Why Should Microsoft Takeover Activision? The Last of Us Shows

The PlayStation game The Last of Us is celebrating huge success as a series adaptation these days and is showered with praise. The Activision Blizzard head of communications is also enthusiastic – but for her, The Last of Us is also an argument for the Microsoft takeover.

After about a year, the planned takeover of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft is entering a new phase, because the responsible authorities in both the USA and the EU are now taking a particularly good look at the matter. The US competition authority FTC has even sued the Redmond-based group for this reason.

Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are fighting back and using every argument to take the wind out of critics’ sails. Many points are factual, but in the case of Lulu Cheng Meservey, Chief Communications Officer at Activision-Blizzard, the line of reasoning is somewhat idiosyncratic, at least according to many critics and Twitter users .

The Last of Us shows how well-positioned Sony is

Cheng Meservey said the success of the HBO series is proof that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard should be approved. The PR executive wrote on Twitter that the last episode of The Last of Us was “amazing” and explains that it’s no wonder the show is breaking records: “It’s a real blockbuster seen by tens of millions of viewers will.”

She then goes on to say that the series is being produced by Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions and “is based on a best-selling video game developed by a Sony-owned studio and published by Sony exclusively for the PlayStation”. She also later explains why that matters.

“The FTC has rejected the deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard on the grounds that Microsoft’s use of Activision games could ‘suppress’ competition from competing consoles. It sounds like they are concerned that Sony’s position as market leader could be jeopardized by this deal,” writes Cheng Meservey.

She says there is nothing to worry about: “Sony has an unmatched pool of intellectual property, not just in games, but also in TV, movies, and music, that can be further developed into games – or existing one’s games can market.”

In short, Sony is so well positioned in games, TV, film, and music that it’s no wonder the company has such dominance. “Sony is ‘first of us’ when it comes to games – and that will do just fine without the protection of the FTC,” said the Activision Blizzard spokeswoman in conclusion.