Bobby Kotick Says Sony is 'Trying to Sabotage' Microsoft's Activision Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 February 2023 / 4,993 Views
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick in an interview with the Financial Times has claimed Sony is has been "trying to sabotage" Microsoft's acquisition of the company. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has even stopped talking to Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
"Suddenly, Sony’s entire leadership team stopped talking to anyone at Microsoft," said Kotick via VideoGamesChronicle. "I think this is all Sony just trying to sabotage the transaction."
He added, "The whole idea that we are not going to support a PlayStation or that Microsoft would not support the PlayStation, it is absurd."
Kotick is worried that "ideologues" have been taking over the government agencies. However, he is optimistic the deal will close by July and said Microsoft has hired lawyer Beth Wilkinson, who previously worked with the FTC in 2012 to lead a probe into Google.
"She feels like if she is going to have to litigate against the FTC, she will absolutely crush them," said Kotick.
Sony in a statement to the Financial Timed did state, "We are in contact with Microsoft and have no further comment regarding our private negotiations."
The UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) this week released its provisional conclusion on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
The CMA concluded the deal could put Microsoft in an even stronger position in cloud gaming and could stifle competition in the growing market, which in turn could harm UK gamers who are unable to afford consoles. It could also weaken the rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation in the video game console market and the CMA says this could also harm UK gamers.
The deal if approved "could result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers," according to the CMA.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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No matter where you stand on the issue, I don't think it's a good idea for Kotick to be the spokesperson on anything regarding the company. Especially regarding morality.
At the end of the day Activision dont need to be bought. Bobbys just looking for his big payout and bury all the abuses at Activision. And had no problem abandoning Activisions biggest user base (playstation) to do it. F HIM.
ABK will surely abandon Playstation players once this deal do not go through. What's going to inhibit Microsoft to make most ABK games exclusive if they're not going to make use of that 68 Billion? Would ABK be happy with Sony if this doesn't go through, they would just make all their games exclusive and COD to Xbox bet you, similar to what Sony and Square does. I think Sony is in a lose - lose situation on this, they just don't know it yet.
I am sure having bobby "sexual harrasment" kotick talking will help the deal
I bet he is really concerned about the woman that work in ABK kkkkk
If thats the case, why does Sony do exclusive deals with him? Seems Sony dont care either.
Because it's always ends up being about the almighty dollar. They will never care about human beings.
He didn't harass anyone. The fact that comment got upvotes kind of shows you how messed up the internet is. Do people even remember the articles they read? Or just they hate him because the media message told them to hate him, and then proceed from there with slander.
Do you see why I say you're suspicious? You're a new account, and you say absolutely just insane things.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680
Did you read the article you are linking? Kotick failed to act upon an email he received as he did not believe the complaints, that's their allegation, not that he harassed anyone himself, the fact that you are trying to push him as someone guilty of sexual harassment despite he is not guilty of anything is not good, and the two cases mentioned are people he worked with, not himself, an important distinction
Yeah... you're kinda weird, I don't want any part of this. Kotick is a piece of shit, end of story.
I didn't just repeat a false narrative you read on reddit. Because I actually read the articles that you linked? You think that is weird.
Well, that escalated quickly. So much for being “the only person to state the truth”. 😂
Is he Bobby himself because he must been there to know for sure Bobby never done anything uncoming.
Sony does bussiness with activision, he is CEO. You act like jim ryan goes barbecue with kotick every wekend.
They literally have exclusive deals with them. If they cared they wouldnt right?
Well.........yeah lol. Why wouldn't Sony try to? Jim Ryan would probably have been fired if he went "eh, I'm sure it'll be fine" and just let things go without a fight. As it's legal for MS to attempt to purchased ActiBlizz, it's equally legal for Sony to prevent the deal from happening as best they can.
Time will soon tell if it was a smart decision though or if it completely backfires. MS and ActiBlizz are subpoenaing everyone. Not just Sony, but Google and even Nintendo, so we'll see if secrets and business practices that put Sony in a negative light will come out of this. MS is betting that it will.
I still find the whole "putting Microsoft in an even stronger position in cloud gaming and could stifle competition in the growing market, which in turn could harm UK gamers who are unable to afford consoles" argument hilarious considering the whole point of cloud gaming is that you don't need a console anymore. Open up Safari on your Mac or iPhone and start playing Game Pass games right now lol.
Whats even worse, Xbox has the cheapest console offering on the market called the Series S.
I'm pretty sure the CMA's argument has nothing to do with hardware in the cloud space: it's about software ownership and the ability to dictate where that software can go.
whether that has merit or not, is not entirely possible to say because we aren't really at that stage where competing cloud services are big enough yet.
