Phil Spencer appears to have made a “big decision” to make all ZeniMax games Xbox exclusives at the November 2021 meeting. The revelation was made as part of the final day of testimony at the Microsoft FTC hearing this week.
During Xbox CFO Tim Stewart’s tenure on the witness stand, the FTC drew attention to a chat conversation from November 2021 between Stuart and Xbox’s Matt Booty. The two have been texting about the recent monthly business review meeting between Xbox and ZeniMax, where it appears Spencer made the call to make everyone ZeniMax exclusive games from now on, not just the new IP. Stewart was asking Booty what happened during the meeting.
“All games moving forward?” Stewart asked. “Not just a new IP, but all games moving forward? Awesome.”
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Botti confirmed this during the chat, writing, “Phil [Spencer] Tell them all titles are moving forward, exclusively for Xbox.”
The two went on to discuss how pulling all of Bethesda’s titles from PlayStation would cause revenue issues in the Microsoft and ZeniMax deal model. “We will have [accountability margin] Issues in the transaction model as we’re pulling a significant number of PS units out of the model,” Stewart noted.
This means that expected earnings for Xbox and ZeniMax after the acquisition factored in some Bethesda games released on PlayStation, prior to Spencer’s decision.
When Spencer testified last week, it was the meeting the Xbox leader claimed he didn’t remember the details of. It’s possible we’ll get more information and clarity on this meeting as Microsoft grills Stewart, and we’ll update this story if that’s the case.
The Microsoft ZeniMax deal has been a huge FTC benchmark over the past week as the agency attempts to invoke a preliminary injunction over Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Federal Trade Commission called Xbox’s decision to make Starfield and Redfall exclusives “strong evidence” against the Activision Blizzard merger, while Sony’s Jim Ryan said he did not see Starfield exclusivity as anti-competitive.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Valentine.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with minor lines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
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