Recent developments in the FTC v. Microsoft case have unveiled the latter’s alleged tactics to put their main competitor PlayStation out of business. Earlier today, yet another of these measures has been revealed.
During the FTC v. Microsoft hearing today, Xbox Chief Executive Officer Phil Spencer testified to Microsoft’s business dealings with Bethesda, particularly concerning their upcoming title Starfield. Spencer confessed that Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media to keep Starfield from becoming a PlayStation 5 exclusive. This testimony was given amid the FTC’s belief that Starfield was supposed to release on PlayStation 5. As Spencer would explain, the acquisition was made to give Xbox an advantage against Sony’s ongoing success.
Spencer’s testimony was covered by numerous media outlets, including The Verge. Spencer defended the acquisition by claiming that Sony frequently pays developers to “skip” Xbox. One example of this was Sony’s deal involving Deathloop and Ghostwire, in which they paid Bethesda not to ship these titles on Xbox; Spencer identified this incident as “one of the impetus” for the ZeniMax acquisition. Out of concern that Starfield also wouldn’t make it to Xbox, Microsoft bought Bethesda to get an edge on their competitor. Along these lines, Spencer also stressed how difficult it’s been to compete with Sony in the past.
“Every time we ship a game on PlayStation… Sony captures 30 percent of the revenue that we do on their platform and then they use that money among other revenue that they have to do things to try to reduce Xbox’s survival on the market,” Spencer commented. “We try to compete, but as I said, over the last 20 years we’ve failed to do that effectively.”
Starfield is set to launch on September 6th for Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft Windows. The FTC vs. Microsoft case hearings will continue throughout the rest of June.