Interesting that this coincides with reports that Microsoft engineers are helping with the Series S version. MS doing everything possible to undermine playstation marketing.
I actually think this might be more so to have a PlayStation console exclusive out there to take away some of Starfield's thunder. Starfield releases on the same day
.
Sony & Larian looking to put the squeeze on Microsoft/Bethesda. Though that said, the dates now being the same for both games is more a funny coincidence.
Chances are the delay might have to do with Larian working with Microsoft to get the bastard child known as Series S running the game at an acceptable level, so Larian's optimization team is being spread. Judge Corley should be looking at things like this to see where the FTC and Sony's arguments/testimonies have foundations of truth in, because now PlayStation customers are being negatively impacted by bottlenecks on Microsoft's side.
That isn't very pro-consumer, that the Series S has so many needs for optimizing decent version of games that it can cause delays of those games on other platforms that customers might've taken time off work to play on the original release date, or delaying them receiving the product they've paid money for. These types of things hurt consumers, and that's with a game whose dev MS doesn't even own.
Now imagine the optics and impacts if MS owned Larian and this were happening. "Pro-consumer", but only for Microsoft's consumers. So do we say that's fair or not? If it is then Sony doing 3P exclusivity deals should also be considered fair. If it's not, then MS shouldn't be allowed to acquire devs & pubs making multiplatform games. If they make those games all exclusive, then we're back at square one and 3P exclusivity deals by companies like Sony should be perfectly fine, since at least in those cases the 3P isn't being taken off the market as an independent entity.