As mentioned previously, the European Commission is embarking on an in-depth investigation of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and an employee at the Commission drew a lot of unwanted attention on Twitter this week.
Taking to the platform, Ricardo Cardoso (Deputy Head of Unit Interinstitutional & Outreach for DG Grow) stated that the Commission was working to make sure Call of Duty was available on "other consoles (including my PlayStation)".
"The Commission is working to ensure that you will still be able to play Call of Duty on other consoles (including my PlayStation)."
As you can imagine, the "including my PlayStation" bit of this message was referenced by a lot of people in the comments as being a potentially biased take on the situation, which obviously isn't a good look.
The likes of IGN's Ryan McCaffrey and Windows Central's Jez Corden also weighed in on his comments about "ensuring" Call of Duty would remain on other consoles, pointing out that Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been making it very clear recently that the franchise will be staying on PlayStation and potentially even coming to Switch.
Here's what the IGN Executive Editor had to say in response, racking up over 2,000 likes in the process:
"Respectfully, sir, I'm not sure it gets any clearer than the Head of Xbox's public statement on this matter from less than 2 weeks ago. It'll still be on "your" PlayStation, don't worry."
Cardoso is certainly feeling the heat right now on Twitter, but he's responded to the backlash by confirming that he's "not involved in the assessment of the merger" and doesn't actually work in the department involved with mergers:
"To clarify: I am not involved in the assessment of the merger and don't even work in the department dealing with mergers. As is clear from my profile my comments are personal and not a Commission position, whose decision will be taken on the basis of the facts and the law."
Basically, then, this was just an ill-advised comment on Twitter from someone who isn't actually involved in the investigation, so don't take it too seriously! Sounds like an innocent mistake and nothing more...
What are your thoughts on this? Please remember to remain respectful and constructive in the comments.
[source twitter.com, via forbes.com]
Comments 38
Just because he isn't part of the decision, that does not mean he doesn't influence decision. Regardless, it is very unprofessional!
Basically, then, this was just an ill-advised comment on Twitter from someone who isn't actually involved in the investigation, so don't take it too seriously!
So why make an article on it then?
@Dr_Luigi I would like to have all the catalogue of Activision Blizzard on game pass
@Dr_Luigi few reasons:
At least some chance of Nintendo Switch seeing Call of Duty games, in some form (even if cloud version only) if Xbox takes over.
Another reason is for Xbox owners to finally get full versions of CoD day one, as it stands Sony keeps locking marketing deals and securing exclusive modes, something they can do a lot easier because of their leading position on the industry.
There is also caring about the terrible AB conditions that Kotick keeps fostering, and moving under an HR department that does not exist nearly exclusively to protect toxic bro management.
And as others told, there is also getting these games on game pass, not just so they are “free” but also so they can be streamed.
@Dr_Luigi I care because I don’t want all these Activision teams stuck in the COD mines, and current ActiBlizz management is responsible for that.
But yeah, this news story is a nothing burger.
This was all so much better and more enjoyable in the Wii, Xbox360 and PS3 era.
Simple gaming no real services like game pass etc. Many multi platform games and many exclusive games for each console.
We had game after game and exclusive after exclusive for each console.
So much straighter and easy to understand.
Probably one of the golden years of gaming especially for Xbox360 and the Wii and finally the PS3.
@Sebatrox Doubt SEGA is selling.
@Dr_Luigi I know people that work there, things are not going to change without someone simply taking over because Kotick is not going anywhere otherwise. Hell, I’m not sure if he would go anywhere should AB be acquired by many others with the money to go through with it.
Even if we ignore that one point,the other things, I argue are good reasons for xbox and Nintendo fans to be invested on the deal, and it becomes very frustrating when regulatory bodies communicated reason to want to scrutinize the deal further is simply “protect the market leader”, something that is completely opposite to the reason they exist.
@Dr_Luigi And I see you bending over backwards to invalidate the reasons myself and others may care about this deal after you said ‘I don’t get why people care about this deal.’
Getting Kotick out is a good thing. Getting more variety and stability afforded to these dev teams is a good thing. It doesn’t NEED to be MS for me to care, but they’re the only one in this industry with a checkbook big enough to buy this publisher and get rid of blood sucking Bobby.
@Dr_Luigi Considering Kotick is a vile man who allowed sexual and physical abuse to happen under his watch to such an extreme degree it resulted in a suicide…
Yeah. I would like to see him gone. I also doubt MS could do worse than what I listed above but you’re free to think Xbox enables sexual predators if you want.
@Dr_Luigi even if you want to distill it down to Xbox, I already listed a few reasons why Xbox players would be invested on this deal.
1) CoD does not launch feature complete on Xbox.
2) All of AB back catalog added to GP.
3) even if you buy the games, the ability to stream all AB games, CoD included.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Xbox players to look forward to this acquisition to go through.
@Dr_Luigi Oh, him getting off scot free sucks, but at least he won’t be in a position to allow abuse to happen on this scale again.
