Amid the ongoing regulatory and legal hurdles Microsoft has faced over its proposed $69 billion purchase of Activision, much attention has been paid to the discrepancy between Microsoft’s promise to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation and the moves from the company to Bethesda games like Star field of the Sony platform. In fact, that contrast was so stark that a prominent Bethesda executive was baffled by it in a private email to fellow Bethesda employees last year.
The February 2022 email, which was revealed as part of the Federal Trade Commission’s process to block the Activision deal (as noticed by Steven Totilo of Axios), shows Bethesda Senior VP of Global Marketing and Communication Pete Hines baffled by Microsoft’s public comments at the time about keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles going forward. “I’m confused,” writes Hines. “Is [this Call of Duty policy] not the opposite of what we have just been asked (told) to do with our own titles? What is the difference?”
“I understand there’s probably nuance here, but at its core it’s read as the opposite of what happened to us,” Hines said in a separate email the same day to Microsoft Xbox chief Phil Spencer.
As for the “difference” Hines wonders about, Microsoft has argued in court that Call of Duty’s status as an “existing, multi-player, cross-platform” franchise makes it less comparable to Star field and more related to Minecraftthat Microsoft has continued to publish across multiple platforms after acquiring the franchise in 2014.
The adjectives Microsoft uses to differentiate Call of Duty and Minecraft also apply to Bethesda franchises like Fallout 76 And The Elder Scrolls online, which have remained under Microsoft multi-console. But in response slips, the FTC argued that Microsoft’s “multiply hyphenated description” of these games “is the clearest sign of defendants’ struggle to distinguish Activision’s content from ZeniMax’s.”
Why didn’t anyone warn us?
In his 2022 email to his fellow Bethesda employees, Hines also takes some offense at being caught flat-footed by Microsoft’s Call of Duty announcement. “Did anyone at Xbox remember to let us know about this?” Hines continued in his 2022 email. “Todd [Howard]going to DICE in a few weeks don’t you think a journo could find him and put him under pressure why the below is ok for COD or other Activision Blizzard games but not [The Elder Scrolls VI] or Star field?”
When pressed Star field exclusivity by the Telegraph in 2021, Howard noted that “you never want to shut people out … but at the end of the day, your ability to focus and say, ‘this is the game I want to make, these are the platforms I want to make it on’, and if I can really lean on that, I’ll get a better product.”
Is [this Call of Duty policy] not the opposite of what we have just been asked (told) to do with our own titles? What is the difference?
Bethesda Senior VP Pete Hines, in an email from 2022
Howard echoed a similar sentiment in a podcast interview in late 2022, saying that “from a development side, I like the ability to focus…looks incredible on the new systems” is, from my point of view, it’s just awesome .”
Around the time of Hines’ email, Microsoft’s Spencer publicly said he hoped Star field would be Bethesda’s most played RPG ever, despite the missing PlayStation gamers and that console players would essentially vote with their wallets if they wanted access to the game.
“That specific question of, ‘Hey, there’s only one place I want to play games, and if that game doesn’t end up in the only place I want to play… those people can go and play those games.’ They’re just going to say, I’m choosing not to because it’s not on that one device…” Spencer said.
Hines’ mention of a Microsoft exclusive Older Scrolls VI in his email is notable because Microsoft’s Phil Spencer recently declined to confirm that game’s final platforms on the stand in the FTC lawsuit. In a 2021 interview, Spencer had previously said Older Scrolls VI would mirror Star field by only appearing on Xbox and PC.
Hines is also the Bethesda executive who, in a June 2021 interview, publicly apologized to PlayStation owners regarding Star fieldMicrosoft exclusive. “All I can say is I apologize, because I’m sure that’s frustrating for people, but there’s not much I can do about it,” Hines said at the time, a message that has since been referenced in the FTC’s legal brief. .
Testimony in the FTC trial continues today and is expected to last through Thursday. A decision in the case should follow in the coming weeks.
