Microsoft CEO would "love" to get rid of console exclusives
If it was up to him.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said he'd love to get rid of console exclusives.
Nadella took to the witness stand during yesterday's court proceedings for the Xbox FTC hearing, and stated he has "no love" for the world of exclusives, reported IGN.
"If it was up to me, I would love to get rid of the entire sort of exclusives on consoles, but that's not up to me to define," said Nadella.
"Especially as a low share player in the console market that the dominant player there has defined market competition using exclusives, and so that's the world we live in... I have no love for that world."
The "dominant player" referenced here is of course Sony, known for its high budget exclusive games like The Last of Us, Spider-Man, God of War, and Horizon.
Nadella's philosophy is to put software across more platforms: "That's the Microsoft I grew up in, I believe in that."
Exclusivity has been a major theme of this court case, with the FTC arguing ahead of proceedings that Microsoft's decision to make Bethesda games exclusive was "powerful evidence" against its proposed Activision Blizzard takeover.
Meanwhile, Bethesda execs were concerned at Microsoft's pledge to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation - "the opposite" of what Bethesda had been "asked (told) to do".
Yesterday a 2022 email thread between Xbox boss Phil Spencer and PlayStation boss Jim Ryan revealed Spencer's commitment to keep Call of Duty and other Activision console titles on PlayStation. Ryan's response outlined Sony's "serious concerns" with the Xbox proposal.