Microsoft has responded to Sony’s objection to its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard by revealing that third-party games like Bloodborne, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, and Silent Hill 2 Remake are party to “exclusion” agreements that will prevent those games from coming into the game. Xbox devices.
The news comes as part of Microsoft’s response to the FTC lawsuit in exchange for its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In the filing, Microsoft is defending its position by turning the spotlight back on Sony, pointing out a few “high profile” games the company claims have been banned from being released on Xbox.
While the filing acknowledges that “exclusivity strategies are not uncommon in the gaming industry,” Microsoft appears to be taking issue with Sony’s partnerships with third-party publishers, namely From Software, Square Enix, and Konami.
“In addition to having explicit exclusive content, Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers that require Xbox to be ‘excluded’ from the pool of platforms on which those publishers can distribute their games,” the papers state (thanks, @employee).
Some notable examples of these conventions include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (from Software), Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix), and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remaster. [sic] (Team Blubber)”.
While there’s been quite a bit of back-and-forth between the two companies in recent months, this last sentence might come as a bit of a surprise, not least because – in the case of Silent Hill 2 Remake, for example – while we knew there were 12-month console exclusive period for Sonythe games were supposed to be released on other consoles after the exclusivity period ended… Xbox is no longer the case.
Right now, there’s been no word from any of the warring factions on whether we’ll see Silent Hill 2 Remake or Final Fantasy 16 pop up on Xbox Series X, but, as always, we’ll keep you posted.
Gamers were recently given a chance to give their opinions on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard In public consultation with the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
According to the CMA, it received nearly 2,600 emails, about 500 of which “contained offensive content (with no other substantive content), were blank and unintelligible, stated to be from consumers outside the UK, or were not in English.” “.
The CMA will now consider these comments, in addition to continuing its own investigations, before issuing its final report by the statutory deadline of March 1, 2023.
