Activision Blizzard Would Never “Launch Sub-Par Versions” Of Call Of Duty On PlayStation, Says Bobby Kotick

Bobby Kotick had some harsh words for Sony in a new email to Activision Blizzard employees, where he serves as CEO. He pushed back against the PlayStation-maker’s worry that Microsoft would kneecap Call of Duty on their platforms and argued Sony doesn’t even really care about the FPS franchise. It just wants to block the deal, he said.

This all comes in response to Sony expressing concerns to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that Microsoft could intentionally make Call of Duty worse on PlayStation. Kotick addressed this head-on in his “March Update” email posted on Substack.

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

That said, Kotick added that Activision Blizzard will continue to deliver top-notch experiences on PlayStation and won’t let Sony’s actions negatively impact their decades-long partnership.

As for the UK’s CMA, it has paved the way for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard. But the regulator still has questions about competition in cloud gaming for the proposed merger. Meanwhile, the Japan Fair Trade Commission has approved the deal.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission wants more information on Xbox’s future ZeniMax exclusivity, saying Microsoft has reneged on its promise to keep games multiplatform–something Microsoft never said it would do.