FTC Denies Involvement In Huge Xbox Leak, Blames Microsoft Instead

Leaks are never accidental. They are PR stunts. It’s political. It crates hype and how many people are now searching Xbox and Series S? Thus won’t harm them at all.

Blame someone else sounds exactly like the government to me they are lowlifes

This leak really seems planned. They knew what they were doing. Genius way to get everyone to invest in the Xbox brand, with the hardware, game leaks, etc.

@MrSifter honestly I think there is too much all at at once for this to be intentional. If it was to create hype etc you would see it drip fed. It’s human error, it happens. Isn’t the first time, won’t be the last.

Of course they would deny responsibility.

Isn't that what government agencies do?

I wonder how much of the info in these leaks the EU had when they made their choice to approve the Activision acquisition. Really all of this makes the EU look like nothing more than Microsoft puppets.

At least the CMA and FTC cares about consumers.

@Grumblevolcano you should do stand-up comedy. I've been laughing straight for the last 20 minutes!

I have a hard time believing Microsoft, the FTC, or any other party involved could claim they weren't responsible without a thorough investigation, and it's a bit too early for a thorough investigation to have occurred.

In all likely hood it was a small clerical error made by a Microsoft employee.

The internet will probably run with the FTC is trying to harm MS but that is very unlikely.

@Kaloudz Completely agree, there's no way that it was intentional if it was from Microsoft's end. I know most of it is outdated now but so much information being revealed to competitors won't be helpful for them at all. And if it was at Microsoft's end then someone is in BIG trouble.

Who submitted a document to the courts is patently easy to establish and hardly needs a huge investigation. Those posts on here who have an agenda or subscribe to conspiracy theories are laughable.
It was clearly a mistake, but bearing in mind its 3 years out of date, its not the end of the world and its made an otherwise dull day just a bit more interesting. 😁
At least at long last we get a gyro!! Yey 👍

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I don't agree, but anything is possible I suppose.

@Grumblevolcano

CMA and FTC protect Sony, not consumers. The judge has repeatedly warned the FTC that it's not about Sony, it's about consumers. Sony always pretends to be the victim and we all know that Sony is no better than Microsoft.

Wow - its very off putting how defensive everyone is. When this originally leaked there was so much criticism of the FTC about how they were trying to damage MS, then when it turns out it was most likely MS fault then the mistake is defended as good news and a great PR stunt. How can opinions be taken seriously on here with that sort of bias!?!

It was probably a mistake, most likely from an MS employee. It happens. MS are a company full of people who are no different to other companies full of people. I feel for the guy who made the mistake as they must be proper crapping themselves right now and will likely lose their job for possibly an honest mistake.

I hate that feeling when you know you've made a mistake at work and you're just waiting to see what the outcome will be. Imagine having that mistake out there in the world for everyone to lose their minds over!

As if we can trust the FTC though lol!

If this was an MS employee, sad to say, but I’m sure they’d be fired. This was too huge of a mistake to make.

This whole fiasco really sours my outlook on the future of Xbox. They really want to go all in on Gamepass and Digital only consoles. And Phil's constant lying about preservation amoung other things is a slap in the face to many an Xbox fan. There were some cool nuggets for sure from this leak but damn, Xbox just looks weak and like they don't know their place in the market. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out

@Pichuka97 I have leaned more into digital buys the last year or two but I’m not a fan of no choice, which seems where we are heading. My initial thought is that I’ll probably just buy less games.

I know this is feeding frenzy of information for journalist, but this is a pretty devastating thing to have to deal with from a PR perspective.

This actually saddens me.

I wouldn't wish this for Nintendo or Sony either.

@Pichuka97 firstly, they are moving towards digital because so are consumers. A significant number of purchases are digital so of course both Sony and Microsoft are moving towards that as well. If the consumers didn't buy digital, the market wouldn't go in that direction. We also don't know it if will or will not have an optional disc drive like the new PS5 will have.

Secondly, how do they look weak? They seem to know exactly their place in the market which is about letting people play Xbox wherever they through gamepass and increasing cloud usage. That is a pretty strong desire and matches what they are currently doing. It's hardly weak and it makes it seem they know exactly their place in the market. Sony is ahead with consoles themselves so Microsoft are pushing gaming onto mobile devices and PC, which is pretty good idea considering the millions of Windows devices about which gives them a great opportunity to bring Xbox, Game Pass, and Cloud Play onto more people than ever.

Thirdly, Xbox is probably among the best for game preservation considering how many older games are on their store and on game pass. It is ridiculous to suggest he's lying when his record says the opposite.

