The last time we were checking in on the legal tussle over the proposed $69 billion sale of Activision Blizzard, Sony was complaining of “harassment” at the hands of Microsoft, who were asking to see all kinds of records, emails and internal documentation as part of the case’s discovery process.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
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As Game Developer report, though, the FTC’s chief administrative judge D. Michael Chappell has tossed out most (though not all) of Sony’s complaints, meaning that Microsoft is about to get access to a ton of “relevant documents” that PlayStation didn’t want released, ranging from its anti-trust lawyer’s external emails to a number of Senior Vice President’s documentation to the records of former employees.
Most interestingly, though—and I say this on a personal basis, not because I’m any kind of law fiend—is this from the FTC:
Judge Chappell says this is because “the nature and extent of [Sony’s] content-licensing agreements are relevant to the Complaint’s allegations of exclusivity arrangements between video game console developers and video game developers and publishers.”
In other words, Microsoft is free to dig up how much Sony is paying publishers to keep games off Game Pass, and find out any other details or conditions associated with putting a game on a PlayStation console at the expense of any Xbox platforms or services.
I know corporate stuff is usually incredibly boring as hell, but this is one of the rare exceptions where I think seeing some numbers—and those numbers would surely be made public as part of court hearings—would be fascinating. Seeing games become exclusive, or tied up with conditions, is something that directly affects us as fans and customers. It’d be nice to know just how much money is changing hands to make sure that happens!
