Are you looking to one day playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Xbox platforms? If so, you might be in for a long wait, as a new document via the UK’s CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) as part of the on-going Microsoft-Activision acquisition has Microsoft stating that Sony has entered what it calls “Xbox Exclusion” deals with certain game companies.
- Related Reading: Final Fantasy 16 ESRB Rating Surfaces, Marks It as M17 for “Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes”
The part of the filing that mentions this specifically lists Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy XVI, and even the recently announced Silent Hill 2.
Exclusivity strategies are not uncommon in the games industry and other market participants have access to their own content.238 Both Sony’s and Nintendo’s exclusive first-party games rank among the best-selling in Europe and worldwide.239 Current Sony exclusive content includes prominent first-party titles such as The Last of Us, Ghosts of Tsushima, God of War, and Spiderman. 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 VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered (Bloober team). 240 Nintendo’s exclusive content includes well-established globally famous and iconic franchises such as Super Mario, Zelda, Xenoblade, Pokémon, and Animal Crossing.
Mind, the document also lists Bloodborne in it, which is a Sony first-party title, which was co-developed with FromSoftware. If what Microsoft says is the real deal, then this means Final Fantasy 16 won’t be available on Xbox anytime soon as well, which is a bummer for non-PS5 owners.
It looks like more dirt will be slung because of the Microsoft-Activision acquisition, and once we know more info like this one, we’ll let our readers know.
Thanks, KoreaXboxnews!
They’ve already said the final fantasy 16 exclusivity is only for 6 months – – not at all the same thing is buying the damn company…
Thats for PC… or did you not know? The game wont ever come to xbox.
Exactly. Buying the company is paying for the entire development of a game, they pay rent, salaries, healthcare, food, holidays, parking etc etc etc and they get an exclusive game for taking on that risk.
Paying to keep a game off a specific platform, gives nothing to consumers and is no risk at all too Sony.
Final Fantasy 16 would exist without Sony paying for exclusivity. Square Enix is just so risk averse they will take a dollar from anyone for anything. Sony uses their market dominance to get an exclusive deal for Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Street Fighter (5), and so on. Consumers gain literally nothing and it is hurting the Xbox brand. When it comes to Antitrust and anti-consumer practices, Sonys behaviour over the last few years is going to look very good for Microsoft if it goes to court.
Disingenuous. There is literally no risk with cod. Just like with minecraft. Minecraft, like cod, was not a risky untested startup. It was already a proven success. Your arguments can all just be turned around to say the same for Microsoft. But instead of smart business deals and positioning, they are just trying to throw their money around to buy everything and force them into exclusivity. Cod is by far the biggest shooter franchise. Halo is already silo’d to Xbox only and… Noone cares. But forcing cod onto one system is like saying you can’t have a Windows PC if you have an iPhone. Pretty big deal.
Lol so the doing behind closed doors deals is worse then Microsoft continuing support on other platforms but also doing the same? You’re a window licker
Regardless, Sony has many more established 1st party publishers and even more 3rd party exclusives. Sony moves more than 2 times the amount of consoles, Nintendo moves even more than them. Why won’t there be a Demon’s Souls 2? Sony. Why won’t there be a Bloodborne 2? Sony. How long has Microsoft tried to get Sony to play ball with the concept of Cross Platform play, Forever. Diablo 4 is already on the PS Store for pre-order. Microsoft is about making money. Will they have Exclusives, Yes, will your precious CoD be one of them? I highly doubt it. And if it is buy an Xbox. I bought a PS3 just to play Demon’s Souls when it came out.
Actually it’s Xbox that has prevented many cross platform games, like ff14
Good for you that you bought a ps3. Also no one cares. Not everyone is in a financial situation to buy multiple consoles. Microsoft is clearly not smart enough to match Sony in business decisions, so they’re just throwing money at every company hoping to buy them all and create a monopoly. Elder Scrolls… OK. Not the biggest deal. But COD is the biggest FPS ever. Waaaah demon souls waaahhh. Cry more – there are plenty of Xbox exclusives. But none of them have the size, profitability or power as the COD franchise. Minecraft is already one of the top selling francises and also Pokémon. Neither are Sony. Check your fanboy bias
I imagine it’ll go to PC though but not Xbox
Just goes to show how uninformed they are though… Bloodborne was made by From Software WITH Sony’s “Japan Studio” (a first party team, now defunct) and Sony owns the IP so that one shouldn’t even be listed 🤷♂️ and FF is the same thing as when Microsoft buys games with a “PlayStation Exclusion” deal (something like Dead Rising 3 springs to mind)
Really? Not Halo or Gears of War?
A similar situation happened with Sega and Atari in the early 2000’s. Although they were not “purchased”. The way the industry was going was not something they could afford to keep up with on the hardware side of things. So they became third party developers and continue to be to this day. You can play Sonic on every console Nintendo has released since GameCube 20 years ago. That’s the modern day equivalent to playing God of war or Ratchet and Clank on an Xbox. No one seemed to care and the gaming industry continued on like nothing happened.
This is Microsoft pulling the old checkmate and, understandably Sony is trying to convince a court to keep them in business and competitive in the next generation. If Sony had enough money to buy up all of the game manufacturers that we care about, Microsoft would be saying they are essentially a monopoly like Sony is right now. Xbox Game pass is an amazing service and is available on PC. For $15.. 1/4 the price of a new game, you can play any game in the library for a month. They are even in talks to bring the service to the Switch while also bringing some games from Nintendo to Game Pass.
If Sony was smart, they should understand that they have the better hardware with the PS5. They should be getting with the future like Nintendo is and trying their best to cut a deal to get game pass available on the PS5. That would give Microsoft the games subscription service. Sony gets to sell substantially more consoles to people that don’t want to build a $2500 PC, and Nintendo gets the handheld/portable market. Not to mention the consumers get access to 10 times more games they thought they would never even get to play.
Come on Sony is innovative. Microsoft can’t even get motion control right. Ahah Xbox still uses batteries and the ceo of Microsoft (Bill pervert Epstein gates) wants all of us not to eat beef. They grabbed Microsoft money and with no strategy but greed is buy up everything and corner the market. Xbox<Walmart They false advertise is just one of many bullshit they say. How u gonna have a supposedly more powerful console but not have any fun games with performance dips. XBOX has u Hypnotized by the color green like mountain dew u suckaaaaas.