@Grumblevolcano how do they care about consumers? How is the EU Microsoft's puppets?

@BrilliantBill similar to how I feel. A discless Series X isn't surprising considering the Series S and the PS5 digital edition both exist, and the fact the PS5 will soon be discless as standard. A new controller really isn't too surprising either.

The next gen stuff is the most surprising stuff, but their direction of it isn't too surprising in terms of increaseing the integration of the cloud, which is a direction both Xbox and PS are moving in.

Many of the Bethesda games we knew about anyway. A few surprises, but nothing that shocking.

As you said, the leaks weren't that surprising and could have been a lot worse for Microsoft and Xbox.

I don't think this was a PR stunt as I'm sure they were looking at revealing this stuff at a show of some sort. Looking like an MS clerical error that will likely result in a job opening as this was pretty massive

FTC is sure doing a lot of spinning to cover this up. I can't wait for MS to fire back.

@FatalBubbles True, digital has its perks. But it's all about choice. The premium console should have a disc drive though and I still think Series S should have just been disc drivless and kept the same specs then this whole dance wouldn't be necessary. @Lightning720 you make some fair points but to many an Xbox fan, it comes across as tone deaf to what MS was doing with the brand in the 360 days. And I mean c'mon, MS trying to buy up more publishers and companies including Nintendo, looks weak for sure. Who'd be laughing if it were Sony trying to buy Nintendo? Time will tell, but yeah, I'm somewhat skeptical with Xbox looking ahead. We'll see. Happy gaming!

@StonyKL That's the XDF for you mate, lol.

Somebody somewhere is SUPER fired.

@iplaygamesnstuff I highly doubt the FTC would blame Microsoft for it if it wasn't actually their fault. Microsoft's lawyers would have a field day with that and they would be quick to counter the FTC's claim with proof it was them.

@Pichuka97 Spencer has always talked about preservation but has never said it would be physical. When has he ever said that? Having access to those games is what he has talked about and that could be cloud etc. You are looking for something that just isn’t there.

@Pichuka97 so when the PlayStation was going to be Sony plus Nintendo ……..

FTC Lina Khan is a socialist scumbag.

@Titntin i have a slightly different take. Why did the FTC need this? Why did the FTC act as a Sony lawyer in the ABK deal? Why did the FTC take a grilling in US congress for being ran poorly and losing cases they didn’t even need to be in? Why did nothing leak from Sony and did the FTC request Sony documents? I would like to have more answers and i can only assume the MS big wigs are on the phone with legal teams if in fact it was the FTC that leaked this. That i do not know as this is fresh info and it’s likely we may never know. Why was Phil Spencer asked the same question in court 372 times if COD is staying on PS? Look the word conspiracy is another word for gullible small minded people that will eat any info the media say’s. More “conspiracy’s” are proven as fact daily online from non bought out media outlets. There are some people that believe the Hawaii fire weren’t a planned land grab. There are people that think children sex trafficking from rich elites aren’t real. Good for them but the word conspiracy is a copping mechanism for not wanting to believe the richest people in the world and the government isn’t trying to stifle the average citizen. Back to gaming, this hurts MS, if they did this to themselves so be it, if the FTC leaked this on top of their pitiful court case, they need to be even further reduced in funding from what they recently received and many many people involved should be fired. Sorry couldn’t stay quiet on this after digesting it all day. I am not saying FTC leaked it, but if so…. This is yet another thorn they attempted to put into this case that was unnecessary. I expect our opinions on this leak today to differ, i am ok with any backlash I receive for my takes, but something smells off on this from the day the ABK deal went to the courts against the FTC and CMA, that had such a bad showing it was laughable by the judges and the CMA couldn’t even explain their math so they asked for a 6 months extension. How many times did they both stall this deal up against it’s deadlines?

@HonestHick hate to tell you this but FTC, CMA and other equivalent companies are there to protect us from said government and rich elites such as MS and other such power houses from having too much control and damaging industries. It just so happened this case was about gaming which oddly has a public backing similar to a sports team and so happened to be trying to protect the industry from your backed team.
A simple Google will show cases that have been won that were there to protect you, the consumer. I will 100% guarantee you if this was Sony buying Activision and was blocked by FTC you'd be celebrating their position to protect you.

@HonestHick At this point mate you are so far down the hole it would be impossable to have anything like a rational conversation with you, and thats fine, you are welcome to write your own truth, but I wont engage. Have a lovely day - if the evil pixies let you 🤣

@Titntin damn I already bit 🤣
All this 'FTC are evil and against me 😭' garbage reminds me of the whole 'the ref is against us' for a decision against their team but conveniently ignore when a decision goes for them or the fact someone can just make a mistake because they are human.

