This week, a significant collection of court documents and presentation slides about the legal dispute between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) surfaced online. In an internal email exchange in 2020, Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer expressed confidence in Xbox following the PlayStation 5 technical specifications reveal.
In the leaked email between Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he admits that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been disadvantaged in price, features, and "messaging" for seven years. In addition, Spencer mentioned that stress levels were higher than usual during PlayStation 5 launch.
We"ve all lived with 7 years of starting off a generation with a price and performance (and messaging) disadvantage to PS4 with Xbox One. I have to admit this morning when I woke up knowing the PS5 reveal was today that the stress level was higher than normal.
After watching the PS5 specifications release, Spencer said, "We have a better product than Sony does, not just on hardware but equally important on the software platform and services on top of the hardware."
He noted that Xbox has "the ingredients of a winning plan" moving forward. However, Phil Spencer acknowledged pricing and other important business discussions.
We haven"t won anything. And I know we have hard discussion about pricing, P&L, investments etc... This was a good day for Xbox.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella responded optimistically to Spencer"s email, stating, "Neither of us have announced pricing, right?" implying that the final specifications are only part of the story and pricing will be important.
While Spencer felt good about Xbox"s product strength after the PS5 event, he and Nadella recognize that other business factors like price will influence the next-gen console race.
Meanwhile, Phil Spencer has issued a response following the recent leaked documents. "We"ve seen the conversation around old emails and documents," Spencer stated in a short message via his official X account.
In case you missed it, the confidential documents revealed details of Microsoft"s plans for the Xbox ecosystem, from upcoming hardware and in-development gaming projects to internal emails.
Source: Internal Tech Emails