12 Surprising Reveals From the Xbox FTC Trial
The Microsoft FTC trial is a wrap, and while we don't have a ruling yet, we learned a lot of inside industry information that's not usually available to the public.
From drama surrounding the exclusivity of Starfield and other Bethesda titles to the cost of producing huge AAA games like The Last of Us Part II, there were plenty of bombshell reveals from this week's court battle. Here are 12 big things we learned from the Xbox FTC hearing.
The entire Xbox/Activision Blizzard saga has been filled with both Microsoft and Sony downplaying their respective achievements to appear as meek as possible to regulators. The FTC hearing was no exception, as the week kicked off with news of Microsoft claiming Xbox has officially "lost the console wars".
Microsoft claimed its original Xbox was crushed by Sony and Nintendo when it entered the market in 2001, and the company said it's been "losing" the "console wars" ever since. Citing numbers from 2021, Microsoft said Xbox held a 16% share of the console video game market. Xbox's Phil Spencer also said a piece on the console wars, calling it a “social construct within the community” during his testimony.
Years of hardware shortages and a slew of cross-generation game releases can make it feel like this console generation just started. But the reality is that we're creeping up on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S' third birthday parties. In court documents reviewed by IGN, Microsoft is expecting the next generation — meaning the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Series X|S successor — to begin in 2028.
If Microsoft's projection remains accurate, that means we're just a year-and-a-half away from the halfway point of this current generation. 2028 places the PS5 and Xbox Series on an eight-year
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