Today on Decoder, we’re talking about the big Google antitrust trial that’s currently taking place in a federal courthouse. No, not the one you’re thinking of — it’s the second Google antitrust case in just as many months. The company lost a landmark case in August in which a court ruled that it had an illegal monopoly in search.

This time around, the Department of Justice is claiming Google has another illegal monopoly in the online advertising market. 

Unlike the search case, the ads case is both extremely complicated and somewhat harder to see. We all use search all day, and we’re surrounded by online ads all day, but while it’s easy to talk about search, no one really wants to think about how the ads get there or how much they really cost. And there’s added complexity here because of the intricate relationship between Google’s ad products and its search engine, which afforded Google the scale and resources to grow far faster than the competition — especially through aggressive acquisitions.

See, while Google figured out search advertising all by itself, it had to acquire its expertise in many of the other forms of online advertising, like display and video ads, by buying competitors. It then spent many years integrating and combining those companies and their products into a wildly complicated system known as an ad tech stack, basically an all-in-one shop for businesses and websites of all sizes to buy and sell ads, and creating, arguably, the world’s most sophisticated digital ad network.

To hear the rest of the industry tell it, Google maintained the dominance of that network pretty ruthlessly — most people don’t see the side of Google that makes the money, and that side is just as cutthroat and competitive as any big business.

Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner has been at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, basically every day this month to hear testimony from news publishers, advertising experts, and Google executives — and, ultimately, to see whether a federal judge hands the company another antitrust defeat. I brought Lauren on the show this week to help me break it all down and to get her take on which direction she thinks this case is headed next. 

If you want to know more about everything Lauren and I discuss in this episode, check out these stories for deeper context and analysis on the trial and the history of Google’s ad business:

Before Sony went all in with a pricey mid-cycle console refresh by announcing its upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro, Microsoft laid out plans for a premium console with aesthetics at the forefront. The 2TB “Galaxy Black” special-edition Xbox Series X is mostly the same as the standard Series X, but it features a double-capacity SSD and a slick paint job. We’re inching toward its October 15th release, and interested parties willing to pony up the $599.99 asking price can already preorder one at Best Buy and directly from Microsoft.

Those who crave the pricier Xbox are primarily getting three unique things for their money:

Those changes aren’t nearly as drastic as the new hardware on the PS5 Pro (which features a new GPU, among other performance benefits), but I must admit, the new Xbox looks sick.

Outside of the above features, the Galaxy Black Xbox Series X will play all the same games as other Xbox Series X / S models and match the standard edition with its 4K resolution and 120fps frame rate (though it’s locked at 4K / 60fps or lower in most games). It features a Blu-ray drive, too, unlike the compact Series S and discless Series X, the latter of which launches alongside Microsoft’s limited-edition console in October for $449.99.

While the previous generation of Xbox One consoles saw the release of the mid-cycle Xbox One X, the upcoming PS5 Pro seems to be the lone spec-bumped premium console this generation. Documents revealed during the FTC v. Microsoft case showed a very different take on a refreshed Xbox Series X, complete with a cylindrical design and a new controller with a lift-to-wake feature. These new Xbox consoles are obviously not that, but Microsoft calling an audible on that plan is not terribly surprising since recent times have been tough for the Xbox division, with studio closures, layoffs, and plenty of strategy shifts.