PS6 release date, Indiana Jones exclusivity, Game Pass – everything learned from day one of FTC Trial

A lot of new industry information has been revealed overnight, as the FTC took Microsoft to court over the company’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. Emails, previous mergers and more were brought to light as the July deadline for the deal neared.

Numerous people came to the dais, including Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines, Matt Booty at Xbox Game Studios and PlayStation’s Jim Ryan and more. The result was a full day of juicy reveals that gave insight into what goes on behind the scenes at some of the biggest companies in the video game industry.

The vast majority of these stories come courtesy of IGN, which had journalists present inside the courtroom to write what the judges overseeing the proceedings between the FTC and Microsoft squeezed out. First, the revelation that Bobby Kotick demanded a bigger revenue split for Call of Duty on Xbox. Without that payout increase, it threatened to remove the popular FPS series from the platform. This, according to Xbox vice president Sarah Bond, was a demand that Microsoft met: “Time was limited. We had players whose expectations we wanted to meet, so we ultimately made the decision that it was best for business.”

Bond would also release confidential documents at the FTC court hearing that showed a 10-year commitment from Microsoft to bring the future version of Call of Duty to the Nintendo Switch. He also revealed that a similar contract was signed for Valve, but that Valve did not want to sign long-term contracts and “trusted Microsoft’s intentions.”

Next up was Pete Hines, Bethesda’s head of publishing, with a shipload of bombs. First of all, he confirmed that the next The Indiana Jones game developed by Machine Games was initially intended to have a PlayStation 5 release.. However, following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax, these plans were altered to make it a PC/Xbox-only console. The game will also be available on Game Pass at launch.

Pete Hines would also be urged for the exclusivity of games like Redfall and Starfield to which he stated that didn’t think Starfield would make it to its September release window if it went cross-platform. Perhaps most interesting is his apparent confusion at the time over the difference in focus between ZeniMax titles and Call of Duty, which he was able to launch cross-platform and dodge exclusivity altogether.

As for future games, the Outer Worlds 2 exclusivity is currently up in the air, with Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty stating that “no decision has been made” in court. Booty would go on to say that the previous game’s platforms are taken into account for decisions like these, and since the original Outer Worlds released on the PlayStation, that would be taken into account.

It was also revealed in emails shown to the court that the head of PlayStation Jim Ryan believed that Call of Duty would continue to be released on PlayStation consoles “for many years to come” just days after the acquisition was announced in 2022. This apparently goes against the public concern Sony has shown towards the acquisition.

However, Jim Ryan would also say that Sony could not share information about PlayStation 6 with Activision Blizzard if the acquisition goes throughstating the company: “it simply could not take the risk that a company that was owned by a direct competitor would have access to that information.”

At this point, the court hearing goes wild. Court documents unsealed at the hearing reveal that Microsoft expects the next generation of consoles to launch in 2028. This means that the next Xbox and PlayStation 6 should launch later this decade, according to his estimates.

The Microsoft documents would also reveal the company’s belief that “has not stopped losing the console war” since joining the industry in 2001. The document also stated: “The Xbox console has consistently ranked third (out of three) behind PlayStation and Nintendo in sales.” The company would go on to state that it is “betting for a different strategy,” a big part of the company’s underdog argument that it hopes to win over the FTC and get the deal going once more.

What a roller coaster, and it’s only the first day! Will you be aware of this explosive court hearing in the coming days? Let us know below as well as the most shocking reveal of the day in your opinion!