Tom Warren

Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan says the company is wary of sharing dev kits and next-gen console information with Microsoft for their games:

Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan says it’s beneficial for third-party developers to sign an exclusivity deal for PlayStation because “development efforts required to make that game reduces.”

The FTC and Microsoft have been battling over whether the Nintendo Switch is a game console and whether it competes with the PlayStation and Xbox. Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan says “we consider Nintendo to participate in a different market segment to Xbox and PlayStation.” When asked to expand on that, he says:

PlayStation chief Jim Ryan is asked why Xbox games resonate better with customers in the US than outside the country:

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.

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.

“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!).

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.