167 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Tom Warren

Tom Warren

Senior Correspondent

Senior Correspondent

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    Tom Warren
    PlayStation chief on cloud gaming.

    PlayStation Now had a subscriber base of 3 million users, Ryan says. He predicts that cloud gaming won’t be a meaningful thing until at least 2025:

    “I would say that cloud technology will become a meaningful component of how gamers access games between 2025 and 2035. We’re making significant investments in cloud in anticipation of it becoming a very meaningful way of how gamers access game content.”

    Sony recently started testing cloud streaming for PS5 games, with plans to add this as a feature to its PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.

    The logo for PlayStation Now,
    Image: Sony
    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Xbox beat PS5 sales for three months in 2021.

    Jim Ryan confirms that Sony had some shipping constraints in 2021 that means Xbox Series S / X sales beat PS5 for around three months. He says there’s no other time during this latest generation where Xbox sales have materially exceeded PS5.

    PS5 logo
    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Ryan says publishers don’t like Game Pass.

    Jim Ryan speaking to those Fidelity investors said publishers don’t like Xbox Game Pass:

    “I talked to all publishers they unanimously do not like Game Pass, because its value destructive.”

    He defends the comments saying it’s a “very commonly held view by publishers.”

    Microsoft lawyer: So you had no reason to think Mr. Kotick would put Call of Duty on Game Pass.. if this transaction was not completed?

    Ryan: Correct.

    Ryan also said to investors he was expecting more than 25 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers and that Sony’s 50 million PlayStation Plus subscribers during the investor meeting.

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Sony’s hedge against Game Pass.

    We’re now looking at notes from a meeting with Fidelity investors in February 2022. Jim Ryan discussed the importance of first-party content to fend off competition from Game Pass:

    “One of the reasons why we are investing massively in first-party development and publishing is to provide us with an edge against pressure on a historic business model. Having a business model where you own elements from top to the bottom increases your ability to be self-determinant.”

    Microsoft lawyer: Do you think it would be better if Microsoft kept Activision games on PlayStation?

    Ryan: Yes, I do

    Microsoft lawyer: So you do believe it’s in Microsoft’s best interests to make Activision games available on multiple platforms?

    Ryan: No, I don’t agree with that

    Microsoft lawyer: So if you were running Xbox, would you recommend making Call of Duty and other Activision games exclusive to Xbox and PC?

    Ryan: That’s a hypothetical question that I don’t wish to answer

    Microsoft lawyer: So you don’t get to answer?

    Ryan: I don’t have enough knowledge to answer that question

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    The Sony bombshell email is back.

    Microsoft’s lawyers bring up the email between Jim Ryan and Chris Deering, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, discussing the announcement of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal last year.

    “It is not an Xbox exclusivity play at all. They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with both Phil [Spencer] Bobby [Kotick] over the past day and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.”

    Deering replied.

    “This deal would cement Microsoft as a player in mobile games. It strikes me as more of a king play than Call of Duty.” Ryan didn’t disagree.

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Jim Ryan confirms he told Activision he wanted the deal blocked.

    Microsoft’s lawyers bring up Jim Ryan meeting with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on the same day as the European Commission on February 21st. We’d previously heard Ryan had said to Kotick “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.”

    Jim Ryan confirms the meeting and what he said:

    “I told him [Bobby Kotick] that I thought the transaction was anti-competitive, I hoped that the regulators would do their job and block it”

    Ryan says Kotick wanted to “cover himself” with an extended Call of Duty deal with Sony:

    “What Bobby wanted to do was cover himself by extending the marketing collaboration between Sony and Activision, in the event of the transaction not proceeding.”

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    What does Sony think about Starfield?

    Jim Ryan is asked if there’s anything wrong in Microsoft doing exclusives like Redfall. He says “I don’t like it but I fundamentally but have no quarrel with it.”

    What about Starfield?

    “I don’t like it, but I don’t view it as anti-competitive.”

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Sony’s alarm bells started ringing in August, apparently.

    Jim Ryan says an August August 26th, 2022 from Phil Spencer “really set alarm bells ringing” inside Sony. Up until that point Sony hadn’t negotiated an access agreement. Microsoft argues Sony didn’t have any initial concerns after a January 31st proposal email and calls to the Sony CEO and Jim Ryan.

    “I wasn’t particularly happy with the January 31st proposal, but hoped that it was an opening salvo,” said Ryan. “I believe this transaction is bad for competition.”

    Asked about whether Sony’s meeting with UK regulators in the summer of 2022 was before or after Spencer’s email, Jim Ryan can’t recall. “We certainly had one meeting with the CMA over the summer,” says Ryan.

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Sony is worried about Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass.

    Sony PlayStation chief Jim Ryan says the company is worried about how Microsoft will use Call of Duty:

    “We believe that Microsoft intends to use Call of Duty to disadvantage PlayStation in terms of the availability or the manner in which the game is made available on PlayStation and to drive players to Xbox and specifically Game Pass.”

    Ryan then goes on to describe how PlayStation players could switch to Xbox:

    “A critical feature of a game console in terms of its attractiveness to people that make games is its level of install base. “If a meaningful number of people switched from PlayStation to Xbox... that most certainly would hurt gamers.”

    In a private email Ryan from last year, he said he wasn’t concerned about exclusivity. “They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with both Phil [Spencer] Bobby [Kotick] over the past day and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.”

    Tom Warren
    Tom Warren
    Microsoft only offered older Activision games.

    Xbox chief Phil Spencer sent Jim Ryan a commitment list of games last year that would remain on PlayStation after the proposed Activision Blizzard deal closes.

    The list included Overwatch but not Overwatch 2. “Other Activision games on PlayStation must be sufficiently broad, to fully align with gamers expectations,” said Ryan in the email. He calls it “not a meaningful list” in his deposition.

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