The point of friction between Microsoft and the various supervisory authorities in the matter of taking overActivision-Blizzard seems to be the issue of exclusive. This is why Microsoft is committed to publishing call of duty on other platforms for 10 years while he claims it sony is quite used to depriving its competitors of headlines by resorting to exclusives that don’t tip the balance of power. At least that is what the American company pointed out to the CMA (the British organisation) last October.
When Sony wants to exclude the competition
This acquisition allowed us to discover many details about the industry and the practices of the major players, Microsoft and Sony. Thanks to the latest document forwarded by KoreaXboxNews and Eurogamer, we learn that Microsoft claims that some games presented as temporary exclusives simply will not be released on Xbox, despite what some of the community may think. All this because Sony would have demanded to exclude » the possibility of seeing certain titles arrive one day on Xbox :
” In addition to having purely exclusive content, Sony has also entered into agreements with third-party publishers that require the Xbox to be “banned” from all platforms on which those publishers can distribute their games.. Some important examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (Fra Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 Remake (Bloober Team). »
In the case of Blood bornenothing more normal to see Sony rule out the possibility of seeing the game released elsewhere since it is just released by Sony, but in terms of Final Fantasy and the next one quiet hillthat’s another story.
Excluded temporarily or permanently?
The twist of this statement suggests so Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XVI and Silent Hill 2 remake is not planned on Xbox at all, which may surprise some. Since these games are sold as temporary exclusives, there is a natural tendency to believe that they could come to Xbox after the exclusivity contract ends, although there is nothing to confirm this. The temporary exclusivity can only indicate that the game will come later on PC rather than another platform as we have seen with Final Fantasy VII Remake.
It’s a bit more complicated than that Silent Hill 2 remake. When it was announced, it was clarified that the game would be a one-year PS5 console exclusive, with a planned release on Steam as well. Which suggests that an output on another console such as the Xbox series was possible. What this document contradicts.
It’s hard to know if Microsoft is playing on words here and deliberately forgetting the mention of temporary exclusivity, or if this is real information that kills the idea of one day having Xbox versions of the mentioned games. . We are therefore awaiting clarification on this matter.