Sony Didn't Pay To Keep 'Cult Of The Lamb' Off Xbox Game Pass, Says Publisher

Ha. Fair enough if Sony wanna waste money on this. I bought it on Xbox anyway.

Paying for timed exclusivity is understandable, but this is on another level of immorality, if true. They're blocking it for PC and Console users. And why does a developer do that?

I would not believe everything I read on the internet. What might be the case, Sony adding the game to Extra next month in a temp exclusivity deal? Not unheard-of, although I personally hate it if true..

This is ridiculous if true from a game pass Subscriber perspective.

From a business perspective, that's a good strategy, keep the good games of the competitor service.

Well that's potentially 2 very good games that we most likely will never get on the service now. Residents Evil Village and now Cult of the Lamb

Sony have their full right to do that, BUT it might come back and haunt them in the end!

"Basically, Whitta claims that the PlayStation owner paid the developer to keep the title off Xbox Game Pass."

No sh*t Sherlock! This is Sony's MO, nothing to see here - just more scumbag-ery from them 😉.

Wasn't planning to buy this on xbox, but now I'm getting it and F Jim Ryan.

Now that the Sony pays to keep things off of Game Pass "news" is "out in the open', this is going to be it for the next few months, isn't it? Sony did this, Microsoft did that.

Newsflash: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo - hell, even Sega when it was still a player in the console space - have been making deals (both open and backhanded) and power plays for decades, just to f**k with their competitors. It's business. If it's not Final Fantasy exclusivity, it's Tomb Raider exclusivity, or keeping games off Game Pass, or throwing money around for some indie Xbox exclusive.

I'm not sure why people think these massive corporations are above such things just because they put customer-facing friendly individuals like Phil Spencer in front of us, telling us what we want to hear. The number one objective is to get you to spend money with a particular company.

If Sony has been doing deals to keep stuff off of Game Pass, more power to them. They're just protecting their concerns.

The publishers are stupid to accept money for not letting their games gain visibility and availability through game pass personally I will not buy those games when I know that they have made deals with the Sony devils.

If true, the (justifiable) animosity towards Sony would grow. I’m going to follow this story.

Option 1) Pay dev to put game on PSPlus. Adding value for PSPlus subscribers.

Option 2) Pay dev to keep the game off of Game Pass to keep the value of both Game Pass and PSPlus lower.

Sony: "Option 2, all day long baby!"

Just stop every future Xbox studio game including both the Bethesda and Activision group including COD, going on PlayStation. Might hurt Xbox a bit financially but they can afford it and may win it out long term.

@NeutronBomb I take it Ur British ? Cause that is one of the most British thing I've heard in a long time , I'll buy it on Xbox now to spite ya , good on ya

Thank you for the giggle

@Agnostic An easy way to understand the difference would be to ask a simple question.

Is the game on actually blocked from the other platform?

If the game appears on xbox platforms (which CotL does), then they haven't paid for exclusivity rights to the game. They straight up paid just to keep it off of GP. More to the point, CotL isn't even on PSPlus, so it wasn't even paid to be an PSPlus exclusive. It was just a block to GP.

Stray is an exclusive. CotL was blocked from GP. I mean, both can be bad, but the latter is far far worse.

"buying up companies and in many cases with a view to keep them off other platforms"

That's ownership. At this point, you own the IP and are in full control of what happens to it, and which platforms it gets published on. It's. Actually. Different.

If they are going to pay money to keep stuff off game pass why not use that money to put it in your own service then? The latter option gives the game more eyes, gets more people in the service, and makes said service a better value; the former just hinders that all around. Just makes Sony's bemoaning of the Activision/Blizzard deal even more laughable IMO. Instead of growing the industry and the reach to gamers they just wanna hinder it. Not forward-thinking at all.

Imagine, with ms vast wealth, if they practiced the same, paid timed exclusivity, paid to keep things off competing services, and studio acquisitions(okay, they're doing that). Sony wouldnt have anything, ever.
Enough about arguing over which billion dollar company is the underdog here, less than 5 days for Midnight Fight Express. The anticipation is at an all time high.

So we all believe rumours now? Yet never believe geff Grubb etc when they come out with rumours.

Fact is this is going to become more common, people starting rumours about sony, which until the devs say otherswise these rumours are false.

Also why pay for it not to go to gamepass if the game isn't even on playstation plus? Sony also had no hand in production or marketing of this game so it makes no sense at all.

Fair enough if this was stray or kena Bridge of spirits which they helped promote and asked for this is their contract, but no

@J_Mo_Money Because they're Sony, even the company seems to exist for the same reason their fans exist. They don't really love their favorite platform so much as they hate yours, and they simply want to control everything and are generally opposed to competition.

