FTC Judge Orders Sony to Comply with Microsoft's Subpoena

The battle between Microsoft and Sony over the former's acquisition of Activision Blizzard keeps raging on. Earlier, Microsoft issued a subpoena to Sony Interactive Entertainment looking for information on the scope of Sony's game production to build a defense against the FTC, which filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in December 2022 as it assumed that Microsoft's control of Activision's games might "suppress competition from rival consoles."

In return, SIE tried to quash or limit the order, but the FTC judge denied most of the requests.

In particular, Sony asked to limit custodians and quash the document requests, but the judge largely denied both. The positive outcome for SIE is that it has to provide documents from January 1, 2019, to the present and not for the last ten years. 

It also managed to quash request 13, which "seeks documents related to “performance reviews or evaluations” of SIE’s CEO as well as that employee’s “direct [r]eports” or other related “leadership or management.” 

Overall, Sony will have to disclose its numbers, which might help Microsoft prove its acquisition of Activision will not affect the game industry too much.

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