In late 2022, a group of gamers banded together to file a federal antitrust lawsuit in an attempt to stop Microsoft from completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard due to antitrust concerns. That court battle is still raging today, with the biggest point of contention in the suit being a passage referred to as Exhibit K. This passage supposedly reveals the contents of an internal email from Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty, that allegedly states that Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard is all part of a bigger plan to put PlayStation out of business.

First shared by reporter Stephen Totilo of Axios Gaming, the actual passage and internal email has been redacted, but lawyers claim it provides "uncontroverted evidence" that Microsoft is planning to push Sony and PlayStation out of the market entirely. It's claimed that this email was sent from Booty to Microsoft’s chief financial officer for Xbox Tim Stuart. Microsoft itself has also confirmed that this evidence is an "internal exchange" and should remain sealed, which is likely why the email is so heavily redacted.

While this lawsuit isn't the same as the one that the FTC is currently engaged in, the email could potentially strengthen the FTC and PlayStation's argument that Microsoft's planned aquisition poses a threat to competition in the industry. PlayStation has argued for a long time that the loss of Call of Duty would give Xbox an unfair advantage, and it could easily find a way to spin this new evidence into an argument claiming that Xbox is planning to deprive PlayStation of popular third-party titles.



However, private comments made by Sony CEO Jim Ryan were recently shared in a seperate document, suggesting that PlayStation isn't actually that concerned about Call of Duty being owned by Xbox. Ryan was allegedly pretty certain on the day of the acquisition's announcement that Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation due to the platform's market power. This contradicts Ryan's more recent claims that PlayStation losing Call of Duty would damage the industry's competition.

While this supposed email from Matt Booty probably won't do much to change the grand scheme of things immediately, but it's an interesting development that's sure to be brought up later down the line. As for right now, Microsoft and the FTC recently shared their witness lists for their upcoming case, which includes high profile figures such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, PlayStation chief Jim Ryan, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, as well as the aformentioned Matt Booty, who will now probably have a much tougher time as a witness now this email is in the wild.



Posted: Jun 23, 2023 10:46 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/microsoft-buying-activision-put-playstation-out-of-business/