The battle between Sony and Microsoft in the video game business has become increasingly heated in recent months, thanks to Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. While the transaction is not approved by all regulatory bodies, continuing to uncover behind-the-scenes secrets of the video game industry.
In recent months, both Sony and Microsoft have revealed several market secrets through lawsuits sent to regulatory bodies and this week, we discovered that the Japanese giant was responsible for preventing four major games from ever being released on Xbox.
One of Sony’s main arguments to try to prevent Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard is the possibility that Call of Duty, one of the most lucrative video game franchises, becomes exclusive to Xbox, which could easily put PlayStation’s hegemony and dethrone it from the second place in the leading companies of the market.
The big problem is that Sony has a “glass ceiling”, which means that Microsoft will use all the weapons at its disposal to counteract the rival’s accusations and get approval.
This week, the Redmond giant published a response to the lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, highlighting the body’s strange position of wanting to protect the market leader rather than consumers. Microsoft published a similar response to the UK CMA a few months ago and it apparently confirmed what many gamers already suspected.
When Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced, it was revealed to be a timed exclusive, including a countdown of how long it would remain exclusive to the PlayStation. This led many Xbox fans to hope that the game would eventually come to Microsoft’s console, but unfortunately, that simply wasn’t the case. It appears that Square Enix’s “temporary exclusivity” periods only pertain to the PC versions of their games, as FF7R is now available on Steam for Windows.
In response to the UK regulator, Microsoft revealed that Sony also has permanent deletion agreements in place for games like Bloodborne, Final Fantasy XVI and the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake, preventing them from ever being released on Xbox.
In addition to having completely exclusive content, Sony has also entered into agreements with third-party publishers that require the “exclusion” of Xbox from the pool of platforms on which those publishers can distribute their games. Some prominent examples of these deals include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix), and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remaster (Bloober Team).
It is worth mentioning that none of the studios mentioned by Microsoft or Sony have taken a position on the permanent blocking of games on Xbox, but if the information is true, the hopes of many players will be dashed.
For now, we still don’t know what the regulators’ verdict will be on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but at least in the UK, most consumers consider the opportunity good for the market.
Did you expect to play any of those titles that Sony blocked on Xbox?