@Dezzy70

"Just stop every future Xbox studio game including both the Bethesda and Activision group including COD, going on PlayStation"

Why on earth would you want Microsoft to do that, as bragging rights for Xbox fans ?? It makes zero sense financially, especially on the big established IP's.
Sony 's just being Sony with this kind of deals.

Does Sony have marketing rights to this? If it turns out that Sony are actively paying Devs not to put games on gamepass they don't have marketing rights to, don't have timed exclusivity with, then this is a far bigger story than I thought...and frankly hard to defend against. Even if I was a Sony fanboy I would question how Sony paying to block something from gamepass they're not offering me, and don't have marketing rights to...as how's that benefiting me?

Absolutely agree with everything you said, @Richnj, and it also makes MicroSoft's strategy in outright buying Developers even more understandable; it completely prevents Sony from being able to undertake such practices (if true with) with the companies MicroSoft acquaires.

Ultimately, MicroSoft have the deep pockets that enable them to one-up Sony. So if Sony are indeed undertaking some questionable tactics, then they can only expect MicroSoft to respond in kind, or with greater impact. It's the old what comes around goes around malarkey

@Sol4ris So why should everyone play nice with Sony if they refuse to play nice with anyone else?

If this is how petty and competitive Sony wants to make things, I say so be it, go all in on this division, block everything possible from going to Sony, make it so they have to be as reliant upon their exclusivity as possible. If they want to live by that sword, the can also die by it.

Basically, because it is precisely the type of game that Xbox likes to have on its Game Pass, @EliSweetG. That, and it would likely have been a popular addition to the service...

@Royalblues I agree with you. Sony should have paid very well to cover the revenue that would come from game pass.

@JayJ I mean, the old business model worked for Blockbuster right? Evolution is gonna happen one way or another, all these companies better get used to it.

@UltimateOtaku91 not many here saying they believe the rumours, just having a conversation about the rumour. There’s a difference so no, we do not all believe rumours now. If you think this is some strange conspiracy against Sony and it’ll continue, like you imply, I don’t know what to say to you. It’s not like other companies don’t have rumours surrounding their practices but because it’s Sony and they’re so precious to you here you are 😄

@UltimateOtaku91 "which until the devs say otherswise these rumours are false."

It's highly likely that if the dev is in a deal with Sony, that they are under an NDA. So if it's false, then we could expect the dev to say so. If it's true, then the dev couldn't say it was true or false without legal trouble and will have to stay silent.

@Fenbops rumours are always flying around about various companies either it be sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision and rumours about game releases or acquisitions etc, but you tend to notice especially on social media that if it involves sony then people say it must be true and act like it's true

Ever since that "document" leaked saying sony paid to keep stuff off gamepass there's been a whole social media campaign against them with "rumours" popping up almost every day, yet no evidence to support anything, whoever leaked that document knew exactly what would happen

@SplooshDmg Considering they had Gaikai ages ago and what-not they better start building for the future instead of being resistant to it. Change is coming whether they like it or not. Better be ready.

@Fenbops Well, considering leaked documents during the apple/epic court case flatout showed they payed to keep RE8 off of Game Pass and this idea got revisited when brought up last week during the Brazilian thing when it was spoken about again, we already know for a fact they do that. If people want to hide their heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist that's their problem, but getting mad that other people are talking about it just makes said individuals look foolish.

Sony sure loves to operate in the negatives... Exclusive is one thing, but paying to drag the industry down and hold back innovation is a whole other thing...

@Richnj I agree if there's a deal in place for marketing or part production funding, like resident evil 8 and final fantasy 7 remake I fully believe that sony did pay for those not to come to gamepass/xbox at all due to a deal to help fund/promote said game.

But cult of the lamb makes absolutely no sense as sony didn't promote or help fund it, plus its an indie and not a multi million seller that will help sell consoles or subs

Throwing these rumours around about sony paying them not to be on gamepass is going to become more common with every game that doesn't come to gamepass

@Sol4ris
Just for fun of course 😂

Hasn't Sony done this a few times already?

Sony has been paying extra to keep games off of Xbox and competing platforms for a long time, Microsoft has from time to time as well. everyone is aware that exclusivity is a central pillar of Sony's business model. fair enough. the problem is when Sony tried to complain about the possibility of Microsoft doing exactly what Sony does ALL THE TIME (remember, a lot of people think Sony will end up owning Square Enix, and if they do, no one thinks Final Fantasy will ever leave Sony platforms ever again). it's the hypocrisy that's setting people off here lol

@SplooshDmg and by that time maybe the nintendo switch will have a better online infrastructure because most games are gonna be cloud only for them the way its going lol

@UltimateOtaku91 "like resident evil 8 and final fantasy 7 remake"

Well, my personal stance is that exclusivity (time, full, marketing, whatever) is worse for AAA, established brands than it is for indie or new/smaller IPs. Games like COD, Resident Evil, FF, GTA, etc, do not need platform holder money to support the project. That's just greed in these cases, on both the publisher and platform holder's parts.

