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In the last few hours, the first statements have been made in the trial that is taking place between the FTC and Microsoft, as a reason for the precautionary measure presented by the highest competition agency in the United States. With them, we have been able to learn details that until now were far from being publicsuch as the economic demands that Activision Blizzard required of Microsoft to work on the Xbox Series S version of Call of Duty.
There is a lot of interesting information that has been confirmed in the last few hours, such as the confirmation that Indiana Jones will be exclusive to Xbox and will arrive on Xbox Game Pass on the 1st. But one of the most important statements that have been made by Microsoft workers, and that may have a direct impact on the approval of the deal or not, are xCloud related.
Xbox is not making money with xCloud
Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of Xbox and gaming at Microsoft, testified yesterday, confirming that at this time Xbox is not making money with xCloud. When asked about the service (via The Verge), Bond assured that right now “it’s just a featuredespite previously confirming that they were working on trying to make it a separate service from Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
This led to the FTC counsel why the change of heart in the Redmond offices, which have gone from viewing xCloud as a standalone service to just a feature. On this, Bond replied that “We have continued to learn more about the success and popularity of xCloud. We have become clearer about the costs related to it, and have entered into partnerships with others who provide those services.”.
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we are xbox.com
Also, where Bond was clearest was in economic terms, confirming that Xbox is not making money with xCloud. “We get income from that, but when we look at all the numbers, the revenue we get per minute or hour is less than the cost we get per minute or hour«. With these statements, Microsoft wants to highlight that the cloud market, which cost the approval of the purchase of Activision Blizzard in the United Kingdom, is still far from being profitable, in order to achieve the approval of the American organization.
However, it is clear that is one of the different strategies that Microsoft has used, as is the case with the alleged ignorance of whether or not The Outer Worlds 2 will be exclusive. We all know that Xbox’s intentions are to make xCloud the largest streaming service on the market, something that the FTC also seems to intuit, despite their lack of knowledge in the industry.