Tom Warren

The FTC and Tim Stuart are now discussing financial models for the Bethesda acquisition and Activision Blizzard. For both, Tim Stuart assumed no major changes in platform strategy.

We’re now hearing about a September 16th, 2020 email between Tim Stuart, Amy Hood, Phil Spencer, Satya Nadella, and Jerret West, CMO at Xbox.

We’re now talking about the pricing of subscriptions. The FTC references a March email between Tim Stuart, Xbox CFO, and Amy Hood, Microsoft CFO. The email discusses Sony’s subscription pricing, a “Game Pass competitor” after its announcement last year.

The FTC brings up the phrase “dump trucks of money,” as it’s questioning Tim Stuart about Microsoft spending lots of money on gaming content.

Steve Singer, SVP of developer relations at Nintendo, is appearing in court by video deposition. As the video contains lots of confidential information Judge Corley will view it in closed court.

The FTC is questioning Tim Stuart about console market share from April 2022. A confidential document share excludes Nintendo Switch and Xbox One / PS4 consoles. It also measures just the US alone. Tim Stuart is asked about Japanese markets, as the data doesn’t include these markets. “The data is not that reliable,” for other markets, argues Stuart.

We’ve seen references to Project Denali in the exhibits list, and now the FTC begins by questioning Tim Stuart, Xbox CFO, who confirms Project Denali is the codename for the Activision Blizzard deal.

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK filed to try and delay Microsoft’s appeal of its Activision Blizzard acquisition decision yesterday. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) immediately responded with a no, so the hearing will continue on July 28th. The CMA was trying to push it all the way back to October, and the CAT ruled this would be “contrary to justice and fairness.” The timing comes curiously right in the middle of this FTC case.

We’ve heard Tim Stuart referenced in a lot of internal emails over this five-day hearing and now we’re going to get to hear from him directly. The Xbox CFO is responsible for managing the finances of Microsoft’s gaming business, so expect to hear a lot of questions around the business side and perhaps why Microsoft is increasing Xbox Game Pass prices.

The FTC has decided not to question Amy Hood, Microsoft’s CFO.