Documents from the case between Microsoft and the FTC reveal the tech giant's reactions to the unveiling of PlayStation 5, the console of its main rival. According to the details, Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, were given a rundown on the system's specifications and power.
What's interesting is that a comparison is made between various features of the PS5 and what Xbox Series X|S offers. In this way, Microsoft recognizes the advantages and disadvantages of Sony's system. On the other hand, internal emails were revealed where Microsoft and Xbox also reacted to the PS5 price increase that was announced a few months ago.
Here's how Microsoft reacted to the PlayStation 5 reveal
Liz Hamren, former head of platform and hardware engineering at Xbox, summarized the strengths and weaknesses of PlayStation 5 and compared them to Xbox Series X|S features. This came just after Mark Cerny, PS5 engineer, revealed the technical details of Sony's console.
As for Xbox's disadvantages, Hamrem admits that PS5 has an advantage in terms of its SSD performance. He also stresses that the variable GPU and CPU clock speeds of Sony's console are higher.
"They have optimized for raw higher raw throughput (2x ours with slightly better hardware compression and associated performance improvements) as opposed to a more integrated streaming architecture enabled by Sampler Feedback Streaming," Hamrem said.
As for Xbox's advantages, the former engineering chief notes the difference between 12 (Xbox) and 10 (PlayStation) teraflops. On the other hand, she noted that they are on similar terms in terms of the variety of SSDs to expand storage, a point that is not entirely accurate.
What did Microsoft say about the PS5 price increase?
In other emails it is revealed that Tim Stuart, Xbox's CFO, reacted immediately to the PS5 price increase and notified Phil Spencer and other company executives. He stated that the move was nothing unusual, as they had already anticipated it. It is also suggested that they began working on a plan to do the same for Xbox Series X|S pricing.
Ami Silverman, Microsoft's former head of marketing and consumer sales, acknowledges in a response that Xbox sales are lagging behind PlayStation. She adds that the PS5 price increase was going to give them a boost that they could easily lose if they announced a similar move too soon.
Comments
Best
New