FTC: Sony must make game exclusivity deals public

Sony must make public the company’s previously secret deals with game studios to release games exclusively for PlayStation. This is what the American trade authority FTC says. This is happening due to the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft.

Microsoft had requested that the deals be made public for use in its defense. Sony objected to the disclosure, but the FTC has partly dismissed that objection. The FTC did find that Sony can keep the deals it made between 2012 and 2019 secret. Deals concluded after 2019 must be made public.

Sony had also objected to making public documents that are in Japanese, but FTC does not see finding and translating those documents as a problem. It is still unknown when the documents of the deals will become public.

The FTC wants to stop the takeover of Activision-Blizzard. It filed a complaint for this in December. Microsoft wants the takeover to go ahead and has therefore requested the publication of the documents.