They mention in their claims that it could boost MS Cloud gaming, making it hard for UK gamers that cant afford expensive consoles...
CMA have zero idea what they are on about here.
Series S consoles, Windows PC, Phones etc all exist with access to Cloud gaming.
This will be countered in court.
It won't be countered in court. There's no way that any of these regulators let this thing go to trial. They know that their arguments are nonsense. They're just trying to score political points. They're not going to let their nonsense get shot down in court.
Than they need to accept remedies that are fair, otherwise they will get sued for false statements
Regulators essentially never get sued for that kind of thing. They're playing a political game. Microsoft and Activision will give them some concessions that sound big so that the regulators can score their political points, and then everyone will go on about closing the deal.
No shit Sherlock!!
Bobby isn't the best person to be speaking right now. But I wonder how this would affect the future of Activision if the deal doesn't go through. Would AB be more open to Xbox exclusivity deals since they feel Sony is sabotaging the deal? I think no matter how this shakes out, Sony will be affected negatively since I know Kottick is probably one petty mf-er.
Is anyone allowed to buy Star Wars? In the same way you can buy Call of Duty. It is IP, expensive IP, like buying Mario. It isn't a large company and they don't produce anything of value, they are an entertainment company. The entire saga is a sad joke about useless government employees looking for relevance.
Microsoft could have bought Blizzard without Activision, and then Activision by itself would have been sold, and nobody would have batted an eye. Sony has done a good job at getting governments to think Call of Duty is important. Hilarious.
Awwww, poor Kotick. First he lashes out at the UK and its regulator, now it's at Sony, next article will be the FTC then possibly the EU, perhaps the Easter Bunny after that.
If you ever wanted an added reason to block the deal, just have him as your spokesperson/posterboy.
Bobby just comes off more and more like a thug talking about some backyard brawl. He's clearly not used to not having his way in everything.
Sabotage? Hell yeah, if by sabotage you mean any and every legal way to hinder or block this deal from happening. It's called business, Bobby.
I actually find this entire fight hilarious. Governments don't understand computers or software. Infinity Ward, the team that we are fighting over here, the main CoD developers, are 500 people. 500 people. This is a tiny transaction that governments should have approved and then moved on. Sony is trying to make it sound like a game made by 500 people requires anti-trust law. If you include all 3 teams, we are talking 1,500 people that Britain doesn't want Microsoft to own. The company I work for in my city is larger.
LAUGHABLE.
Tesla: 130,000 employees.
Disney: 200,000 employees.
Coca Cola: 700,000.
These are the companies that anti-trust law looks at when they are being sold.
Infinity Ward: (the part that they want to excise from ABK): 500 employees.
Microsoft is paying a ridiculous sum of money for IP. Not for a business, not for employees, but IP. In no way is anti trust law supposed to be used against people selling IP like Star Wars. Did Disney go through something similar buying Lucasfilm? Of course not.
Nintendo is no longer allowed to sell their company to anyone? Mario must be available to all. Mario is worth 10 billion as an IP all by himself. LMAO.
The number of employees doesn't matter. It's about whether a move impacts the competition.
Like Sony buying Epic Games would probably be a bigger issue, even if the cost was half as much, because the Unreal Engine is used all across the industry.
These issues are dependent on the specific market. And that does not necessarily mean "video game" market, it might mean the cloud streaming market.
If your company is doing something that could potentially make it harder for another company to compete in the same space and potentially become a monopoly, that's what these regulations are for.
They don't exist to protect "large numbers of employees", they don't even exist to protect "large numbers of dollars".
Por bobby, will lose his money.
If Bobby Kotick wasn't CEO Activision would be a safer workplace.
Well it is quite obvious. Dont need Bobby to tell us that.
Large companies buying everything up is anti-consumer. This type of thing is bad, no matter what system you like.
It amazes me how much MS is letting executives and people like this tweet and run their mouth about this whole thing. Sony is handling this perfectly. Doing everything in the background and keeping it very professional. Mean while you have Bobby talking about how his lawyer is going to crush the FTC like he's getting ready for his next title fight in the UFC.
There have been a couple executives whether they be Microsoft, or other that have just been embarrassing imo.
Like one complaining that Sony could take a first party game, and using their TV division make a good TV show. "Sony can use their property to turn their other properties into good content" is some how a reason that MS should be allowed to buy ABK.
That's what competition does, I guess
".......is absurd." really?
Yeah, Tell them Bobby
Why does this guy give a shit. How much money does he expect to make from this?
$388,550,000 at the $95 per share
