Yeah , I liked when they were doing this during the early 360 gen and then they just stopped.
If Microsoft really wants to reach billions of people, it’s time to review some strategies and be more aggressive. Especially in Japan. Just guaranteeing games on the Game Pass after launching on other platforms is not a strategy that will attract this audience. Exclusivity seems to be the most accurate strategy to date. Microsoft has money for that.
Start funding games. Square Enix does exclusives for whoever is willing to pay so take advantage.
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Honestly, I think it speaks to how much of a different game Microsoft is playing from Sony, because if Microsoft wanted to, they could play the same game as Sony and absolutely win it, with the stupid amount of money they have.
imagine if instead of exclusivity MS negotiated with Square on FF16 on grounds of it can stay multiplatform, but it launches into gamepass on the Xbox side, and you give them a bigger check than Sony. Square still gets a very large check from a 1st party which it seems to love, and on top of that, the game still launches on PS5 where it’ll sell the majority of it’s sales.
Microsoft generally likes to position it’s deals with studios and publishers as a “win-win” and honestly in the case of Japanese publishers I can’t think of a bigger win then getting a very substantial bag of money (bigger than whatever Sony would pay you) to launch a game into gamepass, and then on top of that, have the game release on PS5 and PC where some 70-80% of the sales happen. This is likely how Square operates now because it’s a win-win for them with Sony, in that since the majority of their sales happen on Playstation they are more willing to take a Sony check, because they know once the exclusivity ends, Microsoft will turn around and write them a check for gamepass. Microsoft needs to actually flip this problem on it’s head, and if it takes giving these publishers a ridiculous amount of money, then so be it.
It’s going to take a lot of money for Microsoft to make headroom in that region, and they have the money, so they should actually do it.
I also think they should actually go through and do the 12|88 revenue sharing model on the Xbox store, because that would really hurt Sony’s bottom line, in that Sony would have no choice but to either pay more for timed exclusivity, or actually change the PSN Store revenue sharing split.
At this point the situation is what it is with FF. I would be curious if Sony locked down exclusivity on all of FF7R or if it’s on a game by game basis, because if it is, MS should absolutely try to ensure that FF7R part 2 launches day and date on Xbox, but if Sony did lock down exclusivity on the whole thing, Microsoft’s energy is better spent on trying to make sure all other Square JRPGs come to the platform, and they should continue to build relationships.
People like to view Square as having some sort of an allegiance to Sony, the reality is, they have an allegiance to money, and perhaps more than any other publisher in this industry, money talks with Square. Just like how Sony doesn’t need to buy Square to get what they want, neither does MS. Big checks need to start being sent from MS both for exclusive Japanese content, and to ensure that everything comes to their console.
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MS should try to just take Persona 6 off Sony. win win
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Outbidding Sony’s exclusivity deals for Gamepass deals would be an absolute master stroke on MS part.
And nobody loses in that scenario. GP users get to experience d&d while still heading to PS. Everybody wins if MS secures it for GP.
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Plus it would show the real contrast between their strategies. Contrary to what some would have you believe, timed exclusivity doesn’t add any real value to Sony’s console. These games were coming anyway after all. It just makes the other console look "worse " in comparison, which I guess is the point. Sony doesn’t really care about adding value as much as making sure they sell more than the competition.
Heres the thing…as the gen goes on…Sony won’t be able to make these big third party deals as much. Theyre getting deals in early to make up for their lack of 1st party in the short term. MS will make bigger deals as the gen goes on and a lot of these games like FFXVI will come to Xbox after a year anyway. So by the end of the gen Sony would have spent nearly a billion on these deals and they all go to Xbox anyway.
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Honestly, I think this is inevitably where the battle between Sony and MS is heading. The Xbox division is likely being careful with how they spend their money, but once Gamepass hits 50,60,70, hell 80 million subscribers, the amount of money Microsoft will be able to justify spending for content is going to grow.
I’d argue they should do that now to make the service grow more rapidly, but I think sooner or later, that will be the battlefield that Sony and Microsoft fight on with regards to 3rd parties. Sony will focus on timed exclusivity, marketing deals, and MS will focus on gamepass, and I think eventually there’ll be a breaking point where the amount of money MS is giving out for gamepass is too hard to ignore on that front.
Much like how indie developers are in love with gamepass because it raises the floor in terms of the profitability of their games, the same will happen with triple A 3rd party devs. Like right now, Sony is probably compensating Square and then some on lost sales from the Xbox side, but as the total number of gamepass subscribers grow, so too will the amount of money MS is willing to throw around for content.
These subscription services take money to make money, and I expect Microsoft to just put any revenue they make from gamepass, back into the service, to continue growing it.
At the end of the day, the money that a company like Square gets from these exclusivity contracts help with funding development, Microsoft approaching Square on say nieR 3 with a proposal of “we will fund this entire project for you, and all we want in return is launching it into gamepass” is one that would probably be very tempting.
It’s a very different situation to the Xbox 360, because in the 360’s case it was funding Japanese content to sell a box, in this case you are using Japanese content to sell a service, and that changes things quite a bit, becuase at the core of gamepass when it comes to 3rd parties isn’t exclusivity (usually few exceptions here and there) it’s about expanding audiences, and giving those publishers more business opportunities.
Eventually you launch enough games from any 1 genre day and date into gamepass, and a narrative will begin to form, and fans of that genre will start to question why they haven’t bought an Xbox or subscribed to GP yet. Something being available on Gamepass Vs having to pay 70 dollars for it on any other platform is something that just speaks for itself, and people will absolutely start to have second thoughts on their platform of choice if that becomes a common enough recurrence.
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There it is
You speak with wiseness, but we know SE management is bad, they’ll always choose fast money vs future investmemts, history is the proof, so MS can only buy them outright to secure their content, again, history is the proof even here, they have always flip flopped with Xbox much more than any other pub from that region, I don’t know why.
@javycane Team Ninja also seems to have neglected Xbox for good, I think that other than the cheap DoA 6, they didn’t put a game on Xbox since Ninja Gaiden 3, lmao.
Xbox gotta pay up for these type of games and they gotta stop waiting and praying that out of the generosity of their good heart that games show up on the console. This game seems like a work of Sony-Square-Team Ninja working together to make it happen so it is what it is. Sony is willing to make these deals and xbox isnt.
I get IP ownership is important but at the end of the day Sony doesnt really care and they will do everything they can to make games for their platform exclusive one way or another.
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Fucking hell, this sucks. So Sony will keep extending timed deals while signing new deals.
Honestly, between these killer deals they’re making and Xbox cross gen period, I’m really thinking about getting a PS5 first and wait till Xbox end its Cross gen period and hit it’s stride next year. Keep my Xbox One to play Infinite and Horizon 5
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If you were so concerned for Sony japanese deal you shold have priotised PS5, it is clear they’ll try the hardest over there, because it’s cheaper for them considering the minimal Xbox presence and also they have no more japanese studios, so…
They still have Sony Japan (Astro Bot team) and Polyphony Digital
Ok so a 1 game for gen studio and a vr game studio, it’s like apocalypse considering what Japan Studio represented.
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The problems is that while Sony is doing those killers deals, they’re also slapping a 70$ price tag on those said games… That’s ridiculous!
So on one side you have Sony offering next gen experiences + heavy hitting exclusives, while Xbox is offering the best console (spec wise) + amazing subscription services.
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Yeah, I know, here their games cost 80€ (96$), lmao. Fortunately I don’t really fancy too much jrpg or weird anime games, so I’m generally safe.
Maybe it’s high time that Microsoft start playing dirty.