FTC: Sony must disclose game exclusivity deals

Sony must disclose the company’s hitherto secret deals with game studios to release games exclusively for PlayStation. That says the US trade authority FTC. This is 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 partially dismissed that objection. The FTC did think that Sony should keep the deals it closed between 2012 and 2019 secret. The closed deals after 2019 must be made public.

Sony had also objected to the disclosure of 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 block the Activision-Blizzard acquisition. It filed a complaint in December. Microsoft wants the acquisition to go through and has therefore requested the publication of the documents.