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’s CEO of games Phil Spencer expressed confidence in Xbox following the reveal of the PlayStation 5 technical specifications.

In a leaked email between Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he admits that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have weakened in price, features and “messaging” for seven years. Additionally, Spencer mentioned that pressure levels were higher than usual during the PlayStation 5 launch.

We’ve all lived with 7 years of starting a generation with a price and performance (and messaging) disadvantage to the PS4 with the Xbox One. I have to admit this morning when I woke up knowing that the PS5 reveal was today the stress level was higher than usual.

After watching the release of the PS5 specs, Spencer said, “We have a better product than Sony, not only in hardware but equally important in the software platform and services on the hardware.”

He noted that Xbox has “the ingredients of a winning program” going forward. However, Phil Spencer acknowledged pricing and other important business discussions.

We didn’t win anything. And I know we have tough discussions about pricing, P&L, investments, etc… It’s been a good day for Xbox.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella responded optimistically to Spencer’s email, stating, “None of us have announced pricing, have we?” implying that final specs are only part of the story and pricing will be important.

While Spencer felt good about the strength of the Xbox product after the PS5 event, he and Nadella acknowledge that other business factors such as price will affect the next-gen console race.

Meanwhile, Phil Spencer has issued a response following the recently leaked documents. “We saw the conversation around old emails and documents,” Spencer stated in a short message via his official X account.

In case you missed it, the classified documents revealed details about Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox ecosystem, from upcoming hardware projects and games in development to internal emails.

source: Internal technology emails