Stray, Tunic, Deathloop, Ghostwire, I can totally understand why these would need or seek the extra help.

@Bleachedsmiles

"If it turns out that Sony are actively paying Devs not to put games on gamepass they don't have marketing rights to, don't have timed exclusivity with, then this is a far bigger story than I thought...and frankly hard to defend against."

I don't know mate, want to bet against Sony fans doing the defence duties? I know I wouldn't 😁. By the way there is precedent to Sony paying developers to block games from GamePass, the Capcom files breach regarding RE Village and Microsoft mentioning similar cases in the Brazilian ABK take over papers.

As a developer, you'd take this extra money right now, as Sony are the market leader and you are still selling the game on Xbox and PC.
Obviously, if the tides continue to turn, suddenly these developers think twice about making such a deal with Sony.

@Agnostic clearly because you aren’t.

The issues here is that Sony isn’t even putting it on PS+. Which by the way had no premium games for this month. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/08/ps-plus-premium-deluxe-officially-adds-no-new-games-in-august Doesn’t that sound spiteful? I mean I think most can understand if it went straight into PS+ and wasn’t on GP. Assuming the rumor is true.

@J_Mo_Money good point about RE8. Forgot about that.

@Richnj I think sony probably hounded square to make final fantasy 7 remake and square probably said they would do it if sony help fund it.

But the rest of the games you mentioned I agree with, I have no idea why capcom would take the money due to how popular resident evil is, but then again apparently they took as little as £6 million from nintendo to make monster hunter rise a timed exclusive.

@UltimateOtaku91

"Ever since that "document" leaked saying sony paid to keep stuff off gamepass there's been a whole social media campaign against them with "rumours" popping up almost every day, yet no evidence to support anything, whoever leaked that document knew exactly what would happen"

With Sony’s track record and the Capcom file breach its not exactly hard to believe that these "rumors " might actually have substance to them, this not something unheard as you are well aware.
And your suggestion is what exactly, wait until Sony publicly admits payments to keep games off GamePass, I mean really 😉.

@mousieone that's what doesn't make sense about this rumour that it isn't on ps plus.

Why would sony pay for this game not to come to gamepass instead of using that money and paying for it to be on playstation plus extra/premium

Unless, and this is just me guessing, that sony have a deal in place for it to be included in with the next playstation plus essential free games

@Sol4ris well until that happens I will assume otherswise, but when if e evidence does come to light that sony are paying games to stay off gamepass in which they also had no deal to promote or fund said game either then I will call them out for it.

If sony did help fund/promote a game they also paid to keep off gamepass then that's just part of their contractual terms.

Though if sony didn't help fund/promote a game that they paid to keep off gamepass then that's called bribery and deserves to be called out for

@UltimateOtaku91 "apparently they took as little as £6 million from nintendo to make monster hunter rise a timed exclusive"

That's dumb as rocks. Rise would kill it as a multiplatform (with xbox and PS) cross play title. Even with the lower end graphics.

@Richnj had to find it just in case I was mistaken lol

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/12/nintendo_paid_around_usd6_million_for_monster_hunter_rises_timed_exclusivity_on_switch

@Richnj makes you think you would have to be insane not to take deals that cheap, surely sony paid more than that for street fighter 5

@UltimateOtaku91 That's not even £6m, it's $6m. That's even worse.

Thanks for the source.

@SplooshDmg you're probably right, just hard to believe sony would do that over an indie title which is also a new ip, a game that's only £20 and from a developer who's games don't really sell "millions".

Id understand if it was a AAA/AA title like the mentioned resident evil village etc

If this is true then sony have wasted their money

@Royalblues you are correct

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/11/sony-acquires-minority-stake-in-publisher-devolver-digital

But 5% surely ain't enough to influence what they do.

Unless sony said "hey we will invest 5% into you in exchange to keep games off gamepass"

@Martsmall Yeah you got me.

@UltimateOtaku91

"well when that happens I will assume otherswise, but when if e evidence does come to light that sony are paying games to stay off gamepass in which they also had no deal to promote or fund said game either then I will call them out for it."

And how would "that evidence" come to light, via a statement from Jim Ryan you suppose 😅? Look, I can see how you are a Sony fan but your approach on defending them borders on ridiculous - social media rumour campaign against Sony, wait for evidence etc, etc.
Without the Capcom breach none of us would have ever known about Sony’s deals until Microsoft mentioned it in the ABK take over papers.

@Sol4ris evidence like more leaked documents or developers themselves confirming it or from former employees from those games etc

Otherwise rumours are just rumours, and anyone can make up stuff.

