In a binary way of thinking, you got two routes, the good way or the bad way (thinking as 1 and 0) and for Sony, 1 meant that regulators were siding with the notion that Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard “is bad for everyone” and 0 failing to convince.

Well, this week Sony got the 0 route but exploded in a bad way.

First, the equivalent of the FTC in Japan has said that they found no issues on the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and if it was for them, Microsoft can close the transaction.

This is a huge blow because Japanese trends favor home turf before an outsider but facts and objectivity transcend any sense of nationalism, something that maybe Sony was expecting in natal Japan.

The second and mostly devastating is the response of members of the Congress that were reached by Sony in lobbying attempt to help the FTC case against Microsoft and contrary to what Sony expected, lawmakers actually accused Sony of trying to be a monopoly with Playstation as a unexpected but worst scenario that Sony could have ever got in this whole saga.

The response came in a form of two letters which Axios could get a copy of them and a big part of the first reads as follows:

“Today, we write to bring to your attention the imbalanced Japanese video game market, which we are concerned may be a result of a discriminatory trade practice that could violate the spirit of the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement.

Our understanding is that the Japanese government tolerates a range of exclusionary conduct by their domestic companies that may violate Japan’s antitrust laws, and that this inaction by the Japanese government harms the ability of U.S. companies to compete in the country.”

This is the first letter signed by four Republicans from the House, including Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio).

Basically the very same lawmakers that Sony lobbied believe that is actually Sony historically documented moves, that has made Xbox difficult to market in Japan since day 1 and blames Playstation and Sony to have Microsoft obtaining a “negligible” 2% share of the high-end console market since it began selling in Japan in 2002.

Meanwhile the second letter from lawmakers in Washington, Seattle adds that such practices could undermine the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement. 

This agreement commits Japan to providing “non-discriminatory treatment to U.S. digital products…such as console games."

Activision Blizzard react and blast the whole attitude of Sony

After the developments, VGC got a reaction from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick as a statement originally sent to ACtivision Blizzard employees in which blasted Sony for their disappointing behavior.

“We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity.

And, all of us who work so hard to deliver the best games in our industry care too deeply about our players to ever launch sub-par versions of our games.

Sony has even admitted that they aren’t actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening.

This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship.

PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation.”

In the past, Kotick has assured that if Sony somehow was successful in helping to prevent the acquisition, the company would retaliate. 

As of the writing of this, Sony has not reacted either to the two letters from the people that had lobbied and that Japanese regulators giving its thumbs up to the Activision Blizzard acquisition.