PlayStation chief Jim Ryan is asked why Xbox games resonate better with customers in the US than outside the country:
“Many of their games involve an element of shooting and online multiplayer. Both of which typically are more popular in the US than they are outside of the US.”
We’re going to get a lot of testimony from PlayStation chief Jim Ryan. The video will run for 1 hour and 10 minutes in total. Ryan confirms Sony tracks Microsoft’s console sales.
FTC: How have Xbox gen 9 consoles performed in terms of sales?
Ryan: Like us they have been troubled by supply shortages we understand, but demand for their products is robust.
Sony’s PlayStation chief isn’t in the courtroom or live via a video link, but we’re about to hear from him thanks to a pre-recorded deposition video.
Sony has emerged as one of the main opponents to Microsoft’s Activision deal. Microsoft dropped a bombshell Sony email last week showing that Ryan knew Microsoft’s proposed acquisition wasn’t about exclusives and that PlayStation would be fine.
The surprise revelation runs counter to Sony’s arguments against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal and its filings with regulators. Sony has maintained it fears Microsoft could make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or even sabotage the PlayStation versions of the game.
“It has been brought to our attention, at least one person was live streaming the audio last week. When you do that what you are doing is jeopardizing the ability of us to even offer live streams,” says Judge Corley. “So those of you who have recorded or live streamed, you are jeopardizing that and probably not just for this proceeding but for all proceedings across the United States, if you continue to do that.”
We’re still waiting for things to start here. The courtroom is still sealed, with reporters and members of the public still waiting to get in. The doors have just been unlocked for people to enter into the courtroom, so we should get going shortly.
The FTC and Microsoft have agreed not to call Xbox’s Lori Wright as a witness. Wright testified in the Epic v. Apple case nearly two years ago, so parts of that testimony will now be used instead. The testimony is mainly focused on the Nintendo Switch as a competitor to Xbox, where Wright previously said it was a competitor but less so than PlayStation. Hopefully the FTC and Microsoft will stop arguing about that particular point (of course they won’t!).
Without Wright on the stand it’s mostly a day of video depositions. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will both appear tomorrow.
Welcome to day three of FTC v. Microsoft, where the third installment of this thrilling series looks set to deliver a lot of video testimony. We’ll be hearing from PlayStation chief Jim Ryan in a pre-recorded video deposition and Nvidia execs Jeff Fisher and Phil Eisler in similar video depositions.
The Nvidia testimonies were recorded before Microsoft signed a cloud gaming deal with Nvidia, so they will detail the company’s opposition to the Activision Blizzard deal before that crucial agreement.
The FTC is also calling on its economic expert, Dr. Robin Lee, for testimony today. Microsoft is calling its own expert, Dr. Elizabeth Bailey.
AMD has worked closely with Bethesda to optimize Ryzen / Radeon 7000 series CPUs and GPUs for Starfield. Bethesda’s Scott Howard says it has “AMD engineers in our codebase” working on FSR 2 upscaling support for both Xbox and PC. That could mean we won’t see Nvidia’s DLSS 3 in Starfield at launch. Starfield debuts exclusively on Xbox and PC on September 6th.
Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, compared the Xbox business to Polaroid and its struggles to adapt to digital photography. In a 2019 email Spencer said it was important to have a mobile gaming strategy:
First, we are exactly like Polaroid. We are core gaming which isn’t growing it’s TAM (analogous to film photographers) while mobile gaming MAU is growing WW at a significant rate (like digital photography was growing).