We sadly don’t live in a world of ideals where unionization in the game industry is a sure thing. It should happen but leeches like Kotick will fight against it with every fiber of their being.
Reset the clock. Back to 0 days since PureXbox posted some fanboy baiting article about the takeover
I mean, this doesn't help the situation.
Sure, this person isn't a part of the decision-making process; but in a PlayStation dominated market, it certainly calls into question bias given that the UK is the one place where scrutiny is at its highest.
@Dr_Luigi all your absurd rambling and purposefully ignorant comments about "not knowing why fans would care about Microsoft buying Activision" is answered in two easy words. GAME PASS!
Like are you kidding me? What happened when Microsoft bought Bethesda? Oh look, the games went on GAME PASS. Accusing people of not valuing a game because they are hoping they could get it on GAME PASS instead is such a ridiculous comment. People are obviously, excited about the potential of more value for their subscription.
"wHy wOuLd Netflix subscribers care if they bought a popular movie studio!?#! Don't they value those movies enough to pay full price instead?+!/" smh...
Another incompetent dummy. Why noone look in this? Where is the heck law! Ofcouse the are all sonyfanboys)
@Dr_Luigi They want it for consoles wars let's be real.
@GhanaViking exactly right mate. You took the words out of my mouth. This person has the influence in that position to sway judgement. Not many people realise that and it's important for people to keep scrutinising this person as they literally work with the people responsible for judgement they're all colleagues at the end of the day.
The usual snowflakes melting over a throw away comment from someone not related to process.
However IGN editor deeply unprofessional and showing bias by waging in. Will in the future be weary of anything IGN say and do. IGN should really stay neutral and certainly not be encouraging less third party titles. Deeply concerning but unsurprising from the gaming “media” which in recent years have become a bias paid “influencer” style sham of what it was. Fortunately we have to protect the good ones. No shade at anyone at Pure Xbox - it’s called pure Xbox. You be as bias as you like it’s why we are here.
@Dr_Luigi Showing your true colors there bub
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
@Stocksy Kinda funny of you to say that when the main stream media loves to suck at the teet of Playstation all the time.
@Dr_Luigi
People have reasons to care about it. You don't understand them. No comment of yours will change that people care and apparently no comment from people with reasons will change your not understanding. Move on.
I find all this really interesting and hope the updates continue. I really enjoy looking at this website, although it's fair to say that not every single topic covered interests me. I've discovered that if I don't want to read about a specific subject I can bypass that content entirely by simply not clicking on it. It's a great feature, and one that seemingly isn't getting the recognition it deserves.
@grumpypotato 'Current trend of charging 70$ or more is not sustainable' ... The latest call of duty is the best selling one yet & made a billion $ within 10 days it very obviously is sustainable 😂
@Kharjo top comment 😂
@Would_you_kindly Well it's only that price on PS5, not on Xbox or PC.
@Acurisur no it isnt it's £70 on all platforms https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-ii#purchaseoptions
@Would_you_kindly You didn't do much research there did you pal? It's £59.99 on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1938090/Call_of_Duty_Modern_Warfare_II/
@Would_you_kindly it's £70 on playstation and xbox store, but £60 on steam. But unlike PC you can also buy the game physical which costs £59.99 on PS5. If you buy physical then you're never paying £70 for a ps5 game.
@Acurisur well you didn't do much research when you said it's only £70 on ps5 when it isn't
@Kaloudz I meant the articles. We expect a Xbox slant to the Xbox in articles and reporting here. Not the comments but to be fair you get people that are blinkered to proxbox over anything in comments and that’s understandable. You own one console and it’s an Xbox it makes sense. I’m not mad at that at all.
I’m not a fan of console wars at all. I own all three top models and steam deck.
But I understand why you have people that are fans of one only and I am fine with it. I think too much of the gaming media is too pro one or the other and often lacks balance. Which is a shame.
@Acurisur looking at in on the Xbox store right now and the cheapest version of MW2 is £69.99
PS Is the most popular console. It is very hard for me to believe that biased opinions are not involved in some of the questions and preasures microsoft are now seeing.
This guy is an absolute idiot!
You can not make biased comments publicly while working for/with the EU commission and not expect to cause controversy...Jim Ryan probably paid for his exotic holiday 😉😅😅.
All he did its reinforced the perceived PlayStation bias possibly permeating the highest levels of decision(even if he's not involved) making in this already contentious ABK-Microsoft deal.
I'm glad the gaming media reports on matters like this.
He was being absolutely unprofessional then! If it's not even his department he should have kept his mouth shut instead of showing to the world his total bias! Typical EU parliament stooge. Why comment on something as an official representative in a totally biased way when it has nothing to do with you??.. so he claims....
Seemed like a harmless joke. I think folks are getting a bit too upset about this.
This acquisition is not that good for Xbox, but probably good for PC and mobile games.
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