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Xbox business boss Lori Wright testified in the ongoing Apple vs. Epic court case on Wednesday, and as part of this, a heavily redacted internal Microsoft document was entered into evidence. This document, which is available for anyone to see on the court’s website, includes some very old and outdated information about a number of topics, including some of the competing games that Microsoft thought would be released in 2020.
In a slide called Worldwide High-Profile Competitive Console Exclusives, Microsoft listed off titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 and Metroid Prime 4 as games that the company believed would release in the 2019-2020. The document, which is so old that it uses the name Project Scarlett instead of Xbox Series X, is dated to August 2020. But based on the information that was available to Microsoft at the time, it seems the company believed those high-profile Nintendo Switch games could be released in 2020.
Of course, they were not, and no release dates for them have been announced.
During her testimony, Wright said PlayStation is Microsoft’s main competitor in the console space, saying Nintendo is as well, but to a lesser degree.
In terms of the high-profile competitive console exclusives from PlayStation, Microsoft’s document listed off titles like Deathloop, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon: Forbidden West, going on to note that these titles could be released in 2020 or 2021. Deathloop and Forbidden West are indeed on schedule to release this year, but Gran Turismo 7 has been moved to 2022.
The Microsoft document also lists three “high-profile” Xbox games for Q1 2021 that have been redacted. These were listed alongside other multiplatform games like MLB The Show 21, with a disclaimer at the bottom saying release dates are subject to change due to COVID-19 and other factors. Why these games were redacted in the document is unknown.
This same document contains Microsoft’s internal review for The Last of Us: Part II, which was very kind to Sony’s game, with Microsoft writers saying it raises the bar.
For more on the ongoing Epic V Apple case, check out GameSpot’s roundup, “Everything We’ve Learned In The Epic V Apple Trial So Far.”
