MICROSOFT has revealed that a number of PlayStation’s most popular games have an exclusivity deal for Sony’s consoles.
As part of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, the company must prove that it will not create a monopoly in the industry.
It has been argued that if Microsoft purchases the company, it will own an unfair proportion of large studios within the gaming industry.
However, Microsoft denies this and has been quoting major titles that rivals, such as PlayStation, have over Xbox.
According to Eurogamer, the company has revealed new information about exclusivity deals that PlayStation has signed with third-party publishers.
Documents provided by Microsoft claim that games such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, Silent Hill 2 Remake, and Bloodborne, will never be released on Xbox consoles.
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This is because PlayStation has apparently signed an exclusivity deal with third-party publishers such as Square Enix, Konami, and FromSoftware.
It was previously believed that these games might come to Xbox consoles after a period of time, but it appears this isn’t the case.
The filing from Microsoft states: “In addition to having outright exclusive content, Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the ‘exclusion’ of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on,
“Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Bloodborne, the upcoming Final Fantasy 16, and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered [sic].”
In particular, it was believed that the Silent Hill 2 remake would eventually be released on Xbox after an exclusivity period on PlayStation consoles.
While exclusivity deals are not uncommon in the gaming industry, Microsoft is pointing to these deals to prove that PlayStation is a strong competitor in the industry.
With Sony’s large range of both first-, and third-party PlayStation exclusive titles, Microsoft believes that even if the acquisition goes through, PlayStation will continue to be able to compete with Xbox.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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