If Starfield and Indiana Jones were released on the PlayStation 5 as originally planned, they would have sold more than 10 million copies, according to some documents submitted by the FTC as part of a lawsuit against Microsoft, which the Redmond giant subsequently won.
This was confirmed in his testimony by Xbox CFO Tim Stewart: Microsoft made this prediction as a result of some exercise aimed at evaluating the possible impact of Bethesda and Zenimax games on Xbox exclusivity. The 10 million copies, according to the documents, refers to the combined sales of two titles that we know will be Microsoft exclusives coming to PC and Xbox Series X/S.
“Microsoft believed it could offset losses from Xbox-exclusive Zenimax games through Game Pass and increased console sales,” the court documents say, and further: “Mr. Stewart showed that Microsoft would need less cash in the short term to offset the financial impact of Xbox-exclusive Zenimax games.
In any case, these are predictions, and at the moment we will never know with absolute certainty what the commercial results of these two games would have been if they also came to PS5.
As a reminder, Starfield will release on September 6, 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S, which are expected to be the flagship Xbox games this year.
