PS6 release date, Raiders of the Lost Ark exclusivity, Game Pass – everything we learned from the first day of the FTC trial

Overnight, tons of new industry information was revealed, and the FTC took Microsoft to court over its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. Emails, previous mergers and more have been dug up as the July deal deadline looms.

Many people were brought into the stands, including Bethesda’s publishing chief Pete Hines, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Booty, and PlayStation’s Jim Ryan, among others. The result is a full day of intriguing reveals that provide insight into what’s going on behind the scenes at some of the biggest companies in the video game industry.

The vast majority of these stories came from IGN, which sent reporters inside the courtroom to document what the judges overseeing the lawsuit between the FTC and Microsoft had squeezed out. First, Bobby Kotick is demanding a bigger revenue share for the Xbox version of Call of Duty. He threatened to remove the popular FPS series from the platform if he didn’t increase spending. Xbox VP Sarah Bond said it was a request Microsoft met: “Time was limited. We wanted to meet player expectations, so we ultimately made a decision that was the best thing for the business.” .”

Bond will also release confidential documents at an FTC court hearing showing Microsoft’s commitment to bring future versions of Call of Duty to the Nintendo Switch within 10 years. She also revealed that Valve has signed a similar contract, but that Valve doesn’t want to sign a long-term lock-in contract and “believes in Microsoft’s intentions.”

Next up is Bethesda publishing executive Pete Hines, with a boatload of bombs. First, he confirmed that the upcoming Raiders of the Lost Ark game being developed by Machine Games was originally intended to be released on the PlayStation 5. However, after Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, those plans were revised to make it a PC/Xbox console exclusive. The game will also be available through Game Pass at launch.

Pete Hines also took issue with the exclusivity of games like Redfall and Starfield, stating that he doesn’t believe Starfield would be released in September if it were multi-platform. Perhaps more interestingly, he was at the time baffled by the apparent difference in approach between ZeniMax games and Call of Duty, which was able to launch cross-platform and avoid exclusivity altogether.

As for future games, the exclusivity of The Outer Worlds 2 is up in the air, with Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty telling the court that “no decision has been made yet.” Booty went on to say that the previous game’s platform is taken into account when making such decisions, and since the original The Outer Worlds was released on the PlayStation, this will also be taken into account.

The emails shown to the court also revealed that PlayStation boss Jim Ryan believes Call of Duty will continue to launch on PlayStation consoles “for many years to come,” days after the acquisition was announced in 2022. . This does not seem to be conducive to the development of the PlayStation game console. The public expressed concern about Sony’s acquisition.

However, Jim Ryan also stated that Sony would not be able to share information about the PlayStation 6 with Activision Blizzard if the acquisition goes through, stating that the company: “There’s simply no way to risk a company that Activision Blizzard directly owns.” .Competitors have access to that information.”

At this point, the court hearing became extremely heated. According to court documents disclosed at the hearing, Microsoft expects the next-generation console to be released in 2028. According to its estimates, that means the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation 6 should arrive later this decade.

Microsoft’s filing also reveals the company’s belief that it has “consistently lost the console wars” since joining the industry in 2001. The document also reads: “Xbox’s console has been ranked third (out of three), behind PlayStation and Nintendo promotions.” A big part of the argument, it hopes to win over the FTC and push for a deal again.

It’s been a roller coaster and it’s only the first day! Will you be following this explosive court hearing in the coming days? Let us know below, along with what you think is the most shocking revelation of the day!