PlayStation boss says exclusives are not “anti-competitive” and calls Xbox Game Pass “value destructive”

Here’s what Jim Ryan told the FTC in his statement

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating whether Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is anti-competitive and is looking to stop the deal from going through before it can come to a final decision, which is what the current hearing before court is all about.

In this context, the court heard a recorded statement of PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, who among other things was asked how he felt about the upcoming RPG Starfield not getting a PS5 release. “I don’t like it,” Ryan stated (via IGN), “but I have fundamentally no quarrel with it.” He continued: “I don’t view it as anti-competitive.”

Clearly, any other position would have been the acme of hypocrisy considering PlayStation’s own aggressive exclusivity policy.

The question of console exclusivity for future Activision Blizzard titles is one of the central issues regarding the planned business transaction with Call of Duty being in the spotlight. Sony called the popular shooter series irreplaceable several times and warned against the consequences for the entire market should it become an Xbox exclusive.

Microsoft, in turn, offered deals to anyone who’d take them that would guarantee the release of Call of Duty on their platform or cloud gaming service. Sony never took them up on that offer, preferring to indicate that Microsoft would sabotage the series’ PlayStation versions. Xbox chief Phil Spencer said that Sony wants to block the survival of Xbox by opposing this deal from going through.

Ryan commented (via IGN) on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass as well, saying that every publisher he talked to doesn’t like it, “because it is value destructive.” He also claimed that it’s unprofitable and loses Microsoft a lot of money, though there seems to be no evidence for that. It’s also not clear which publishers shared this opinion with him.

Ryan’s statement was the highlight of the third day of the trial, more news is sure to be coming out from the legal procedures over the coming days.