You are so wrong, @BaldBelper78, these leaks happen all the time due to human error. Knowing the response from those that like to hate on Microsoft, do you really believe that they would happily release private conversations that show Microsoft talking about acquiring Nintendo? Absolutely not. This leaks were accidental, the result of someone making a mistake.

If you need any further proof of leaks happening be accident, care to explain how the names and addresses of every Police Officer working in Northern Ireland was made public, putting every single one of them at risk of being killed by the IRA?

Leaks often happen as a result of a mistake. Do some, small, and generally pro leaks happen on purpose to either make a company look good, or to test the waters to see how the information is received? Absolutely. However, this is on a different scale, does not paint Microsoft in the best of lights, and is in no way something that they would have wished to have seen the light of day at this time.

If you need anymore proof, pop over to Push and witness the vitriol for yourself. No one would intentionally seek to bring the hate on themselves like they are getting right now...

We must be reading the same comments, @StonyKL, but with a totally different slant. The comments that I have read in here that suggest the this maybe a PR stunt, do not appear, to me, to be said in a positive way. To my mind, they are knocking Microsoft, not supporting them.

The only other comments mentioning PR are saying that it was not a PR stunt.

Funny how we can read the same comments, but come up with completely different meanings...

@Fiendish-Beaver I ignore Push Square. It’s got more trolls that the Billy Goats Gruff. A few days and all this will die down and we will all keep gaming regardless.

What I am interested in is whether Phil Spencer or Nintendo will comment directly on that email.

I would say that’s the thing that would have potential to do most damage but the other stuff is just standard and none of it a surprise.

@Fiendish-Beaver we all see things from different perspectives. That is the beauty of having different opinions

@Fiendish-Beaver probably because the thought of MS doing this deliberately was not in my thought process so stood out a lot more when people suggested it on here. I was early to this article and the first three comments are all either saying genius PR move from MS or anti FTC. I suppose it may have changed further down the comments and I haven't read them all.

@Fiendish-Beaver @BaldBelper78 to be fair to push square comments they read a hell of a lot like the Nintendo Life comments. I guess the trolls all inhabit Nintendo and PS consoles. We should count ourselves lucky they don't exist on Xbox!

@Titntin I’m not angry, i just don’t see anything in this case that made sense and neither did the US congress. The FTC is 0-4 in big cases and Linda Khan is a lair and should be fired. This whole thing has wasted taxpayers money over video games, when as i said there are more important issues in the world. Didn’t mean to get to serious on ya. My bad.

@StonyKL hate to tell you but the cases we need protected from the FTC don’t go after. This FTC under Linda is 0-4 in cases, she has been called out by the US congress for losing all her cases and then appealing and wasting even more tax payers money. This case didn’t need to go the way it did. The CMA can’t even do math and these are the best we have protecting us? Sorry man not trying to be confrontational, but open the eyes and watch the court hearings this wasn’t to protect anyone other than Sony. They mentioned Sony more than consumers.

I know you were probably being sarcastic, @StonyKL, but in no way would I suggest that there are no Xbox trolls... 🤣

Do you know what is interesting in relation to Nintendo, @BaldBelper78? Spencer never actually said he was targeting an acquisition. He was actually responding to a question from Chris Capoossela (Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer) who asked why Microsoft were not targeting Nintendo for an acquisition. To which Spencer said that to do so would be a career defining moment (well, duh!) and that Nintendo are sitting on a boatload of cash so it's not likely to happen. Closer alignment between the two companies was something he was more interested in.

In truth, it would be like asking some low League football (soccer) player of their ambitions, and he cites winning the World Cup would be his dream (career defining moment). Seeing something as the pinnacle of achievement is not the same as actively seeking to make it happen.

I mean, if I were to ask Spencer whether he believed in aliens, and he replied, 'Who knows!', you just know that this would be reported as, 'SPENCER BELIEVES IN THE EXITSTENCE ALIENS'. Why? Because he didn't rule out the possibility, but then, he didn't actually say he believed in them either, did he?

However, 'MICROSOFT LOOKING TO BUY NINTENDO' will get you many more clicks than the actual truth, but you know, the old adage of not letting the truth get in the way of the story, is absolutely right...

@Fiendish-Beaver exactly 💯!! In fact what you have just said is pretty much what I kept saying last night on Twxtter and ended up getting personal abuse over. Yet all I was saying was that a three year old email has been taken as being a defining moment and it is nothing of the sort. But as you say and I agree - telling the facts doesn’t always get the clickety clicks!