Smoke and Mirrors. Paid exclusives are not a long term strategy. Xbox has Gamepass that created another revenue stream that developers won’t be able to take advantage of if they skip Xbox. Also the shear price of Bethesda 7.5 billion makes a 20 million dollar Sony money hat seem like a low ball offer. Companies will need a bigger check to justify exclusives or it will look like incompetent leadership (Square, Persona)
One thing I like and dislike at the same time about all these so far announced games is that we know so very little still.
For Starfield I don’t mind it because it’ll be June before we know it and speculation is fun, exciting. A full reveal this year is a guarantee and that’s great. But we don’t yet know about the rest. E3 could potentially be amazing, it already will be fantastic with Starfield but with games like Hellblade 2,Fable, Avowed, Compulsion, maybe inXile etc… its potential seems almost endless. Hopefully it’s indeed the E3 where we’ll get a lot more clarity on these games, hopefully footage too.
Fable I’m guessing is still too early for a full reveal where we see in-game material, but Avowed sounds like it’s ready if we go by what was said last year by Sponger, NateDrake and of course Jez himself having seen the game. Out of all these games I’m probably most excited about Avowed, after Starfield obviously. Please let the silence cease soon.
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I’ll believe when I see it, as of now they could get what they want outside Starfield, imagine how small are the odds for SE and Atlus games on Xbox. Also spending less and getting an equivalent yearly output is proof of bigger clout and influence, not of being cheap. I also don’t like Sony’s way, but it’s undeniable they are fighting back with all their might, they are not being complacent. Imo many people underestimate Sony 1st party (mixed with their 3rd party partnerships, stronger than Xbox, we must be honest) ability to match Xbox now bigger 1st party portfolio.
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I don’t think announcing games far out is going to be the norm tbh, like many have said it’s because they had to announce stuff otherwise people would be like why buy a new Xbox they have no games. There could easily be games that we don’t know about that will release this year after only being announced and shown at E3. Going forward I’d expect them to not announce games so far out so much but they will still do it but just not to the extent they have now.
It’s nice to have something to look forward too and I’m sure they’ll announce things 6 months out, 12 months and some even 24 months out but like I said those announcements probably won’t be everything.
My theory is they would announce the game at the previous year’s E3 then the E3 of release year go in depth, but there will be a mix of announced at E3 and released 6 months later and even announced at The Game Awards and released 6 months afer.
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I think we actually are in agreement, with the difference being I think Sony’s clout and influence has largely disappeared it’s only a few allies remaining. Whereas the biggest players in the industry are partnering with Xbox. Sega, Ubisoft, EA. Then there is the Sony self own of shunning CDprojectRed for temporary social points but making an enemy of a major player in the industry rather than simply implementing a simple reimbursement policy. The tides have changed and this is not the PS4 generation. Sony is just smoke and mirrors.
This is true, that gen ended before starting, both Xbox and Nintendo completely botched their reveals, lol, it was literally free reign for Sony.
I still think in the future we get CGI announcements for games coming two even three years before release, but I also think that it won’t be a big deal because I expect them to be intermixed with a lot of gameplay of games coming in the following 12-18 months(probably starting from this E3).
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Yeah I still expect that too, put it this way if they can get away doing it without many games it sure as shit going to be ok when they’re releasing games haha, it’s all about a balance.
I would argue Sony is making major mistakes now that Nintendo and Xbox are not. Roblox skips PlayStation probably due to their excessive cross play requirements. It’s yet another self own by Sony.
It mirrors Genshin Impact skipping Xbox because of their meager Asian presence.
I can’t speak on Genshin because I have zero interest in that game. I agree that Xbox audience probably wouldn’t support or be interested in that game. You did remind me of another odd PlayStation exclusive that I enjoy Fall Guys. I kind of love that game 
Epic Games was a powerful ally for Sony to make. But Epic is just about Sony’s only western ally left. Maybe activision will lean a bit more towards Sony after Phil’s latest comments but still unknown how Activision wants to play this new generation.
Activision is already firmly in Sony’s camp since last gen, I’d argue also that EA is 50:50, they support GP, but their most valuable game, FIFA, is heavily PS marketed, Epic, yeah, it’s a problematic Sony ally for Xbox. But until nothing of value is really lost, no big deal (even if COD and FIFA marketing are big deals, like when they were on Xbox camp).
Coming back to 1st party output, my take is people make the assumption: Xbox has more studios=more games, but A Sony has a bigger ability to secure high profile exclusive deals B their organisation, while smaller, is more experienced and already in place. So I’m expecting mostly a ~1:1 yearly output, all things considered. This if Xbox does not add up something big.
??? Its one of the biggest games on earth with one of the biggest support’s by devs there is. Xbox fans would play it the moment it drops on the console quite simply cause its a good game.
This just a myth on the levels that if Nier dropped on xbox nobody would support it.
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Making generalizations like that is weird to me lol.
I’m sure the Xbox audience would love to have a game like Geshin Impact or FF14 online on their platforms. The vast majority of Xbox/PS users have the same exact audience/taste in games.
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Yep, not having it on Xbox is mostly on MS, I seriously doubt it’s moneyhatted in any capacity.
Usually, the moneyhat would be on third party and timed exclusive. It’s more apparent today’s age because we witnessed a relationship with the publisher and then all the sudden, not anymore, like Final Fantasy. 14 is a different story though.
Stalker got delayed to December. 
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I will never understand devs not porting a game to Xbox because it’s too expensive or not enough support apparently. It’s not like Xbox has an install base of 50,000 worldwide and costs tens of millions to port a game to Xbox, there is probably more factors into it, could be Xbox/Microsoft’s side or the developer.
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