Playstation boss Jim Ryan has spent the past year flying around the world to persuade lawmakers to block and oppose Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition, and in the UK he had some success. But recently the British authority CMA announced a preliminary assessment in which they reconsidered and now consider the deal not negative for gamers.
In a official statement Sony now says it considers the assessment to be “irrational”, adding:
“The CMA’s reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational. The provisional findings assessed a significant body of evidence in the round to support its finding that Microsoft would have the ability and incentive to withhold Activision content, and this would substantially lessen competition by forclosing Playstation.”
Microsoft has said from the outset that it has no intention of deliberately degrading the Playstation versions of Call of Duty, and their comment on the UK preliminary ruling reads:
“Microsoft has been clear since the announcement of the merger: it has no intention to withhold or degrade access to Call of Duty or any other Activision content on Playstation.”