@SplooshDmg you're right, just saw it on gematsu, maybe il see indies in a different light after this 😂

Heck it's already sold more than Returnal 😬

@UltimateOtaku91

"evidence like more leaked documents or developers themselves confirming it or from former employees from those games etc"

So basically you are saying wait until a security breach happens at a game developer or some former employees scared sh*tless by NDA and Sony’s wrath to find out about these Sony "bribes", yep got it.

...yes I can see how this approach would suit your views perfectly 😅.

@UltimateOtaku91 @SplooshDmg Wow, I wouldn't have thought CotL will perform so well sales wise.

I am not questioning the quality of the game/developer (Devolver), but for a seemingly niche title featuring a cute-but-evil lamb, those sales are more than noteworthy.

@Sol4ris so what? We just take all rumours as true?

The only people that lose here are the gamers, or “for the players” as Sony would self-righteously say 😡 The game is great, but a lot more people could have got to play it if it wasn’t for Sony’s underhand tactics. I was torn on whether to buy it on PS5 or Series X…so glad I chose Series X now.

I think this is a load er rubbish. Surely MS would pay the devs more to put the game on Game Pass than Sony would pay to keep it off? Why would any devs accept Sony’s offer???

@HarmanSmith seeing the positivity around it, the reviews and those sales figures is definitely making me want to play it, i played wytchood and cozy Grove and it's got a similar style but they didn't sell this well.

I think the horror/cult aspect is helping it a lot

@SplooshDmg haha yeah I try to play e every jrpg that comes West as long as its not 2D like live a live etc

But I agree some indies feel more polished and bigger budget than most jrpgs like kena Bridge of spirits, Stray.

Indies seem the perfect games to play in between jrpgs as well as they aren't long games compared to say xenoblade, star ocean, disgaea etc which take 50+ hours.

@UltimateOtaku91 I guess so! Strange times we live in, eh?

I am interested in the game. And, hey, like many have said before, this game looks like a classic example of "a perfect indie for Game Pass". I even thought it would be released day on the service (I was confused, of course, neither MS nor Devolver say it would be that way).

@UltimateOtaku91 It's not just the document, it's Microsoft openly using it in their defense in a court of law. Now, they could be held in contempt for false claims if they don't have documentation to back it up, and we can be pretty safe to assume Microsoft and Sony both have the best lawyers money can buy, and both have demonstrated they do for 30-some years, so I'm pretty sure if it weren't true, Microsoft wouldn't be making the claim in court, or if they did Sony would be ripping it down, charging libel and defamation, demanding reparations, and using it against them with their own documentation. So it's pretty much a lock that the "Sony buys blocking rights" thing is 100% fact. Sony not defending against the claim in court tells us this. We just don't know if the rumor of it occurring for this game specifically is accurate or not.

Thus discussion of the practice - not paying for exclusivity, not paying for a game's marketing, not even paying to block a competing platform, but paying to block how a competitor is or is not allowed to distribute a product they distribute is.....questionable. It's tampering with a competitors supply and distribution for money, directly, with no benefit to one's own product other than having hampered the competition's success. There's.....legal questions to be asked here.

This would be like Walmart paying Apple to prevent Amazon from shipping their phones with Prime free shipping. It's a back-door way of not securing content exclusivity and preventing it from existing on another platform, it's a way to force the competitor to not be able to use their best value sales channel for a particular product. There's very questionable legality involved if so. In some ways it's "better" than true exclusivity, but it's also more legally dubious.

Aside from that though:
"I think the horror/cult aspect is helping it a lot"

It's like all gamers are just total edgelords forever. I thought shopping at Hot Topic as a mandatory gamer uniform was a thing of the past.

@UltimateOtaku91 Returnal is an indie game! Sony didn't buy Housemarque until after the game released. They had exclusivity/funding/publishing duty, but the studio was independent when making the game.

Dirty Work From Sony As Always 🤯🤯😤😤 So It turned out Microsoft said Right...

@SplooshDmg How's XC1 going for you btw? Sounds like you're really feeling it?

@SplooshDmg i suppose I don't mind 2.5D games, like the new trails from zero I'm definitely getting that and I want to get triangle strategy at some point and disgaea 6 plus the new "suikoden" looks neat.

I also play multiple jrpgs at a time or move onto new ones making my backlog bigger, I think that's the problem with being big jrpgs gamers, they take so long to complete and they release easily 10-15 jrpgs a year that I want, let's say that's 40 hours per game average so I'd need 600 hours a year at least just for jrpgs 😭

Its a curse I tell ya

@NEStalgia wow that's probably the best looking indie game I've ever seen then, yet it sold so poorly. Surely the difficulty didn't put people off as elden ring has flourished on its difficulty.

