A massive collection of purported Xbox files related to the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Microsoft has been published online, revealing to the public some of the company’s plans for the gaming console.
The files were uploaded Friday to a website hosted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where the FTC is suing to block Microsoft’s acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard. The court website stopped sharing the files Tuesday morning.
They include more than 100 documents, many partially redacted, related to Microsoft’s Xbox plans.
Douglas Farrar, director of the FTC’s public affairs office, told NBC News that “Microsoft was responsible for the error in uploading these documents to the court.”
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The files include emails from company executives like Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and game release schedules.
Some of the documents include senior Microsoft Gaming employees discussing the value of the exclusivity they have on major video game titles.
One document presents a list of projections for some major game titles with release dates and the platforms they are expected to be available on. This list estimates that the highly anticipated game “The Elder Scrolls VI” will not be released until 2026 or later and will not be available on Playstation, which is owned by Sony.
Neither Sony nor Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda immediately responded to requests for comment.
It is unclear whether the files were intended to be publicly available. A Northern District spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
