LogInHere is an overview of his speech.
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan testified during the FTC vs. Microsoft hearing, sharing his views on the deal. When asked about his opinion on Starfield's Xbox exclusivity, he admitted he didn't see much wrong with it:
"I don't like it, but I don't view it as anti-competitive," he said.
The FTC believes Starfield not being available for PS5 is an example of how the company will keep games away from other platforms.
Microsoft gatekeeping Activision Blizzard's games, Call of Duty, in particular, is the biggest concern for PlayStation. Earlier, Xbox head Phil Spencer promised to not pull the game from the competitor's console if the merge gets finalized.
Ryan also made other points during the hearing. He called Xbox Game Pass "value destructive" saying publishers don't like it:
“The Game Pass business model appears to have some challenges, and Microsoft appears to be losing a lot of money on it,” he said (via IGN). “I talked to all the publishers and they unanimously do not like Game Pass because it is value destructive."
He also mentioned that Sony hadn't asked Activision to add new versions of Call of Duty into PlayStation Plus because it knew Bobby Kotick would never consider it.
Talking about early 2022, when Microsoft announced the acquisition, Ryan said that Phil Spencer sent him a list of games Xbox would keep on PlayStation and an agreement letter. At first, Sony wasn't worried about the deal, however, Spencer's response to Sony's counterproposal in August "set the alarm bells ringing." It was not disclosed what exactly that response contained.
Another important consequence Activision will have to expect if the deal comes through is Sony not sending developer kits to it:
“We simply could not run the risk of a company that was owned by our direct competitor having access to that information,” Ryan said. “That information could leak into other parts of Microsoft and potentially allow them to be able to develop similar features to the ones that we would argue that we invented.”
Sony has its own competitive studios. Earlier, it was disclosed that Microsoft wanted to buy Bungie among other companies, like Sega and IO Interactive. However, it was Sony who acquired it in 2022. Ryan is sure Sony's Bungie purchase is more valuable than Microsoft's Activision ambition due to Bungie's expertise in live services.
“When you look at $69 billion for Activision compared to $3.6 billion for Bungie, we believe that Bungie can give us way more than a $69 billion acquisition of Activision. And that’s before considering the relative value of that particular transaction.”
Another important point the FTC is worried about is cloud gaming. However, Ryan doesn't think it will be relevant any time soon:
“Cloud technology will become a meaningful component of how gamers access games between 2025 and 2035,” he said.
What is relevant is the sales of both consoles. Despite Microsoft saying Xbox has "lost the console wars," Ryan believes the consoles are doing fine, especially in the United States.
“The majority of their games, many of their games, involve an element of shooting. And many of their games involve elements of online multiplayer, both of which typically are more popular in the U.S. than they are outside of the U.S.”
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