Maybe it was a mistake not to make it cross gen

@UltimateOtaku91

"so what? We just take all rumours as true?"

No we do not. What we also don't do is dismiss rumours as out of hand, especially were is precedent to them. Furthermore people discuss rumors, its how it is. Hope that helps.

@SplooshDmg yeah especially with valkyrie elysium, diofield chronicle, made in abyss, new star ocean coming this year as well. Might have to rely on reviews to see what I get first

@SplooshDmg Anything's legal as long as you can afford it. Laws are purchased. And both companies exemplify that (Gawd, what Sony's done via MPAA/RIAA over the years is ghastly. I'm convinced anyone that thinks Sony's anything less evil than MS, Google, Facebook, or Tencent just doesn't know about anything in their history of controlling MPAA/RIAA.)

However, I think the consolidation is drawing a lot of attention from governments and watchdogs, and some of these wild west tactics are going to start coming under a lot more scrutiny. Heck, the Fed is considering going after CC lending banks for predatory interest rates yielding outsize profits (while the Fed itself is raising base rates!) Funny how hyperinflation and recession triggers a sea change in regulation....

I'm glad you got hooked early on XC. The hot open at Sword Valley isn't slow, but when you hit Colony 9 at first, that's probably the slowest part of the game. Once you head out into the world, the hits just keep on coming, and they don't stop when the credits roll.

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah, I mean granted they had Sony infused cash and talent, and I'm sure the buyout was already on the table so Sony was giving extra "free" help, so it's a bit of a special case, but it's not that outside what would happen in a true indie game with a big publisher signed on like how all games used to be made. And, good as it looks, it's also a good example of doing a whole lot with very little. It's a procedurally generated roguelike, so there's relatively little actual content that had to be made for it compared to your run of the mill AA or AAA. And that's Housemarques M.O.

I think the sales are a mix of things. PS5-only hurt it with the hardware constraint for sure. I do think the difficulty hurt it. Elden Ring is "souls" and "souls" is famous and a social media echobox. I wouldn't be surprised if for every one souls fan that bought it because they love it, 2-3 bought it because they keep hearing everyone go on about it but don't actually end up liking it. Returnal is a new IP, is a roguelike, and it was $10 more expensive than Elden Ring, the open-world "RPG" of a famous brand series. The price did it absolutely no favors, and that was predictable before launch. If they sold it for $45 they could have doubled sales or more. At $70 people only buy sure-bet wins. A big Sony tentpole like GT7, sure. A new IP roguelike known for difficulty? Not much.

Heck, though, even Ratchet sold only "ok". I think more than anything we're seeing the effect of the price points. If it's not a big hyped must-have blockbuster game, sales are sluggish.

@UltimateOtaku91 Until I read the leaked Capcom document point for point, I'd agree with you. Now, I know they do this kind of thing in exchange for marketing or other things like that. Which could be here, and that's a losing situation for PS owners. I mean there could be an option to put it on the service later but again from the leaked document it was only the option not the guarantee. The money went to marketing and other things like that. Which still makes sense, instead of paying the fees to be featured on the PS Blog etc, those are waived but your game can't go into GP for a year. From dev's point of view, it's still a win, and from Sony's point they are technically providing compensation for it. It's just from a "Gamer" standpoint, it's a bad deal.

@SplooshDmg oh yeah I forgot that one, from the direct trailer it looked pretty good visually, but that was probably PC footage, I've recently been playing rune factory 5 which is similar and that performs really bad

@Tasuki starfield would've been multiplatform if Microsoft hadn't bought Bethesda so whilst they'll be keeping select titles multiplatform (most likely the multiplayer focused ones with micro transactions) some games will be exclusive due to the fact that Microsoft payed to buy the publishers , this articles just click bait anyway lol

@SplooshDmg Rockefeller and "rebates" comes to mind. Didn't Sherman already outlaw that?

That's what's wrong across the board everything is already illegal but unenforced, making everything legal, so that whenever someone with power doesn't like someone they just bring up whatever they're doing that's already illegal.

"Everything is permitted..." Who knew AC started as a documentary about publishing.

@Would_you_kindly well if the ‘rumours’ were true, Starfield could have originally been a PlayStation exclusive since they offered a ***** ton of money for exclusivity, before MS outright bought Bethesda. So maybe even then it wouldn’t have been multi platform. Who knows.

@Would_you_kindly

"starfield would've been a PS5 timed exclusive for at least 1 year via money-hat if Microsoft hadn't bought Bethesda"

There fixed that for you mate 👍. See two wrongs don't make a wright....lol 😉

@SplooshDmg rf5 just runs soooo bad. Almost ys9 bad. How it's exclusive I don't know...

Good game, is a shame, but almost unplayable.

