and Redfall as examples of why the company can’t be trusted (Microsoft never committed to making these multi-platform games). Earlier this week, a report indicated that the FTC had timed its lawsuit to manipulate the European Union and discourage the regulator from reaching a settlement with Microsoft regarding its concerns about the deal.

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Between the timing of the FTC’s timing of the anti-merger lawsuit for manipulating the EU to avoid settlements with Microsoft and Sony’s outright lying about Microsoft’s planned commitments, it’s hard not to laugh at how ridiculous things turned out. Assuming Shaw’s assertions are correct, Sony’s approach to opposing the merger has reached a new level of bad faith. It reminds me of the time the company complained that Microsoft might raise the prices of its Xbox hardware after buying Activision Blizzard, just months after the cost of its PS5 systems had skyrocketed.

Admittedly, Microsoft probably isn’t being honest here themselves. However, unlike Sony, it has already been shown to be willing to sit down at the negotiating table, as the company has declared several times that it is happy to work with regulators and negotiate with competitors. Most notably, Microsoft has entered into 10-year commitments to put Call of Duty on Steam and Nintendo Switch, demonstrating its willingness to bring Activision’s first-person shooter to platforms other than its own. For these reasons, and because of Sony’s behavior thus far, I’m very inclined to believe Shaw’s claim.

At the end of the day, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Sony is willing to say or do whatever it needs to do to block a Microsoft acquisition, and that now includes blatantly lying to regulators. So, I ask this: Who is really trying to stifle competition?

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