A new report claims that Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO and President Jim Ryan met with the EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager a few days ago to discuss the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
The report comes from a Reuters source who has recently declined to give more details of the discussion between Ryan and Vestager. It did say that the meeting happened just as the EU antitrust group was preparing to warn Microsoft this week about the potential anti-competitive effects of the game company’s acquisition in the biggest gaming industry deal in history.
One of the worries of the regulators of this big deal was its ability to significantly reduce PlayStation’s ability to compete in the market. The Call of Duty series is developed by Activision and if it goes to Xbox exclusively, it could mean trouble for PlayStation.
Microsoft is planning to complete the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which will soon become the game industry’s biggest deal. For comparison, Take-Two acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion last year, which is a big difference compared to the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal.
You can see why Sony and regulators from other countries are very worried about this deal coming through. However, there were other countries that have already favored the deal like Brazil, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, and Chile.