@Sol4ris where did you get that information I really doubt they'd have got timed exclusivity for a game as hyped up as starfield is

@Fenbops I really doubt they'd have got timed exclusivity for this one with how hyped up it is but if they were willing to pay an astronomical amount of money for timed exclusivity I don't see how that's different to Microsoft paying even more to just buy the publisher outright & making it exclusive that way

@Would_you_kindly

"where did you get that information I really doubt they'd have got timed exclusivity for a game as hyped up as starfield is"

Oooh I don't know, maybe these obscure IP's like FF16, FF7 remake 😁 plus Deathloop and Ghostswire Tokyo would have been quite an indication. Although it gives me exactly zero pleasure that Microsoft decided to make Starfield exclusive - for the record.

@Sol4ris I think FF & other jrpg are pretty niche in the west & as far as I'm aware the series is supposedly synonimis with the playstation brand , deathloop & ghostwire don't have nearly as much hype surrounding them as the 'skyrim in space' game

@Sol4ris Well we all know they're always moving the goal posts...this will be no different.
I think Sony had the marketing rights to REvillage though...anything they're paying to market I've nothing against them also blocking coming to gamepass whilst they have those rights...I mean it would be pretty stupid paying to market something that's hitting on gamepass day 1. So blocking those games is a non-story

Blocking games they have nothing to do with though...that's a different matter. And pretty desperate from Sony. Shows they must really be worried about gamepass

@Would_you_kindly

"I think FF & other jrpg are pretty niche in the west & as far as I'm aware the series is supposedly synonimis with the playstation brand ,"

The FF Series is as big as they come in the West as a JRPG, albeit they kinda lost their identity with FF13 and FF15 a "bit". But no the series are not synonymous with PlayStation since the PS2 generation. Not until Sony decided to make with their exclusivity deals. Game Pass has/had quite a few FF titles. Like I said before two wrongs don't make a wright and this should not be competition between what company is less sh*ty.

@SplooshDmg My display doesn't have frame interpolation darnit! (Soap opera mode!) And I mostly use my Switch handheld...... it could not save those games for me I'll play Ys9 streamed from PS4 to my phone in a Kishi....it's still way better than the Switch version, but nothing can safe RF5. Shame, it's a good looking game that doesn't need to run so bad. Although that's normal for RF. RF4 originally a 3DS exclusive, and a 2D game would have EPIC 1991 arcade bullet hell shmup level 3-fps-slideshow battles.

@Would_you_kindly FF is the #1 JRPG franchise in the west, although, I'm not sure I'd even call it a JRPG anymore, and the dev's back during 13 specifically said they were NOT trying to make an RPG. I really don't know what it is anymore. Narrative adventure action game, or something. But FF is more mainstream in the west than it is in Japan where DQ always clobbered it in sales (DQ is practically a holiday there when it launches were a lot of schools and businesses close, knowing that a lot of people will be "out sick" that day, lol)

It used to be synonymous with PS back in the PS1 and 2 era, because it was exclusive, but it's been multiplat since PS3/360 until FF7R and 16. But even Crisis Core (a PSP game) is coming to XB. It started on Nintendo. The only reason it went to PS was because of CD-ROM on PS1 and Nintendo sticking to carts on N64, so it was a "natural" exclusivity due to the optical media/storage functionality of PS at the time for only 2 generations. But most of the series high points were during those 2 generations so for older gamers it's associated with PS. For younger gamers, other than FF7R, not really. For very old gamers, it'll always be a Nintendo game

@SplooshDmg I don't get the input lag argument, really. Any game that depends on input latency like Splatoon and fighting games should be 60+fps out of the box anyway, so it should be a non-issue.

I actually just started using Switch Bluetooth recently and found it works well. Latent AF, but functional. And the latency probably helps if using frame interpolation

@NEStalgia I don't know how popular jrpg's are I always assumed they aren't that popular outside of Japan , people always say the 'casuals' & games like cod & FIFA are where playstation makes the majority of it's money & never mention final fantasy as being what people buy Sony's console for

I know that business is business and they only look out for number one. However, I don’t give a rat’s a** about them either. I like to play stuff in my service of choice, which is gp. If i have a chance to play something and it gets blocked by some other party and they won’t even want it for themselves, but to ruin it for everyone, then that’s just cheap, dirty and childish. Seems like this is the logic at play here: I can’t afford having it, but i can afford to break it so no one else will play with it either. I don’t know if this is true, but it does seem to fit the Jim Ryan MO perfectly and wouldn’t surprise me. Newsflash to the competition: wanna beat gp? Work for it! This is not working for it, it’s a step back!

I really don't get why they would pay to block it from Game Pass when it's not even a exclusive. I mean I guess I see it on a corporate point of view, but might as well invest that money to make it available in Playstation Plus day one. Win win for everyone. Sony is really doing the same bs that made them lose the X360/Play3 generation.

