All bang on the money!
How can any of this be legit?
Sony worked at it, they built relationships and if money was the only consideration then Microsoft could have outspent them every time, but Sony's relationships with 3rd party partners, beneficial deals that increase actual player engagement, along with sales is why those exclusive agreements exist.
Microsoft could have even created studios and poached the very talent they're trying to ...
I'm not sure how this could in any way be serious.
Microsoft were closer to having a monopoly with the purchase of ZeniMax, Sony definitely weren't with the deals they've had with companies separate from PlayStation or their own organically built up studios.
Microsoft should have just used these 10's of billions of dollars to make new studios and give them creative freedom to make a huge variety of quality games.
Very true, consoles launched in 2020 likely began development in late 2014 or early 2015, analysis of what's working for the current platform and the limits of current hardware will also always tell Sony/Microsoft and devs what's needed for the future too, along with what AMD/NVidia or any other hardware players can provide to meet their needs for future hardware.
The coming platforms are likely pretty much the same, feedback from what came before, features and tech...
It's standard, they start work on the next platform probably even before they've launched the "next-gen" thing, especially with feedback and analysis, along with hardware providers selling their future tech that needs to go into the systems Microsoft and Sony will sell.
It's been outright stated by Mark Cerny and the architecture team of XBox that they're assessing what to include and improve on all of the time, but actually starting to piece together what the hardware is begins planning from a year after the launch of a new console platform.
Then they iterate on what the design of everything will be until it's understood whether performance targets and features have been met and if they can out it into a financially sellable package.
Sony aren't being Anti-Competitive at all!
They're making games and not buying up huge Publishers to keep their games off of XBox right now, Microsoft are.
COD without question has the bigger install base on PlayStation, I'm pretty sure every Bethesda game in the last 2 generations has sold better on PlayStation, which would likely have been the case for Starfield and ES6.
If you don't think Microsoft's actions are Anti-Competitive then...
Microsoft are obviously lying there, sure right now it makes no sense, because the games sell like crazy on PlayStation, but having control of the IP you can gradually shift that to lure those customers over to your platform with say the exclusive launch of one COD release here and there.
Eventually they wouldn't need to sell it on PlayStation.
TBH I think Sony should just setup new studios gradually to make those kinds of games, they could obviously make a bet...
Very true!
A publisher will make hundreds of games a piece over say 10 years, one game every now and then being exclusive or part of a game's content now and then isn't the same thing at all.
One game being locked up isn't going to really have a big effect on the industry, but hundreds across one or two pubs over 10 years and potentially more into eternity will of course change the entire video games landscape.
Anyone arguing otherwis...
The difference is the volume of content, a few games vs potentially hundreds being exclusive on either side.
Both sides are fine making the odd game exclusive, they're not fine making everything from 2 of the biggest publishers in video game's history exclusive.
That's the difference.
@bleedsoe9mm: They nailed nothing!
Most likely, but it doesn't change the fact that would have come to PlayStation and eventually gotten fixed without the ZeniMax Acquisition.
Timed exclusive means it still would have eventually come to XBox, also the odd game being outright exclusive or under Sony's control isn't the same as Microsoft buying 2 of the biggest video games Publishers in the industry to take all of their multiplatform games away from their biggest install bases.
Where's the proof that Starfield was exclusive to Xbox before the ZeniMax acquisition?
Didn't Sony get every major Bethesda release over the last 15+ years?
Games that were always PlayStation Exclusives should be Multiplatform because of "Reasons"?
Sony had a good relationship with ZeniMax Studios before this deal happened and those games were Multiplatform titles, ES6 and Starfield would have been on PlayStation just like every game from Bethesda and Co
Very true, Psychonauts 2 would definitely have gotten a native PS5 release if Double Fine had stayed independent, Microsoft definitely made that an exclusive release after Double Fine were bought.
Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 were 100% coming to PlayStation 5 if they had finished development in time for this console life window, before the ZeniMax acquisition happened.
This is clear evidence of Microsoft's intentions.
It's pretty obvious they were intended by Bethesda to be multiplatform titles before Microsoft gained control of ZeniMax, had the games been announced as exclusive to next gen Xbox on consoles, then that's what was planned, but both were multiplatform games and given Bethesda's relationships with Sony they would have come to PS5 when they launched.
This is a clear example of Microsoft coming in and making a game exclusive after the deal's completion.
I suspect a lot of people would love a PS5 only version of the entire series of Jak & Daxter games, I know I would.
Give me a from the ground up PS5 Remake of the God of War trilogy and Ascension.
An obvious Sony Japan game to redo is ICO, I'm sure that would be amazing redone for PS5.
@The3faces: Charging for those things is in no way Anti-Competitive from a company wide perspective buddy, you can chose not buy a higher priced product and wait until it drops in price, which is all but guaranteed to happen.
Even though I'm a fan of Sony's 1st Party games and exclusives I wouldn't just buy blindly because it's a Naughty Dog or Sony Santa Monica game, I'd check prices to make my money go further, because funds aren't unlimited.
Hogwar...
There's info about it on the PS Blog, but open world, set in New Caledonia, where the lead character can warp into animals and objects to control them.
Lots of exploration and solving mysteries about the game world.
Or maybe the gamers that have been satisfied with the many offerings for them will feel like praising a company making good products as PlayStation does IMO.
Buying one developer that makes one 3rd Party Multiplat and a few devs that have solid, exclusive relationships with Sony isn't the same as buying 2 3rd party publishers that have dozens of developers and make games that sell substantially better on PlayStation consoles to be under Microsoft's control.