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Sony Seizes Upon Redfall PlayStation 5 Removal Controversy in Battle With Microsoft

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Sony is not happy about the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recent provisional approval of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and has highlighted the apparent removal of a Microsoft-owned game from being developed on the PlayStation 5. According to legal documents submitted to the UK government, Sony has taken issue with the watchdog's sudden change in opinion - the CMA's position was highly critical at the start of the year - and suspects that Microsoft's expensive PR campaign and submitting of "new evidence" to international competition regulators have influenced a change in direction of rulings. Sony's statement bears down on the unfair nature of the bid's approval: "The CMA's reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational."

Japan's Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) was the latest anti-trust governing body to give the takeover a thumbs-up, almost two weeks ago - a dramatic turn of events given that it happened on Sony's home turf. The embattled electronics corporation has taken notice of fresh developments in the press, and proceeded to mention controversy surrounding the Redfall platform war. Harvey Smith, the game's creative director, let slip too many details during a promotion tour and seemingly admitted that the higher-ups at Microsoft's Xbox division had decided to can the PlayStation 5 version of Redfall in favor of keeping it exclusive to Xbox, Game Pass and PC. Arkane Studios, as part of the ZeniMax Media Group, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021 - and certain games, already in development, were later released on the PlayStation 5 as timed exclusives, Deathloop being a prime example of this.



Sony's statement makes the following argument with regards to the Redfall debacle: "Just last week, two days before the Addendum was published, on 22nd March, video game trade publication IGN published fresh evidence in the form of an interview with Redfall's creative director, Harvey Smith, that provides additional insight into Microsoft's strategy." Another much larger and contested franchise is brought in: "Like Call of Duty, Redfall is a first-person shooter game that features both single player and cooperative multiplayer modes. In his interview with IGN, Mr. Smith explained that Redfall was originally planned to be released on all platforms, including PlayStation, but once Microsoft acquired Bethesda, there was a huge sea change...(Microsoft) said: No PlayStation 5. Now we're gonna do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC."


Sony concludes that Smith's admission provides: "compelling evidence of Microsoft's ability and incentives to foreclose rivals to acquired games, together with its likely conduct post-transaction with respect to Call of Duty." Sony proceeds to level more criticisms at the CMA, regarding the fate of the CoD franchise under possible Microsoft ownership, including a strange argument about deliberate gimping of future PlayStation conversions. Microsoft has offered a sort of olive branch in the form of keeping CoD multi-platform for 10-years, but has snidely remarked that Sony should bury all concerns about an unfair skew in market share. The North American juggernaut is of the opinion that the PlayStation arm of Sony has the financial means to produce an alternative and exclusive IP to rival Call of Duty. Regulatory bodies have until late April to make final decisions about the proposed Activision Blizzard takeover - the feud between Sony and Microsoft is expected to reach very ugly heights in the coming weeks.



Redfall arrives exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 2, 2023. Pre-order now or play with Game Pass for exclusive content - visit Redfall.com to check it out.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Odd way to present this news.

There is little Sony can do. Ownership means MS are free to do what they like. They are also free to buy more publishers if they like.

The sudden U-turn after all the lobbying looks terrible certainly. But its also the current status quo in the UK. Even if essentials (food, utilities) have risen well above inflation against wages.

Discussion around the weird deals, exclusivity etc. is just a diversion. There only 2 possibilities: Ownership or no ownership.
 
"Mommy! I dont want to share!"

Sony is such a baby.

They are also free to buy more publishers if they like.
subject to approval still.
 
Sony would be doing the same exact thing if they could...I hate when these companies make claims, even implicitly, that they have ANY ethical concerns
 
Odd way to present this news.

There is little Sony can do. Ownership means MS are free to do what they like. They are also free to buy more publishers if they like.
Sony can provide evidence to regulators that Microsoft's intent in purchasing a common supplier of 3rd party software is to foreclose Playstation, because it's exactly what Microsoft already did with Bethesda.

That's illegal, per the regulators' own laws (at least the big 3).
 
meanwhile ps3, ps4, and ps5 exclusives
rules for thee but not for me
 
Sony would be doing the same exact thing if they could...I hate when these companies make claims, even implicitly, that they have ANY ethical concerns

Doesn't make them wrong, just hypocritical

meanwhile ps3, ps4, and ps5 exclusives

Compare market share and you'll see they don't mean all that much, the big difference is really quality and buzz around each game. Sony has been able to produce great exclusive games to promote the platform year after year, Microsoft has consistently failed at it and now decided it was just easier to buy most major publishers instead of competing on their merits.

