Report claims Jim Ryan dismissed Xbox Game Pass as competition, seemingly contradicting statements to regulators

Insider Gaming has reported that CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan recently dismissed Xbox Game Pass as a threat to Sony’s position in gaming. The remarks were apparently made at an employee Q&A session earlier in December according to the anonymous source.

As the report claims, Jim Ryan told employees:

When we consider Game Pass, it seems to be getting lower [Game Pass numbers]. When we consider Game Pass, we’ve sold more PS5’s in two years than they have gathered subscribers and they’ve been doing that for 6-7 years…We’re just shy of 50 million subscribers and they are in the low 20s, but there’s more work to do to grow that number.

If the report is valid, these statements are in pretty stark contrast to those made by Ryan publicly to regulators. And they might also lend credence to Microsoft’s claims that Sony is trying to mislead regulators over the scope of the merger’s (between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard) impact should the deal conclude.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is currently being reviewed in phase 2 investigations by both the European Commission and the U.K.’s CMA. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States filed a lawsuit to block the deal.

Via Windows Central.