Xbox exclusives Starfield and Indiana Jones would sell 10m on PlayStation, Microsoft expected
Whiplash.
Microsoft previously forecasted that Starfield and Indiana Jones would sell 10m units on Playstation consoles, before deciding to make them both Xbox console exclusives.
In court documents shared as part of the ongoing saga between the US Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft, the FTC said Microsoft had forecasted 10m sales on PlayStation for "both Starfield and Indiana Jones".
Xbox's Tim Stuart said Microsoft had forecasted PlayStation sales in order to evaluate the impact of making ZeniMax games exclusive. Ultimately, the company believed it could "offset losses incurred from making ZeniMax games exclusive through Game Pass and increased console sales".
The document continued: "Mr Stuart testified that Microsoft needed fewer dollars in the short term to make up for the financial impact of exclusivity of ZeniMax games on Microsoft."
Had missed this from Xbox CFO Tim Stuart's testimony, but FTC says Microsoft had forecasted 10 million sales on PlayStation for "both Starfield and Indiana Jones" before taking them exclusive, deciding it could recoup through Game Pass and extra Xbox sales pic.twitter.com/5KdpDzKDZD
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) July 13, 2023
Last month, it was confirmed that Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones release would be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
However, prior to the company's acquisition by Microsoft, a multi-console contract had been signed by Disney, which was subsequently amended.
As for Starfield, PlayStation head Jim Ryan has admitted that, while he does not like it being an Xbox console exclusive, he doesn't consider this to be anti-competitive.
He did add, however, that he initially expected these releases not to be exclusive as "pretty much every other Bethesda game had been multiplatform" prior to Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda in 2021.
The same could be said for Bethesda itself, with Microsoft's promise it would keep Call of Duty on rival console platforms after buying Activision Blizzard prompting concern within the company at its highest levels.
Meanwhile, towards the end of last year, Microsoft stated Xbox anticipated that three future redacted titles, all of which are "designed to be played primarily alone or in small groups", would bypass other consoles, and be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
In the same documentation, the company additionally pointed to the fact that "ZeniMax's first two new games were made exclusive to PlayStation for one year post- launch", these being Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.