Xbox thinks Game Pass can make up for lost sales of Starfield and Indiana Jones on PlayStation
Game Pass to the rescue?
Microsoft feels that Game Pass can make up for sales the company will lose for not having Indiana Jones and Starfield on PlayStation.
According to court documents filed by the FTC in its bid to stop Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the government body cited testimony from Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart (thanks, IGN).
Stuart stated that Microsoft forecasted the company would sell over 10 million units of the games on PlayStation, a forecast made prior to the company making the Bethesda and Machine Games titles exclusive to Xbox.
The FTC document states Microsoft feels it can "offset losses incurred from taking ZeniMax Games exclusive through upside to Game Pass and increased console sales."
Stuart's testimony also stated that Microsoft needed fewer dollars in the short term to make up for the financial impact of the exclusivity of ZeniMax Games on Microsoft platforms.
Microsoft acquired Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax back in 2020, which brought other studios under the Microsoft umbrella, giving it a big boost in both the number of developers and IP. The Rockville, Maryland-based company was one of the largest privately held game companies at the time, with 2,300 employees worldwide, and boasted one of gaming's biggest hits ever, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which has sold over 20 million copies.
The FTC recently lost its bid for a preliminary injunction to stop the Microsoft deal with Activision Blizzard from going through, and it appealed the decision with the courts. The judge who presided over the initial case denied the FTC's appeal, bringing the acquisition one step closer to fruition.