FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle
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We’re on a 45-minute lunch break, so it’s time once again to recap Phil Spencer’s testimony. We knew there would be a lot here and there’s still more to come, but here’s what has happened so far:
• The FTC questioned Spencer about the Nintendo Switch, fps, teraflops, and lots more.
• Phil Spencer is asked whether Xbox lost the console wars, to which he responds that the console war is a “social construct” and he doesn’t wanna count the community out, but that Xbox is “in third place.”
• Sony is an aggressive competitor that spends its revenues on doing things to try and reduce Xbox’s survival on the market, says Spencer.
• Spencer says Sony is “actively signing third-party games to skip our platform,” as he is questioned over Microsoft acquiring exclusive content.
• Microsoft has thought about skipping PlayStation for Activision games and even considered making Minecraft Dungeons Xbox exclusive.
• Sony held back PS5 devkits which “put us behind on our development for Minecraft on PS5,” says Spencer.
• An internal email chain between Xbox’s Sarah Bond, Matt Booty, and Phil Spencer reveals how Microsoft planned to talk about the Bethesda acquisition as “making Xbox stronger.”
• Phil Spencer won’t confirm Elder Scrolls VI is an Xbox exclusive, and it sounds like it’s still many, many years away.
• Microsoft won’t degrade Call of Duty on PlayStation, says Spencer.
• Spencer swears under oath that he won’t pull Call of Duty from PlayStation.
