FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle
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Phil Spencer is back under Microsoft’s questioning, and he’s trying to dispel allegations that Microsoft would degrade a game like Call of Duty on PlayStation — an argument Sony in particular has made.
Building a “high-quality game for Xbox and building somehow a lower-quality game” on PlayStation would be a huge financial and reputational loss for Microsoft, says Spencer, given how much more successful (in his estimation) PlayStation is. Microsoft’s lawyer brings up an analogy: it would be like filming a good version of a movie to open in Omaha, but a bad one to launch in New York.
It’s a different question than whether Microsoft might withhold games altogether — something that means it would lose sales from PlayStation, but also would streamline development.
