The Federal Trade Commission presents further documents regarding Microsoft’s agreement with Activision Blizzard. According to officials from the United States – Starfield was supposed to go to PlayStation 5, but the giant from Redmond entered the game.
As you know, Redfall was supposed to debut on PS5, but Microsoft changed the developers’ plans – the developers were to focus only on Xbox and PC, but in the end, hardly anyone will complain about the lack of production on the PlayStation console.
However, the FTC claims that the situation is identical with Starfield, which was also supposed to be coming to PlayStation 5, but Microsoft blocked the preparation of the third version of the game. The Federal Trade Commission believes that the Redmond giant is motivated enough to hurt PlayStation and the company may suffer “short-term losses”.
The FTC’s findings of fact are heavily redacted, but represent the concept that Microsoft is incentivized to take a short-term loss to harm PlayStation and monopolize the high-end, cloud, and gaming markets. Microsoft denies pursuing exclusivity and that these are actual/separate markets.
Also, I don’t remember if they said it before, but the FTC believes that Starfield was originally planned to be released on PS5 as well (seems logical given the time it was in development).
Also, can’t recall if they’ve said this before, but the FTC believes Starfield was originally planned to also release on PS5 (seems logical given time it was in development) pic.twitter.com/Ce51btTs6j
Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 22, 2023
The FTC wants to block Microsoft’s transaction with Activision Blizzard at all costs and the corporation presents a number of documents that are intended to harm the company and at the same time show that the giant from Redmond does not work for the benefit of the industry and negatively affects the market through activities related to Bethesda.
However, Microsoft emphasized that still has to offer exclusive games, but many future entries from ZeniMax teams will be coming to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles:
Microsoft:
– Redfall/Starfield are only available on Xbox/PC: “to preserve the need to offer exclusive content while limiting the economic cost and damage to the gamer-centric brand”
– Redfall “generated minimum sales”
– “many more” future ZeniMax titles will be coming to PS/Nint
Microsoft:
– Redfall/Starfield are Xbox/PC-only: “keeping with the need to offer some exclusive content while mitigating the economic costs and damage to its player-focused brand”
– Redfall “generated minimal sales”
– “many other” future ZeniMax titles will be shipped on PS/NintStephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 22, 2023
