Sony gaming CEO Jim Ryan has interesting things to say about Microsoft’s proposed 10-year Call of Duty deal with Microsoft.
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PlayStation head Jim Ryan will leave Sony at the end of March, but before he departs, Ryan appeared on CNBC to discuss the history of the gaming brand. In the interview, the games leader briefly talked about the $70 billion Microsoft-Activision merger and more specifically, the decade-long deal that Sony ended up signing with Microsoft in order to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.
According to Ryan, Sony was “thrilled” to sign the deal. The deal Ryan is referring to is actually the third and final contract offered to Sony. At the beginning of the Microsoft-Activision merger proceedings, Microsoft offered an unsatisfactory deal that only offered Call of Duty up until 2027. Sony rejected that deal, and Microsoft offered a second deal, one that upped the terms to 10 years of Call of Duty access. The second deal was also turned down, but we still don’t know why.
So that brings us to the third deal, the one that Sony actually signed. Interestingly enough, this deal was said not to be substantially different than the second deal. So why didn’t Sony just sign the second deal? We actually don’t know, but it could have something to do with Sony hoping that the deal would be blocked by worldwide regulators so as to not provide a competitor with a single $31 billion video games franchise.
In the CNBC interview, Ryan gave a very PR-sounded response, saying that Sony was thrilled to sign the deal. Of course, Sony only signed the third and final deal after Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley gave her pro-merger ruling in federal court.
“The reason why we felt this merger was different from those in the past was the sheer size and importance of the Call of Duty franchise. So we were absolutely thrilled to be able to negotiate a deal with Microsoft to ensure that franchise remains available on PlayStation platforms for the next 10 years. That was very important to us, and we’re very happy to have done that deal.”
When pressed on why Sony didn’t agree to earlier deals, Ryan said this:
“We’re at risk again of getting very granular here, but there are deals and deals. The deal that was offered at a certain point of time may not have been the deal that was actually signed.”
The exact contract terms are confidential, but we do know that Call of Duty will release on PlayStation with release date parity for 10 years, and can also launch day and date on PlayStation Plus if Sony chooses to incorporate it into their service.