They say Sony can produce an exclusive to compete with CoD, cool story, but can't they do it to? It would seem they can't...

For me these kind of acquisitions come down to what will you be able to do acquiring the company that you can't do without it? Oh it's just about cornering the market? Ok then, denied!
 
Screw Sony. After they removed Linux from my PS3 after I had already bought two of them EXPLICITLY FOR THE LINUX SUPPORT they can suck a dick. I won't buy their products, watch their movies, or support them in any way.

I can't WAIT for this deal to go through. I hope it does make Sony fold.
 
As I understand Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media still operates largely independently from Microsoft, and honestly, their secondary publishing arm rarely make interesting games - we all love Bethesda due to the works of their core studio, led by a certain eccentric game developer. If Redfall on PS5 was canceled, then it's more than likely that it didn't have any input from Microsoft - same as Mojang still operating on their own pace and capacity. It took them years to even begin migrating their own account system into Microsoft's, and this came because Mojang wanted to improve its dated account system with a more robust platform.

8b6.jpg


Well SONY I want my Final Fantasy 16 on the Xbox, but it gets blocked by Sonys exclusivity...

This! PC version and without year-one exclusivity.
 
Sony is just salty. They've closed down multiple studios over the years, and even if they have some good games today, compare their output to the 2000s and you'll see just how many series have either faded or flopped. Less time spent censoring games, more time making good games, and you might see the money flow in again.

However, microsoft is WAY too big for their britches, they have a history of extending then extinguishing, and their behavior in regards to censorship alongside pushing spyware and draconian speech measures is just as worrying.

I hope they both go under.
 
Didn’t PS have a lot of exclusives? Now with the common programming it should b easier to make games…..
 
Exclusivity is inherent with competition and innovation. Nothing bad about it.

Standard textbook stuff in university if you get to study innovation/competition. Anyone can read these books.

The juvenile nature of anti-exclusivity arguments comes across as repeating MS's lobbying uncritically. These biggest tech firms are a massive drain on competition and innovation the past decade. But hey at least we got Crypto in that time! :laugh:
 
Odd way to present this news.

There is little Sony can do. Ownership means MS are free to do what they like. They are also free to buy more publishers if they like.

The sudden U-turn after all the lobbying looks terrible certainly. But its also the current status quo in the UK. Even if essentials (food, utilities) have risen well above inflation against wages.

Discussion around the weird deals, exclusivity etc. is just a diversion. There only 2 possibilities: Ownership or no ownership.
I believe that is the premise of the whole ordeal, Sony doesn't want either party owning the studios. Sony doesn't want to own them nor does it want to be shut out. I understand where they're coming from, it happened to a company I used to work for, competitor bought a supplier we did business with not long after they stopped doing business with us citing new policy changes only allow in-network accounts, "in-network" meaning "pay to play." Wrong? Yeah. Legal? I dunno, guess who you ask/ has better lawyers but pretty sure if the company knew the competition was going to pull such a dick move they would have tried something like Sony is doing now. It's Capitalism. Sony to be the next Sega?

Edit: I'd also like to add this overall situation is just a slow-motion repeat of Apple vs Blackberry/Microsoft/Motorola/Nokia c. 2006. Microsoft is probably using that very same updated playbook to bring their walled garden into fruition and people are just letting it happen.

Besides the correlations, it's interesting to look at the contrasting points. Nintendo has already established their own out of survival, while Microsoft is being more Imperialistic about it. So one will be "you come to us because you cannot get it from anywhere else" the other'll be "you come to us because you cannot go anywhere else."
 
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As I understand Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media still operates largely independently from Microsoft, and honestly, their secondary publishing arm rarely make interesting games - we all love Bethesda due to the works of their core studio, led by a certain eccentric game developer. If Redfall on PS5 was canceled, then it's more than likely that it didn't have any input from Microsoft - same as Mojang still operating on their own pace and capacity. It took them years to even begin migrating their own account system into Microsoft's, and this came because Mojang wanted to improve its dated account system with a more robust platform.

