Open sesame

Good Morning. Ever send an email you wish you could retract? Yeah, that’s the entire vibe at Microsoft today. Just when we thought we’d seen it all, Microsoft keeps on giving.

Freshest leaks from the Microsoft trial in the Main Quest below.

— Jason Liu, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: but wait, there’s more!

More internal documents were made public as part of the Microsoft vs. FTC trial yesterday. We’ll just cover the latest details here — you can refer to yesterday’s newsletter for the full look.

• Mid-generation refreshes are expected in 2024 for the Xbox Series X|S despite Phil Spencer’s public statements that it wouldn’t be necessary.

• Phil really wanted to buy Nintendo. He called it a potential “career moment” if it were to happen. Valve seems like a close second in appeal.

• New controllers that emphasize accessibility are coming. Also one that has direct-to-cloud connectivity.

• Phil + team really scrambled to fill titles for 2022. Big discussion around keeping studios accountable and internally predicting slip.

• The FTC is ‘washing their hands clean’ of the matter as they put the blame on Microsoft for submitting unredacted content.

• While the PDFs looked like they had been redacted, opening the files in a PDF reader exposed hidden attachment data.

• The latest leak prompted Phil to address employees directly. He emphasized how the documents were ‘old’ and plans have ‘evolved’.

Step back: Some poor lawyer at Microsoft is having the worst day of their career for a simple error. While the slides seem very fleshed out, it’s possible that some of these plans have been slashed already as things have been moving rather quickly in the gaming world as of late. We’ll have to come back to see whether Microsoft delivers on these early, unreleased plans.

HUD

• 💰 As part of a settlement between Fortnite and the FTC for unwanted purchases, you can now apply for your claim on the FTC’s website through January 17th, 2024.

• 🔍 The Microsoft court documents also leaked future Bethesda plans, including remakes of Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Fallout 3, and a new Doom game

• ❓ Following its first major update in years, Titanfall 2 had a mysterious new mode added to its playlist titled “???” — speculation of a new Titanfall sequel is swirling as Respawn has also included Titanfall easter eggs in the latest Apex Legends patch notes.

MAJOR W

• 📈 Open-source game engine Godot has doubled its monthly funding in the fallout of Unity’s Runtime Fee announcement.

• 💸 Payday 3 has been revealed as a day-one title on Game Pass, set to release on September 21st.

• 🏢 A GTA 6 leak indicates that there could be more opportunities to enter buildings, with over 157 interiors.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🛑 Lies of P has a bug that could halt your progression in Chapter 2. Developer Neowiz is working on a fix, but in the meantime recommends avoiding any locked rooms prior to defeating the chapter’s boss.

• 🪓 Evil Dead: The Game will not receive any future content and the Nintendo Switch version of the game has been canceled.

CAREER CORNER

• Events Coordinator - Take-Two Interactive (New York, NY)

• Sr. Integrated Marketing Manager, Prime Gaming - Amazon Games (Seattle, WA)

• Graphic Designer - The Pokemon Company International (Bellevue, WA)

HIVE MIND

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