Phil Spencer Says Sony Is the Only ‘Major Opposer’ to Activision Blizzard Deal

Microsoft’s desire to acquire Activision Blizzard is hitting some serious regulatory hurdles and Xbox boss Phil Spencer believes that’s mainly due to Sony.

As VGC reports(Opens in a new window), during an interview(Opens in a new window) on the Second Request podcast, Spencer said, “Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller … [Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC, they do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games.”

The comments follow the FTC’s decision to sue to stop the acquisition from happening. The FTC believes the deal would give Microsoft “both the means and motive to harm competition by manipulating Activision’s pricing, degrading Activision’s game quality or player experience on rival consoles and gaming services.”

The commission also points to Microsoft making several Bethesda titles Microsoft exclusives “despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.” Those games include the highly-anticipated Starfield and Redfall. However, as GameRant reports(Opens in a new window), the European Commission has since clarified that Microsoft made no such commitment when acquiring ZeniMax Media and Bethesda.

Microsoft has repeatedly stated that it has no intention of limiting the availability of Activision Blizzard games on rival platforms, with a commitment to continue releasing Call of Duty titles on PlayStation for at least a decade. The same commitment was made for Nintendo’s consoles last week.

During the podcast interview, Spencer went on to say, “Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty … The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform. It’s a deal that benefits customers through choice and access.”

As it currently stands, Microsoft is set to fight a lawsuit against the FTC and is awaiting the outcome of in-depth investigations over the deal by both the UK and European Union. The deadline for completing the acquisition remains July 2023, after which point the deal would need to be renegotiated.

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