Womp womp womp unsubstantiated rumour is false shocked

@NeutronBomb still buying it now it's confirmed it's not true ?

So we at least got confirmation "blocking rights" doesn't apply to this game. That's nice, though it still doesn't change the conversation about the existence of that practice, it removes it from this game's conversation.

@Would_you_kindly FF isn't going to compete with FIFA and CoD any time soon for the biggest casual market and the biggest slice of revenue for the platforms, but it's pretty massive all the same among "core" gamers. It's definitely in the top tier of important franchises, and is why Sony is putting big, money up to secure at least tentpoles from it as exclusive. I'd argue it's a more "mainstream" franchise than, say, Elder Scrolls.

@SplooshDmg IDK much about the XB headset, but does it have multipoint pairing, and could it be paried to your PC/XB/Phone at the same time as the Switch? I've noticed it can be interrupted if it's paired to another device.

For the tinny sound, what protocols does the XB headset support? If it supports AptX or something maybe that's a difference, Switch only supports SBC, the old garbage one. But not too many headsets for gaming and the like license AptX so IDK. Or maybe it's about BT5.1?

Wait, TVs have Bluetooth now? I have a breakout box splitting the HDMI audio to a wired amp with HPs with a full 1/4" jack. Or for portable, I just go with BT.

I'm so out of touch with TVs. I game on monitors, but the last TV I bought I think was around the time the PS3 launched. I remember stacks of them at six hundred ninety nine US dollars on a floor display around the demo TV when I was shopping

Well, there ya go. Not true, it wouldn't make sense for this game anyway. It might be great but I doubt it'd be on Sony's radar for GP blocking.

It doesn't make sense for sony to pay for some games to not on gamepass only, pay it for psplus or to be exclusive games? Sure, but pay it only for not on gamepass? Yeah, I don't believe it.

"Devolver Digital, which publishes Cult of the Lamb, has since reached out to The Gamer about this story to state that the rumour is "absolutely untrue" and Sony didn't pay to keep the game off Xbox Game Pass"

Oh dammit, I was actually expecting Devolver Digital to come out and actually confirming this to be true, say just like Capcom did with RE8😉...I jest lads don't get too worked up😅.

I was hoping it’s true because the drama that unfolds would’ve made for great reading.

@Kanaletto Well obviously it doesn't count in this instance now, but the general thought process of Sony would be this.

1) PS consoles sell more than Xbox consoles.
2) Titles on PS platforms generally sell far more on PS than other platforms.
3) GP Day One releases could cause gamers to play these titles on Xbox GP instead of purchasing on PS.
4) So block the GP Day One release to maintain the first year sales income.

Xbox isn't a threat to Sony's income, but GP (and even PSPlus) is. So that's the platform they are trying to fight against.

So it’s not true…but it just goes to show exactly what people think of Sony in thinking they (Sony) were completely capable of such a move.

I ain't gonna front....I think it was a fanboy to fan the flames of bad publicity Sony has been getting as of late.

These comments (especially the earlier ones) aged horribly already. 😂

@Nightcrawler71 It's already a fact that Sony does engage in such a move (both from the Capcom leak and the legal battle in Brazil), it's just that they didn't in the case of this specific title.

@SplooshDmg Bluetooth for soundbars? That's got to be the worst idea I've ever heard. Why use a lossy compromise wireless audio format for a quality speaker system when the speaker is never more than 5 feet away from the appliance to connect it wired and avoid that?!

@Sol4ris Sony paid for marketing rights with re8 why would they want to pay to market a game that could be on a competitors subscription service lol

Well there you go 😉

Case closed

@Would_you_kindly You need to follow this logic through. If they wouldn't want to pay to market a game that would be on Xbox Game Pass, why did they pay to market a game that was also for purchase on xbox?

@Richnj well the games the same price on both consoles but it being a part of gamepass could mean people with both consoles that would've bought the ps version might've decided to just play it on Xbox because of gamepass

@Would_you_kindly And if you were such a gamer, would it better for you to buy it on PS or play it through your Xbox GP sub?

Xbox lies alot. Lets move on. Companies that are confidant in there games simply sell them outright and will make a deal down the road when sales stagnate

@Richnj with resident evil 8 for me it's definitely better to buy it because I love resident evil & like to own them all but it's not about consumers it's about weather or not it would make sense for Sony to pay for the marketing rights for a game that can go on its rivals subscription service & it wouldn't

@Would_you_kindly But we aren't Sony. We aren't Nintendo. We aren't MS. We are the gamers. We are the customers.

If Gamers would still buy the games as often, then Sony has no need to block competitors, but we, and Sony, know this isn't the case.

