The war of words over Microsoft's acquisition of Activision shows no sign of letting up, with PlayStation's Jim Ryan the latest to make a public statement in respect of the ongoing process.
This comes in response to an open letter published by Xbox's Phil Spencer at the very start of September, in which he reiterated the claim that Xbox would make a commitment to keeping mega-franchise Call of Duty on PlayStation moving forward.
Jim Ryan has clearly felt compelled to speak up to clarify that this commitment was not an everlasting affair, something that Xbox's statements have so far left ambiguous by referring to "several more years".
Rather, the offer that Xbox has most recently made would keep COD on PlayStation for at least three years after the end of the current contractual period, but guarantee nothing more.
His full comments, supplied to Gamesindustry.biz, are as follows:
"I hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum."
"Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle."
Trading blows
In case this wasn't already clear, things are heating up in the regulatory process around the Activision purchase, and both Microsoft and Sony are clearly feeling the heat. The frequency of public statements is only going up, for one thing.
In this case, Ryan might well be correcting the record based on Xbox using its offer for both some free PR and to lead regulators down the path it wants. However, PlayStation also has skin in the game, so his response is just as carefully composed to ensure that regulators and the public pay attention.
You'd imagine a guarantee of COD coming to PlayStation in perpetuity simply won't happen, so exactly where the middle ground lies will be an interesting ongoing question for all parties to figure out.