View attachment 290836



This! PC version and without year-one exclusivity.
About your meme, so All games running unity or Unreal engine are just mods? The 1 engine per game era is far gone.

But back to the news, the funny thing i find with Sony is they don't want Microsoft to do what they are doing. "They could do the thing we are already be doing and that wouldn't be good for us"

like other people said, it's ironic.
 
Sony where's my Ghost of Tshushima PC port? I do't trust either company. The deal being approved is a joker, but Sony has no leg to stand on either. They would do similar things. So sick of these mega takeovers.
 
Everyone mentioning Sony's exclusives seems to be overlooking that it's not an even playing field. Microsoft doesn't care about Xbox exclusives and is putting everything on PC - in order to gain gaming market share over Sony, not as some sort of goodwill gesture to players. They still sell a Windows 10/11 license and ideally a monthly Xbox Game Pass subscription on PC, the only thing they lose is the Xbox hardware sale which they claim to barely break even on anyway. Sometimes gotta take a step back and keep an eye on the big picture.
 
Sony where's my Ghost of Tshushima PC port? I do't trust either company. The deal being approved is a joker, but Sony has no leg to stand on either. They would do similar things. So sick of these mega takeovers.
Not sure how Ghost of Tshushima is relevant to the Activision/Blizzard acquisition? Sucker Punch have never published any PC or XBOX games.
 
It is funny that Sony Playstation’s success have always been built around exclusive titles. Sony themselves have been in a shopping spree over the last few years to soak up game studios to further strengthen their exclusive titles. I think they failed to check themselves before putting up a claim that competition is not “playing fair”. Exclusive titles are bad, but then again, if I find an “exclusive” title on Xbox, chances is that I can find it launch on day 1 for PC as well. On the other hand, exclusive games on PS may never end up on any other platform. It is only in recent years where we see Sony opening up for PC ports, but that is after 3 years before that happens.
 
Everyone mentioning Sony's exclusives seems to be overlooking that it's not an even playing field. Microsoft doesn't care about Xbox exclusives and is putting everything on PC - in order to gain gaming market share over Sony, not as some sort of goodwill gesture to players. They still sell a Windows 10/11 license and ideally a monthly Xbox Game Pass subscription on PC, the only thing they lose is the Xbox hardware sale which they claim to barely break even on anyway. Sometimes gotta take a step back and keep an eye on the big picture.
They wouldn't or weren't going lose that hardware sale to begin with, since since a PC gamer usu owns another console, and if that console isn't an Xbox, having the title on PC grants them a sale they wouldn't get otherwise.
 
I think this is more Sony testing the waters; if MS is allowed to move as they are doing, then there will be nothing stopping Sony from doing the same. Supposedly, Sony is looking into buying more game companies too, pending this MS acquisition, and will likely leverage the arguments made in favor of MS' buy to help leverage their own future acquisitions. If MS doesn't want to play fair and keep an open publishing on PlayStation, then Sony probably won't bother either for Xbox, and we'll be back to timed console exclusives again, and the movement towards crossplay would be blunted again.

Granted, Nintendo is already in their own walled garden with very few games ported over to PC, so it wouldn't be surprising if Sony decides to take a similar path given Nintendo's own success.

If anything, Sony acquiring more IP also opens the way to more multimedia deals if they so decide, as Sony isn't just purely a tech company, unlike Microsoft.
 
Sony - *called it*
 
It is stupid to try to hold call of duty away from PlayStation because we know that call of duty been out since 2003 on PlayStation I see if call of duty was a new IP like red fall and they was talking about keeping it exclusive okay I see that
 
Doesn't make them wrong, just hypocritical



Compare market share and you'll see they don't mean all that much, the big difference is really quality and buzz around each game. Sony has been able to produce great exclusive games to promote the platform year after year, Microsoft has consistently failed at it and now decided it was just easier to buy most major publishers instead of competing on their merits.

They say Sony can produce an exclusive to compete with CoD, cool story, but can't they do it to? It would seem they can't...

For me these kind of acquisitions come down to what will you be able to do acquiring the company that you can't do without it? Oh it's just about cornering the market? Ok then, denied!

Sony does produce exclusives but a ton of their exclusives are with developers they flat out bought or just have a really close relationship with. Same holds true for a lot of Nintendo exclusives.
 
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