As part of the ongoing FTC lawsuit against Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has served Sony a subpoena to divulge confidential business details.
It means Sony may be forced to reveal confidential information on its future plans it would likely prefer to keep quiet.
The subpoena was issued on 17th January with a response date of 20th January, though this has been extended until 27th January for Sony to “move to limit or quash or otherwise respond to the subpoena”.
“Negotiations between SIE and Microsoft as to the scope of SIE’s production and a
discovery schedule are ongoing,” reads the official filing, as reported by VGC.
How Sony responds will be known by the end of the week.
The subpoena comes as part of the United States government’s Federal Trade Commission suing to block Microsoft’s $69bn USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with claims it could suppress the competition.
“We continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” Microsoft’s vice chair and president Brad Smith said in a statement. “We have been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC.”
In its response to the FTC, Microsoft claimed the lawsuit was unconstitutional as it violated the Fifth Amendment. It later admitted this was a mistake.
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