Tilbage i juni 2018 afslørede Microsoft deres planer om for alvor at gro antallet af studier under deres eksklusive Xbox Game Studios-banner. De større studiekøb fortsat i årene derefter, og vi ved nu at strategien, til dels, dengang var at forsøge at købe sig til dominans på markedet.
Igennem FTC-sagen er der kommet en masse detaljer på bordet, og blandt andet har Xbox Game Studios-chef Matt Booty skrevet i en email til andre ledere i december 2019, at Xbox nu befandt sig i en position hvor de kunne "spend Sony out of business". The Verge rapporterer at Booty sagde dette:
"It is practically impossible for anyone to start a new video streaming service at scale at this point. In games, Google is 3 to 4 years away from being able to have a studio up and running. Amazon has shown no ability to execute on game content. Content is the one moat that we have, in terms of a catalog that runs on current devices and capability to create new. Sony is really the only other player who could compete with Game Pass, and we have a 2-year and 10 million subs lead."
Men emailen er gammel, og meget kan ske på over tre år. Dette har Microsofts David Cuddy slået fast i en meddelelse til The Verge:
"This email is three and a half years old and predates the announcement of our acquisition by 25 months. It refers to industry trends we never pursued and is unrelated to the acquisition."