Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who twice denied a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) request to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, upheld Sony’s focus on exclusive content for PlayStation consoles.
Microsoft complained last year that Sony signs deal with Square Enix and Konami banning game releases Final Fantasy XVI, Remake of Final Fantasy VII And Remake of Silent Hill 2 were released on Xbox. Sony is said to have reached an agreement with publishers to remove the Xbox from the list of target platforms. Exclusives have also been talked about a lot in the US Court, and now they’re making a comeback.
The judge confirms the actions of the Japanese company in recently released documents. It states that Sony sees exclusive content as key to PlayStation’s success. Therefore, he is willing to pay other developers and publishers not to release their games for Xbox or to release them later (for example, a year of exclusivity). The judge concluded that this was the reason for the competitive advantage.
“Sony offers a lot more of its own exclusive games and third-party games than Xbox. The company has a huge competitive advantage because it can use the intellectual property of Sony Music, Sony TV and the Sony cinema library to develop games.” this is stated in the document.
There are more exclusive games available on PlayStation than games available on Xbox: For every Xbox exclusive, there are eight PlayStation exclusives.“.
The documentary also mentions Bethesda when Sony paid ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company) for limited-time console exclusive use for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Microsoft worried that this bribery could happen with Starfield as well, and instead bought ZeniMax from Bethesda for $7.5 billion.
At the same time, the FTC’s biggest fear in court was that Microsoft could only release Activision Blizzard games on its own platforms and not include the PlayStation, as it did with Starfield. Especially Call of Duty. However, Microsoft eventually signed an agreement with Sony. This ensures that Call of Duty will be released on the PlayStation for at least 10 years.
Sony CEO Jim Ryan understands Starfield’s Xbox exclusivity and does not view the move as anti-competitive. From his answer it was clear that he did not like the subscription Game Pass. Microsoft puts their games there on release day and tries to offer players interesting stuff from other publishers/developers.
Source :Indian TV
