Activision
Activision Blizzard CEO talks about Sony’s ‘disappointing behavior
Bobby Kotick assures that despite his disappointment with Sony, the relationship with Activision Blizzard will remain good for the long term.
It is possible that the soap opera of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard has opened wounds that are difficult to heal, and that may be the case with Bobby Kotick, the company’s CEO. As everything seems to indicate that the operation is entering its final phase, with a happy ending for Microsoft and not so much for Sony, Kotick has sent an email to all his employees talking about the “disappointing behavior” of the Japanese company.
Specifically, Kotick is referring to Sony’s insinuations that the PlayStation versions of Call of Duty may underperform compared to the rest.
“We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity,” Kotick said in the email. “And, all of us who work so hard to deliver the best games in our industry care too deeply about our players to ever launch sub-par versions of our games.”
Kotick not biting his tongue
Kotick also mentions Activision Blizzard CEO Lulu Cheng’s statement that Sony CEO Jim Ryan explicitly said he did not want 10 years of Call of Duty, but to stop the merger.
“Sony has even admitted that they aren’t actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening,” he continues. “This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship. PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation.”
Now it remains to be seen what Sony will do, as it seems to be only a matter of time, and not much until the purchase of Activision Blizzard will be completed. Microsoft also has the ball in its court, as relations will certainly not be the same, at least for a while, and it remains to be seen if after these clashes the Americans are still willing to reach an agreement for Call of Duty to continue coming to PlayStation platforms.
Source | VGC