Microsoft opened the first day of its court battle against The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday by claiming that it’s officially “lost the console wars”.
In its proposing findings of fact submitted on the first day of its court battle over the $69 billion acquisition ofActivision Blizzard,Microsoftargued (viaThe Verge) that “Xboxhas lost the console wars, and its rivals are positioned to continue to dominate”.
Other documents shared byIGNdescribe Microsoft’s previous consoles with similar negative language. The company claimed that the original Xbox console was outsold by bothSonyandNintendoby a “significant margin”, and claimed that it hasn’t stopped “losing” the “console wars” since.
“Xbox’s console has consistently ranked third (of three) behindPlayStationand Nintendo in sales,” documents read. “In 2021, Xbox had a share of 16% while Nintendo and PlayStation had shares of [redacted] and [redacted], respectively.
“Likewise for console revenues and share of consoles currently in use by gamers (‘installed base’), Xbox trails with 21% while PlayStation and Nintendo have shares of [redacted] and [redacted], respectively.”
Microsoft argues that it’s now “betting on a different strategy” by generating profit through game sales and accessories, rather than console sales.
The arguments were made as part of Microsoft’s defence against a preliminary injunction brought by the FTC, which is seeking to pause the Xbox firm’s proposedActivisiondeal ahead of the critical date of July 18, after which parties could renegotiate.
Witnesses for theevidentiary hearing beginning this weekinclude Microsoft CEOSatya Nadella, PlayStation bossJim Ryan,Bethesda’s publishing bossPete Hines, and Activision CEOBobby Kotick.
