Although CoD is extremely important for PlayStation, buying Activision probably wouldn’t have been worth it for Sony.
- Microsoft’s planned purchase of Activision/Blizzard is nearing completion.
- Sony wanted to prevent the deal because Call of Duty is an important brand for the console.
- However, Sony believes that buying Bungie offers more value than buying Activision/Blizzard.
Microsoft’s planned purchase of Activision/Blizzard has been dragging on for many months now, but now it finally looks like a deal is in sight. The British authority CMA, which initially opposed the deal, has now given the provisional green light.
It’s quite possible that Microsoft will finally secure the game developer and publisher for $69 billion in the near future. Although Sony tried to prevent the purchase for a long time, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan believes that he made a better deal with Bungie.
Buying Activision would have been too expensive for Sony
It is not surprising that Sony is not happy about the purchase of ActiBlizz. After all, Call of Duty is one of the console’s most important brands. Nevertheless, Sony apparently doesn’t think the Microsoft deal is lucrative enough.
Rather, CEO Jim Ryan believes that buying Bungie has given the company much more than Activision could – at least when it comes to expenses and profits (via X):
“We know Activision extremely well. They are probably one of our main partners.
But when it comes to the use of Sony’s capital, if you look at $69 billion for Activision compared to $3.6 billion for Bungie, we believe Bungie can give us a lot more than a $69 billion -Acquisition of Activision.
And that’s before looking at the relative value of this particular transaction.”
Of course, that’s not to say that Activision wasn’t valuable as a first-party studio for PlayStation. However, it’s not for nothing that Microsoft’s $69 billion deal was the most expensive studio deal in the industry to date. In comparison, the $3.6 billion for Destiny maker Bungie, which Sony bought in January 2022, seems almost measly.
Accordingly, Sony is likely to have recouped the costs relatively quickly – which will take significantly longer for Microsoft, despite brands like CoD, Diablo and Co.
Of course, Microsoft’s deal has not yet been finalized. The next decision is due on October 6th, when a verdict will be made in the CMA and Microsoft trial.
