MLB The Show 21 launching into Game Pass Day ONE

Not what I said; Sony taking money from Microsoft to put a game on gamepass while charging their customers for said game is absolutely screwing them over, but that didn’t happen here. MLB got paid/convinced by Microsoft to put it on gamepass.

I doubt MUA was developed in less than 2 years.

Plus we don’t know when Sony went from being able to develop a game based on the Spiderman franchise to having direct control of the char.

But we do know they have because Marvel said so, and Square also said that due the movie rights putting Spiderman in the game would have to be exclusive to Playstation or nothing at all. These facts are not speculation, only why Sony was given full control (though that is pretty clear)

I see the difference but even if that was the case I don’t think it’s screwing.

Screwing would be if due the result of Ms payments the Playstation users got a worse game/deal than they would have got.

I agree, nothing was taken away from PS-only players. They probably don’t feel great about the situation, but if this deal hadn’t happened, they would have been in the exact same position (barring behind-the-scenes stuff I can’t know like hypothetically “the devs have to split their attention to develop on another, unfamiliar dev kit”).

It seems to me like a win for everybody involved except for Sony’s image but, in a vacuum, only obsessives like us will know about the situation or care. Not to say that this can’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for some people, of course.

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It’s like you bought something at full price when your friend had a discount because he bought it in an other store.

You’re not screwed because you would have bought it anyway and because that is the store you’re used to, but I can see people feeling robbed because they could have got it cheaper.

And when there is some good deals on PS4 but not on Xbox One for the same third party games, It’s kind of screwy to be honnest.

MLB 21 feels like a really good deal on Xbox, that’s for sure.

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Tim ain’t wrong it can happen again this brings up the Indiana Jones and spiderman ip

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There is a definite pattern forming of Sony being a bad business partner to work with. Spider-Man could still be a pawn that Marvel uses to get back at Sony for their fractured relationship over the films.

A few examples…

Sony thinks they can money hat Bethesda, so Microsoft buys them.

Sony thinks they can remove CdProjekreds Cyberpunk from their store yet maintain a relationship with the company… yeah right Microsoft is no doubt inking future deals with CdProjectRed.

Sega is very much partnering with Xbox and releasing Yakuza at a torrid pace on Xbox after reports of Sony bribery https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/lorgi7/yakuza_creator_toshihiro_nagoshi_was_removed_from/?utm_source=BD&utm_medium=Search&utm_name=Bing&utm_content=PSR1

This Mlb The Show Gamepass deal with Xbox is likely the result of false promises Sony made to MLB and much like Sega with Yakuza, MLB found a way to get back at Sony.

A bit off topic so apologize but the worst thing Disney could have done was collaborating with Sony on Spidey. Because essentially Disney made the character reach his peak popularity thanks to their inclusion of him in the MCU. By doing this, they have, destroyed their chance of getting Spidey back ever again. After the Garfield Spiderman series was a disappointment, things were looking bad for the IP. And honestly, Disney (MCU) didn’t need Spiderman. Disney should have stayed away from collaborating with Sony and let them run that IP into the ground. Disney could have had a chance of buying that IP back in the future. They were on that path until Feige and co pretty much saved them. Now, no way in hell does Sony ever sell it, if the chances before were 5-10% or less, it’s now 0.1%.

And if Disney has another bad breakup with Sony, I can see them becoming real petty and trying to do the same to Sony with their Spidey IP gaming license. Which could be good news for Xbox.

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Yea I think its a matter of time before spiderman shows up on Xbox again

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Theres no way theyre gonna put the game on those services. They’ll lose a shit ton of money.

PSNow is a joke anyway. Theres 0 PS5 games on it. Even games like Borderlands 3 and Avengers are PS4 only. YOu can’t upgrade either. If Sony put MLB on PSNow theyre only hurting themselves. If their PSNow sub was as good as Gamepass sure. PSPlus their sub is obviously high but you’re gonna get rid of a huge revenue from the games sales

For sony its simple

Just trust in your userbase to go out and spend 70 bucks or 60 bucks on the game for your own system.

Which they will. The sony fanbase is one of the most loyal out there. You couldn’t pay them to buy an Xbox.

I can play as Spiderman on Xbox right now. By Playing MArvel vs Capcom Infinite…but I won’t because the game is awful

There is the Lego stuff

Rdx certainly was interesting start

This whole thing just makes Phil look and smell of roses.

MLB publishing the game meant he could go straight to them and offer a deal they couldn’t refuse. It probably wasn’t cheap but boy that was a shrewd and “take no prisoners” type move. He absolutely knew it would be a bad look for them. I’m sure internally Sony can’t really be happy about this.

This no doubt is a deal that was worth every single penny. The amount of positivity it has brought Xbox (while simultaneously bringing a huge amount of negativity to Playstation) can’t be overstated.

And yes, this can absolutely also happen with Spiderman. Interesting times ahead.

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absolutely it was a genius move

Yea Phil really found a way to screw Sony over without screwing customers over and adding value to Xbox gamers.

This whole thing is hysterical how Sony paints themselves in anti consumer corners by being a bunch of douche bags

Sony handled this situation pretty poorly, given that sony had such a long relationship with the MLB its pretty unbelievable that such a thing happend. I guess sony did not expect the MLB and Microsoft to do this otherwise sony would of put some clause into the initial development contract with the MLB that prevents the game being available on subscription service.

Im glad xbox is being agressive because competition is good but I don’t think Phil will be doing this to actively hurt playstation, then again I wonder how true Phil can be when he says that both sony + microsoft can succeed and he does not like the “war” like nature. Its a bit of a contradiction, at some point in the gaming business if you want your company to succeed your competition has to fail in some areas.

While aggressive, like you said it doesn’t take anything away from PlayStation. If PlayStation fails here it’s merely a failure in not offering the same level of value.

Part of this feels like it’s almost a way of making it up to people loyal to the Xbox who were not able to play the series. They did the same with Yakuza.

Switching gears a bit I’m wondering if EA is going to reconsider how they roll out EA Play. In a sense this move to bring The Show 21 to Gamepass on day one changes everything. Everyone is focused on the fact that it’s a Sony title on an Xbox platform giving away for “free” but a new sports title on a subscription service is unheard of.

And I’m also sure that there are conversations about turning sports titles into a GaaS where the barrier of entry is reduced and the game’s development and profits are coming straight from high volume MTX. If the show ends up getting 7 million players on Gamepass who played consistently and buy into the microtransactions, there could be industry wide reverberations.

So I see this as uncharted territory in many ways.

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Certainly plausible ideas. An alternative that may happen is less 3rd party day1 gamepass releases when XGS’s start releasing more content. However I could see a partnership with EA growing.

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