We've not heard much from Bobby Kotick since his own misconduct was discovered among the wider investigations at Activision Blizzard, but a recent appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box has given him a chance to speak on the latest developments in the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal.
Kotick essentially frames the deal as a battle between East and West, framing Microsoft as the underdogs and Sony and Nintendo as the real behemoths of the gaming market.
"Whether it's the FTC, CMA, or EU, they don't know our industry. They're trying to come up to speed and understand the industry better. I don't think they fully appreciate that it's a free-to-play business. That the Japanese and Chinese companies dominate the industry. You look at Sony, you look at Nintendo, they have these huge libraries of intellectual property. [...] Nintendo has the very best characters that exist in video games. I think they are a little bit confused about where competition is today. The very best companies in the world today are companies like Tencent and ByteDance. These are companies that all have protected markets. We've struggled to enter the Japanese market, we can't enter the Chinese market without a joint-venture partner, and so the competition isn't actually European companies, American companies, it's really those companies in Japan and China."
Kotick also states that should the UK try and block the deal, it won't become the Silicon Valley of Europe like it wishes to be, and will instead become the continent's "Death Valley."
We've seen Sony offer a similar underdog story in the past, saying Xbox will monopolise gaming if it manages to purchase Activision Blizzard, but now we're seeing these arguments on the other side.
What do you think? Let us know.
Thanks, Wccftech.