The Redmond-based tech company is trying to frame its rival: Microsoft wants information from Sony that it has nothing to do with…

Late last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would not accept Microsoft’s $68.7 billion takeover bid for Activision Blizzard King and would instead file an antitrust lawsuit against the Redmond-based company because the FTC said that competition would be severely harmed if the Satya Nadella-led tech giant were to swallow up another publisher after ZeniMax Media (=Bethesda).

VGC has come across a document that says “negotiations between [Sony Interactive Entertainment] and Microsoft as to the scope of SIE’s production and a discovery schedule are ongoing.” To explain more clearly, Microsoft wants to know precisely what games Sony is making and when it plans to release them. Sony has asked for extra time to respond because it intends to consider whether to agree to the somewhat Orwellian request or whether it would prefer to oppose Microsoft’s proposal with a justification…

The subpoena was issued on January 17, and Microsoft waited until January 20 for a response (what’s the rush? are investors in a rage?). Sony got the delay, so they have until January 27 to respond. Sony has condemned the new Redmond acquisition idea everywhere because of Call of Duty, saying that without CoD, the PlayStation brand would not be in a good position, to which Xbox has replied that the franchise is not that important. If Sony provides its release slate, which turns out to be massive (they don’t have much planned for this year other than Marvel’s Spider-Man 2…), Microsoft will point to that as Sony talking nonsense.

In any case, it’s sneaky and cheeky of Microsoft to drag Sony into litigation like this (where Sony is clearly on the FTC’s side), and we’ll be curious to see if Sony will present their playlist…

Source: WCCFTech