We as gamers heavily benefit from that choice, between buying a game outright or "renting" it through a subscription. That's what benefits us the most, and that really should be where we stand up for our own choices, for the things that benefit us the most. Sony, MS, or Nintendo aren't going to do it for us.

Sony are actively engaged in strategies that reduce our choices as customers. We shouldn't be sticking up for them. They have the money and power to do it themselves.

The only reason they give us the choice of "buy it on Xbox, or buy it on PS", is because they benefit from it. They don't benefit from "play it on GP", but we do...

@Richnj I'm not really a fan of subscription services tbh I prefer to just buy the games I know I want & try demos for games I'm on the fence about (not timed trials that are part of subscriptions)

And there it is. Once again gamers got their pitchforks out early casting blame where there was none. What a suprise. 🙄

@Would_you_kindly That's fine. I don't find a lot of value in them either. I have cancelled them all so far. I'm going to try GP again when it gets the family pass.

But there are millions of gamers who do find value in the subscription services. And I can't say I particularly like the idea of a company spending money to reduce the value that paying customers get from their services.

@Would_you_kindly

Way to miss the point mate(almost obtuse, no offence), but good for you and keep up the good fight 👍.

Kinda funny is such a ***** show...

Rumor on update: Sony paid DD to tell everyone the original rumor was "absolutely untrue".

This site, along with push square, continue to drop the level of their reporting to a point where you need to triple check anything you read here, as absolute bs gets printed here as if its genuine news.
Its a real shame but I find im going elsewhere more often for my news and articles as I cant stand the over reaction click bait sites that these are rapidly becomming.

@JaaackTommm
Well about 50% of this website is a "we hate Sony" cult. Barely a post goes by where they or PlayStation isn't mentioned somewhere. And the writers love to fan the flames and fuel them. It gets them clicks.

@Titntin
Out of interest, got any good sources? I'm tired of these dedicated sites too, it's come to a point where the news is little or irrelevant and a lot of commentors are aggressive.

I stopped visiting IGN years ago and eurogamer, they all became unbearable to communicate with. And Reddit and Twitter, even worse.

It was just a rumour, but the fact remains that no one would be surprised if Sony pulls something like this off, that speaks volumes alone.

The comments over at PS are hilarious, some of them actually believe this is a social media campaign to bring Sony down, they truly live in a vacuum, like some huge organised conspiracy 🤣 Social media is a cess pool with rumours about everything and every system but oh no Sonys the only victim. They’re reaching North Korea levels of dedication to their leader over on the other side. It’s funny to see but also really really sad.

Wow. Some of you clearly don't understand what the meaning of 'rumor' is, which was in the title of this article before the writers updated it.

I'll help you out:
Rumour: 'a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth'.

They've updated it now and it's not true. You wouldn't be moaning if it had been true, now would you?

@Titntin how was it reported as genuine news if it originally had 'Rumour' in the title?!

Why do articles about Sony being evil get more comments on here than positive news?. Why is an xbox website always reporting rumours about Sony?.

The two issues I have with this rumour, is firstly how it is being associated with Xbox. By that I mean it was said by someone that has absolutely nothing to do with Xbox, and yet you would think that it was Xbox/Microsoft that said it.

Secondly, it seems that because this particular rumour has been debunked, some seem to think that this completely disproves that Sony have ever done such a thing. I have absolutely no evidence to say that Sony have paid to keep stuff off the Game Pass(though the fact that MicroSoft have officially said as much does give some weight to it having been done), but this rumour being debunked does not prove definitively that Sony has never done it either.

@FraserG Thank you and keep the good work!

Karma is really going to deal Sony PS a raw deal they never bargained on one of these days, it's coming no doubt. I was a uge PS gamer for many years but Sony's greed became unsustainable to me, hence I decided to leave them for the right reasons. Their lame excuse now to add insult to injury why they don't want to add day one 1st party releases on their gaming service like XB is doing, just adds more fuel to the fire, talk about insulting their players' integrity omg. Forcing one to pay exorbitant prices at $70 for its exclusives is just not worth it anymore, and it's going to catch up with them sooner than later. Already many PS gamers are outraged at Sony for doing so and being so greedy, and they need to feel it in their pockets. So justice should prevail and Sony forced not to be so greedy, shame on them. And any PS fanboy here on this XB site not happy about this comment, can just go back to your PS sites, it's time we call a greedy spade a spade, period!!!!!!!

@uptownsoul and Sony fans will assume it isn’t true even if it is.

if it's true that sony pay third party publishers to prevent cool games to arrives on streamings services 1# it's not cool 2# they will lose by doing so they dont have enough money and 3# they should put some rules in gameindustry to not allowed this kind of contract it hurt gamers, business, sony should not be allowed to prevent contract with third party that way.