Tom Warren

Xbox’s Sarah Bond was asked about this in September 2022 and said “Xbox would very much like to do it.” But Microsoft has strangely changed its mind, perhaps thanks to regulatory concerns around cloud gaming.

Bond says Microsoft’s strategy has changed and the company has been analyzing usage. “Operational costs are higher” and Microsoft has made deals with partners that offer similar cloud gaming services.

Microsoft also previously promised that Xbox Cloud Gaming would support your existing game library by the end of 2022. That never happened and Microsoft didn’t respond to a request for comment on the delay when The Verge asked earlier this month.

Activision Bobby Kotick wanted Microsoft to agree to a new revenue share deal before work begun on Call of Duty for Xbox Series S / X. “It was clear that Call of Duty would be on PS5 and that would not have been good if it was not also on Xbox if it was launching at the same time,” says Bond.

Activision also asked Microsoft if it wanted to bid on marketing deals for Call of Duty, but it declined. That ultimately meant Microsoft couldn’t show Call of Duty in its own Xbox showcase.

Sarah Bond is back in the witness stand and we’re starting questioning around Call of Duty. “It’s a game about being a savior in a war scenario,” explains Bond. Hmm not sure I’ve always played a “savior” in Call of Duty games, but here we are.

Hines started off by self dunking on Redfall, admitting there “might be some differences of opinion” on whether it meets the triple-A standard. It wasn’t an intentional diss of Redfall, but given how disappointing the game was it might as well have been.

The FTC’s counsel then led Hines down the garden path towards the pit where Starfield on PS5 is buried. Hines was reminded of his apologies to PS5 players who won’t be able to play Starfield on their consoles. “I don’t like it when our players are upset over something we do,” said Hines. The FTC argues game exclusivity is an anti-competitive move, but Hines made the opposite case that it allows developers to streamline a game. “We would not be putting this game out in nine weeks if we were supporting an entire additional platform, in my opinion.”

Questioning then moved on to other Bethesda exclusive games and Hines revealed the upcoming Indiana Jones game is exclusive to Xbox and PC. The game was originally announced in 2021, just months before Microsoft finalized its $7.5 billion deal to acquire Bethesda. There was a contract in place with Disney to ship Indiana Jones on multiple consoles, but the game was made Xbox exclusive after Microsoft’s acquisition. The FTC argues that this behavior could carry across to Activision Blizzard games if Microsoft was to close its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition.

Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, was next to testify. There was a fun exchange around Diablo. Bond explained the franchise to Judge Corley and noted it’s “literally my father’s favorite game.”

Judge Corley then asked Bond about Xbox Game Pass and we got some details about how the program started and how it can generate interest in subscribers buying up games they haven’t played before.

Bond also touched briefly on Xbox Cloud Gaming. The FTC argues cloud gaming is a separate market, but Bond claims it’s just a feature right now. Honest.

“We believe there is going to be 2 billion gamers in the world, and our goal is to reach every one of them,” was the message from Kareem Choudhry, head of cloud gaming at Microsoft, when the company first stared talking about xCloud in 2018.

Microsoft says 60 percent of people who played Human Fall Flat, a puzzle game, had not played that type of game before. 40 percent of that 60 percent then went on to purchase a puzzle game in the Microsoft Store.

Bond also discusses Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud). The FTC argues cloud gaming is a separate market, but Microsoft claims it’s just a feature right now. “It’s a feature and delivery mechanism, most of our usage is on console.” But Microsoft has bigger cloud gaming ambitions to stream its Xbox games to iOS and Android and reach billions of players through a dedicated Xbox mobile store.

“It’s literally my father’s favorite game,” says Bond. Judge Corley says it’s “aimed at a certain audience shall we say,” to which Bond replies with, “yes, including my 76-year-old father.”

I hope I’m still playing Diablo at 76.

The FTC has just questioned Hines about this interview. “It bothered me that they were upset,” says Hines. “I don’t like it when our players are upset over something we do.”