Microsoft is set to go to trial against the FTC to prove that its $68.7 billion pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not have a detrimental effect on fair competition in the United States video game market, and, as part of this, a couple of weeks ago, it subpoenaed PlayStation to "divulge details of [its] game production pipeline," as Microsoft argued it was relevant for the case; as per some new documents reported by gamesindustry.biz, it's clear that this request is brewing even more conflict between the two console manufacturers.
On February 7, Xbox parent Microsoft sent the US court a document in which it criticized Sony and PlayStation for being uncooperative with some of its subpoena requests. The document explains that Microsoft wants Sony to provide documents of certain key individuals in PlayStation's production operations, seemingly documents such as communications and action plans, which would likely include relevant info regarding PlayStation's inner workings.
Microsoft stated that it believes "court intervention" is now required, as it has reason to think that PlayStation will not provide these documents before the permitted time frame of discovery. Microsoft and Sony have apparently had several negotiations over the past "several weeks" about which individuals should be included as 'custodians', and the parties recently agreed on seven specific individuals.
Given the expected complexity of this document collecting, Microsoft requested for this effort to begin as soon as possible, which apparently PlayStation rejected. Microsoft further stated that Sony hadn't even completed the collections of CEO Jim Ryan, "who has traveled the world speaking out against the Microsoft/Activision deal and whose role as a custodian has never been in dispute."
The following day, Sony issued its own statement to the US court, calling Microsoft's subpoena "truly massive." In it, PlayStation argues that Microsoft's demands are unreasonable, with such broad documentation requests that it's been impossible to collect the requested documents of the seven custodians. Furthermore, PlayStation requests that the court limit the subpoena by removing certain documentation demands.
PlayStation states that Microsoft wants documents of the custodian's predecessors, of the company's in-house lawyer, and some personal and financial information, some of which dates back 11 years. It asks the court to limit these "broad, unduly burdensome, and vague" requests from Microsoft, as the latter has refused to grant an "adequate" extension to PlayStation's time to respond. Some of these requests even included employee performance reviews, which PlayStation outright described as "obvious harassment."