LogInActivision Blizzard's chief communications officer Lulu Cheng Meservey claims that the success of The Last of Us TV series means that Microsoft's buyout of Activision should go ahead and that Sony "will be just fine" without the FTC’s protection.
Activision Blizzard's executive believes that amidst the huge success of The Last of Us TV series, Sony shouldn't interfere with Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision.
On Monday, the company's executive VP for corporate affairs and CCO Lulu Cheng Meservey took to Twitter to turn to the Federal Trade Commission and address Sony's concerns regarding the Microsoft/Activision merger.
She asked the FTC to pay attention to the recently aired episode of The Last of Us noting that the show is breaking records and has been watched by tens of millions of people. Meservey went on to mention that the show is produced by Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions and is based on a best-selling video game that was developed by a Sony-owned studio and published as a PlayStation exclusive.
The executive noted that the FTC's opposition to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal is based on concerns that Microsoft could suppress competition from rival consoles and argued that there is no cause for these concerns as Sony has a vast amount of intellectual property in various forms of entertainment, including gaming, television, movies, and music, which can be developed into games or used to market existing titles.
She cited The Last of Us TV show as an example of how Sony's talent and IP are generating renewed interest in the video game and concluded that Sony continues to dominate in the market being the leader in consoles, thanks to its "formidable and truly impressive" IP across various forms of entertainment, and that it will continue to be successful without the FTC's protection.
Microsoft is still going through ongoing investigations into its Activision deal. The merger is currently being scrutinized by global regulators, including the European Commission, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, and the FTC.
Last month, the US agency filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in an attempt to block its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The regulator expressed concern that the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal would harm market competition, pointing to Microsoft's history of acquiring game studios and making their games exclusive to its gaming platforms. As evidence, the FTC mentioned Microsoft's upcoming games, Starfield and Redfall.
The latest reports suggest that the FTC filed its lawsuit ahead of schedule in an attempt to sway the decision of the European Commission. It is claimed that by filing the lawsuit first, the FTC aimed to take control of the situation and shape the outcome of the Microsoft/Activision merger, rather than being pressured into approving the acquisition by the European Commission.
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