Sony has said it won’t share plans for the PlayStation 6 with Activision Blizzard if Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the company goes through.
As reported by Eurogamer, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — which is currently battling against Microsoft’s deal in court — that it couldn’t give “immensely sensitive” information about its next console to a company owned by Xbox.
Sony “simply could not run the risk of a company that was owned by a direct competitor having access to that information”, Ryan said, raising concerns its game development process would be interrupted as it “could no longer share confidential details about its next console”.
While Sony won’t publicly announce the PS6 until around a year or so before its launch, it has discussions and shares hardware with developers ahead of time so they can prepare games for the new system.
This allows for the likes of Call of Duty to appear as a launch title, though Sony is suggesting here that the Microsoft deal going through could prevent this for its next console. It would also allow, Ryan said, for the likes of Call of Duty to be optimised for Xbox during this additional stint of development time.
Ryan’s comments highlight an issue with the Activision Blizzard deal not previously discussed, and perhaps one not satisfied by Microsoft offering PlayStation a 10-year deal to ensure it retains Call of Duty.
Xbox will presumably have to deal with the same issue when the new console generation comes along, of course, as Sony owns the likes of San Diego Studio and Bungie, who develop the MLB: The Show and Destiny franchises respectively, both of which are multiplatform.
Several more stories around the deal are likely to emerge this week as Microsoft and the FTC battle in court, as the latter attempts to impose a preliminary injunction on Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. The FTC’s eventual decision will be a major milestone in the journey of the deal going through or not, though perhaps not as significant as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority opting to block it.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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