One of the funniest tangles Microsoft, Sony, and the Federal Trade Commission have gotten into over the past week is an issue that has been confusing video game forums for nearly 20 years, and angering Nintendo fans in particular. Is Nintendo’s latest console part of the current generation of games?
Even if, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on Friday, the ‘console war’ is a social construct, this is still something that has been accumulating since the Wii days and is memorable. . Game developer conference rant In it, the developers of Maxis dismissed Nintendo’s then-new console as “two GameCubes glued together with duct tape.”
When the Wii U was launched in 2012, the debate reignited, with many speculating over whether Nintendo’s first high-definition console was part of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console generations, or the beginning of the next. A controversy ensued. I remember vividlyoutrage from Wii U fans when Activision’s PR held back on the idea Call of Duty: Ghost Released on the Wii U (it was the last Call of Duty to launch on the Nintendo platform). And it didn’t help that the Wii U was clunky at retail and that all third-party publishers had given up on selling it to Nintendo. time.
Today, it’s no longer console wars and pub debates. The FTC has told a judge that having such visibility and control over the console makers hurts consumers and the market, sanctioning Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard. I am asking you to stop. The question is, who is participating in that market?
Government and Microsoft lawyers offer competing visions of what that market might look like. If it were just PlayStation and Xbox, it would be a little easier to argue that Microsoft was unfairly profiting from its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. If it’s a global three-way race, especially with the Nintendo Switch’s blistering sales record, Microsoft would be more apt to argue that it’s a market underdog rather than a market powerhouse.
That puts witnesses like Jim Ryan, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in the uncomfortable position of commenting on competing hardware’s capabilities without seeming accusation. And as Xbox head Phil Spencer explains why Microsoft sees the Switch as an equal competitor, even if it can’t run some of the biggest games his division publishes. found some interesting confessions and distortions.
“In terms of GPU, graphics processor and CPU power, the Switch is more like 8th Gen than 9th Gen. [console], right? FTC’s James Weingarten questioned Spencer on the witness stand Friday.
“I don’t agree with that,” Spencer replied, turning to discussing the Switch’s mobile capabilities, which require the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to be attached to the wall. Weingarten then coached Spencer on the Switch’s resolution and frame rate capabilities, making Spencer admit that they were inferior to what the Xbox Series X supports.
It’s also a little jarring to hear government lawyers mention 8th or 9th generation consoles. Its classification and chronology, according to my calculations, Wikipedia editorpublisher-level marketers, investor relations.
Weingarten brought up Call of Duty later in the hearing, further highlighting the differences between generations of consoles. He said, “If Call of Duty launched on his Switch, it wouldn’t look the same if players were playing on Xbox X. [sic], correct? ” he said. Again Spencer turned away.
“If we were to launch Call of Duty on Switch, our goal would be to match or exceed the quality of other Switch games,” Spencer replied. Weingarten referred to Spencer’s deposition where the same question was asked. “Answer, ‘No,'” Weingarten said as he read Spencer’s testimony.
Spencer was also asked why the company does separate competitive analyzes that include and exclude switches. Again, they took a deposition, but Spencer previously testified that the Xbox would include the Switch “to give an accurate global view of our relevance. ” had to be reminded.
Spencer said his analysis excluding Switch is because the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are both “at the same point in their lifecycle,” at least because he literally doesn’t consider Switch to be the current generation. said to suggest console. (The Switch launched more than three years earlier than his PS5 and Xbox Series X.)
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SIE’s Ryan made no attempt to take sides in a videotaped affidavit filed Tuesday. “A lot of the games we make for PlayStation are too powerful to play on Nintendo Switch,” Ryan said when questioned by Microsoft attorney Beth Wilkinson. “Nintendo hardware doesn’t have the processing power or graphics capabilities to play those games.”
Afterwards, Ryan was asked what he thought of Nintendo in the console market. “They are entering the console market, but they are not our direct competitors,” he said. Wilkinson walked Ryan to the edge of a kid-friendly Nintendo bait swamp and trotted around with respect.
“Do you know why Nintendo’s Call of Duty sales weren’t successful?” Wilkinson asked.
“My opinion goes like this [Call of Duty] It’s aimed at a completely different audience than Nintendo’s standard audience,” Ryan said.[which] I enjoy Mario and Zelda, not Call of Duty. My opinion. “
No one has been called by Nintendo to testify, so it’s unclear if Nintendo agrees with Spencer or Ryan here. But when Wilkinson asked Ryan why Xbox was more popular in the US than abroad, at least their fans were sure to chuckle.
“A lot of their games, a lot of them have shooting elements,” Ryan said.
