Jim Ryan, the head of PlayStation, appeared in court yesterday via pre-recorded video as part of the Xbox Federal Trade Commission trial regarding Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Ryan was asked if he sees Nintendo as a competitor to his PlayStation business, to which he said that Nintendo is in the console market, but not Sony’s direct competitor. Ryan was also asked about Call of Duty’s 10-year deal with Nintendo and why he believes Call of Duty will not sell well on the Nintendo Switch family of consoles. He said the core audience for Nintendo’s video game systems prefers to play games like Mario and Zelda, rather than first-person shooters like Call of Duty.
Ryan says that Nintendo is not Sony’s direct competitor
The FTC sought to establish that Nintendo was not a competitor in the “relevant market” within the meaning of this trial, saying that the Nintendo Switch’s less capable hardware put it in a different realm than the PlayStation and Xbox. Ryan weighed in heavily on this point, arguing that Nintendo is in the console market, but not Sony’s direct competitor.
Ryan was also asked why he thought Call of Duty didn’t do well on Nintendo’s consoles, and he said that Call of Duty is aimed at a “much different audience than the standard Nintendo audience that enjoys Mario and Zelda, not Call of Duty. “
