Apparently, information from an internal Sony meeting has leaked to the public. It was a Q&A between the CEO and Jim Ryan and some employees. While Sony is fighting the competitor Microsoft before the antitrust authorities of the world, the CEO does not see the Xbox Game Pass as a major threat.
The US site “Insider-Gaming” and its author Tom Henderson (a well-known leaker and industry insider) report from an anonymous source within Sony about what Sony CEO Jim Ryan supposedly said about the competition to the Xbox Game Pass.
This is the situation:
- Microsoft and Sony have fought as fiercely as they haven’t in a long time in 2022. The US company Microsoft announced in February that it intends to acquire the gaming publisher Activision Blizzard for the record sum of around 69 billion US dollars.
- However, the acquisition is not yet certain; worldwide antitrust authorities are investigating the impact of the deal on the gaming market.
- Sony apparently does not like the acquisition at all. They interfere in the negotiations and issue lengthy statements to provide evidence that the deal is bad for customers, i.e., for us gamers. Especially Call of Duty is at the center, even with regard to the Xbox Game Pass.
Report says: Sony CEO does not see Game Pass as competition
What does the report say? The author Tom Henderson did not reveal where the statements come from. His source apparently requested anonymity. However, the statements are said to have been made in a Q&A – a meeting between employees and the Sony CEO.
According to this, Ryan sees no competition in the Xbox Game Pass because the numbers cannot keep up with the PlayStation subscription service “PS Plus,” and the dynamics, i.e., the user growth of the Game Pass, do not pose a threat.
The following is what Ryan is said to have said:
If we look at the Game Pass, [the numbers] seem to be weakening. Looking at the Game Pass, we have sold more PS5s in 2 years than they have gathered subscribers in 6 – 7 years.
We are just below 50 million subscribers and they are in the low 20s. But there is still more to be done to increase that number.
Sony CEO Kim Ryan according to a report from Insider-Gaming.com
Although Sony is fighting hard against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the report states that the reason is not the Xbox Game Pass.
However, Sony has previously stated that they want to pursue a different strategy. Instead of bringing big games to a subscription on release day, they want to focus more on service and free-to-play games in the future. They want to make more games like GTA Online or Destiny.
The purchase of the Destiny studio Bungie was an important part of this strategy. Who knows, which popular Sony franchises will turn into an MMO in the coming years.
The deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard is still under investigation in the UK, the EU, and the USA. The US antitrust authority, the FTC, even seeks to file a lawsuit to possibly prevent the merger.
However, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft have reiterated that they definitely want the deal. Currently, everything seems possible – a deal with or without restrictions as well as a complete cancellation of the acquisition.
