It’s pretty clear thatSonywasn’t a huge fan ofMicrosoftmanaging to get its$69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard over the line. You don’t go through the trials and tribulations of a court case if you’re fine with something happening, but Sony hasn’t been too clear on just how much it thinks the acquisition will affect its own business. Turns out, it’s actually worried quite a bit.
Insomniac Games suffered a catastrophic leak earlier today, which revealed key bits of information regarding potential plans for the future. Not only did the leakreveal every single game Insomniac plans to release up until 2032, but it also revealed several presentation slides detailing Sony’s current worries regarding Microsoft andActivision(thanksIGN), as it thinksXboxcould now potentially “leapfrog our current pillars”.
Sony appears to be primarily worried about how Activision Blizzard strengthens Microsoft in key departments, as it now has extremely successful live service titles such as Call of Duty and Diablo, a strong mobile platform in Candy Crush developer King, and the ability to create its own mobile store along the lines of Google Play and the Apple Store.
On the console front, Sony is worried most aboutCall of Duty, describing the title as a “threat” that will need to be dealt with in 2027. A deal was signed with Microsoft in July earlier this year to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, which we now know apparently expires in around four years. PlayStation is worried that once this deal does expire, Microsoft will pose a “massive” to PlayStation Plus subscriptions, as will “day and date” additions to Xbox Game Pass.
The slides have also revealed that Sony makes $1.5 billion in annual revenue from PlayStation Plus subscriptions alone.
Later in the document, Sony admits that its“pillars are already dated and behind the competition”, admitting that its subscription model can’t compete with Xbox’s ability to add first-party titles to Game Pass on the day of their release. On that front, PlayStation says it’s unconcerned and will continue to release its games at a premium before eventually adding them to PlayStation Plus after enough time has passed.
While these revelations won’t be too surprising to some of you, it is interesting to get a look at the true feelings of the company after the acquisition. What Sony is going to do to ensure is doesn’t get “leapfrogged” in the future is unknown, but releasing great games at a regular pace has served it pretty well so far.
