Activision CEO confirms Sony's Jim Ryan's 'just want to block' merger comment

Earlier this month, Lulu Cheng Meservey, EVP Corporate Affairs and CCO at Activision Blizzard, revealed some words spoken by Sony CEO Jim Ryan. According to Meservey, Ryan didn’t want a Call of Duty deal that Microsoft has been offering but just wanted to block the merger. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed it but promised the “disappointing behavior” won’t affect the company’s relationship with Sony.

Meservey shared the statement after UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published Sony’s recent statement about the deal, saying it fears Microsoft could introduce bugs to the PlayStation version of COD in the future. The Activision executive then questioned Sony’s true intention for strongly refusing the offer and shared what Ryan said on February 21 during a closed-door hearing with European Union regulators in Brussels.

“The CEO of SIE answered that question in Brussels,” tweeted Meservey. “In his words: ‘I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.'”

Kotick confirmed Ryan’s actions in an email sent to Activision employees this Tuesday, according to VGC. The message was meant to update the workforce on the progress of the proposed acquisition, but Kotick also addressed Sony’s “disappointing behavior,” including its persistent protest against the deal and buggy COD accusations. 

“We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity,” the email reads. “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.”

“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,” the letter 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.”