Gaming commentator @JapanHatesXbox sheds light on Xbox’s parity clause with Sega

[Vertigo]

How many “copies” do you think SEGA agreed to sell their games to gamepass for? It probably wasn’t much and selling 100k of the same game on PlayStation is still where they’re gonna make their money.

Sega could eventually be absorbed in a few years after Microsoft is done ruining Activision and Bethesda but the gamepass deals don’t really indicate that to me… it just seems like the only way they could’ve ever made money on Xbox to begin with. No one buys games

 

[Plextorage]

Atlus has been trending towards more multiplatform and/or worlwide releases in recent years, this was never going to be the case.

This is true actually. So i dunno how much supposedly MS/Sega deal has a weight ( probably to put it in Gamepass) when Atlus wanted to go multiplatform ( they've started it putting Persona games on PC at first).
But anyway, who at Sega signed a deal with MS is an idiot

 

[Old Gamer]

Hey guys,

Yep, it's all true. I'm doing my best to follow up on the story and have some promising leads. A few game journalists and developers I won't name have been sharing info with me as well.

My hope is that I can cause enough of a stink to get this deal torn up. There is no reason why games like Unicorn Overlord, which has such a limited reach as is, has received an xbox port. It's literally insane.

If games like Monster Hunter Stories and Gundam Breaker can't find an audience on xbox, how the HELL has xbox managed ports from Vanillaware and atlus?

It just doesn't add up. Something somewhere stinks to high heaven -- And it all points directly to a deal of this nature.

Did anyone share if MS has "friends" in SEGA's board of directors?

 

[JAHGamer]

Hey guys,

Yep, it's all true. I'm doing my best to follow up on the story and have some promising leads. A few game journalists and developers I won't name have been sharing info with me as well.

My hope is that I can cause enough of a stink to get this deal torn up. There is no reason why games like Unicorn Overlord, which has such a limited reach as is, has received an xbox port. It's literally insane.

If games like Monster Hunter Stories and Gundam Breaker can't find an audience on xbox, how the HELL has xbox managed ports from Vanillaware and atlus?

It just doesn't add up. Something somewhere stinks to high heaven -- And it all points directly to a deal of this nature.

Keep up the great work sir

 

[Thirty7ven]

Hey guys,

Yep, it's all true. I'm doing my best to follow up on the story and have some promising leads. A few game journalists and developers I won't name have been sharing info with me as well.

My hope is that I can cause enough of a stink to get this deal torn up. There is no reason why games like Unicorn Overlord, which has such a limited reach as is, has received an xbox port. It's literally insane.

If games like Monster Hunter Stories and Gundam Breaker can't find an audience on xbox, how the HELL has xbox managed ports from Vanillaware and atlus?

It just doesn't add up. Something somewhere stinks to high heaven -- And it all points directly to a deal of this nature.

But… why?

Sega wasn’t forced to do this and whatever financial arrangement they signed was in the interest of both parties.

 

[JAHGamer]

So what should Sony do to prevent this?

Do what Sonys done the last 30 years, be proactive, something that Jim/Hermen clearly aren’t good at. Almost everything they’ve done so far this generation has been reactive, in a horrible way!

Atlus has been trending towards more multiplatform and/or worlwide releases in recent years, this was never going to be the case.

SEGA Q&A, Company CEO/ Haruki Atami:



You ain't selling 5 million copies of Persona 6 in a year by being PS5 only.

90% of their sales come from PlayStation anyway, Infinite wealth had a peak of 40k on Steam….it sold over 200k first week on PS4/PS5 in Japan alone….

Instead of Jim Ryan using that leverage like Sony has traditionally done in the past, they get the (extremely) short end of the stick.

Yakuza LAD was stuck at 30fps on ps5 for months while being 60fps on Xbox, Persona 3 and 4 still run much better on Xbox than it does on PS. All while being on GamePass day 1 versus full price on PS. Sony letting that happen when they’re responsible for 90% of the sales is an abject failure on their part, no one can deny that.

Xbox as a brand is irrelevant yet they’re still running circles around Sony management, thank God Jim’s gone.

 

[Kokoloko]

Another case of Jim Ryan era complacency.... it's no coincidence that everyone suddenly started making these deals with Xbox as soon as Jim Ryan took over....Sega deal, MLB deal, Square Enix deal....

I do wonder if its something he could of stopped, but maybe Sony already had there deals in place and MS just came in and made a super sneaky deal afterwards. Not allowing any counter. Maybe Ryan cant be blamed on that as its a contract already written.

MS is just slimey fucks, always have been since Gates till now. Its there DNA

 

[Yurinka]

Trusted analyst JapanHatesXbox, aka @Bodycount611, exposes Xbox’s greedy and anti consumer parity clause with Sega

Apparently every game developed for PlayStation MUST also be developed for Xbox wasting precious time and resources. The parity clause does NOT apply to Nintendo exclusives Many of these games also unfortunately end up on GamePass, further harming developers and consumers.

If games like Monster Hunter Stories and Gundam Breaker can't find an audience on xbox, how the HELL has xbox managed ports from Vanillaware and atlus?

If most Sega games get now released in Xbox (and some in GP) is part of Sega's strategy in recent years, which you can read in their public yearly reports:

Sega has been saying every year since 2021 that one of their mid-term key strategies is to focus more on multiplatform and to put more game in game subs. Other ones are also to make more global releases instead of releasing first in some region and later in others, plus also to invest more in localization. Their goal is the typical one from any company: to make more money and grow.

Meaning, several or all Sega and Atlus IPs that were exclusive will be gradually moved to multiplatform as we saw these years so we'll see them in platforms where they weren't before and we'll see more games in game subs of all 3 console makes. Same goes with PS+ and Nintendo's sub: Sega has been including there stuff too these years, remember Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown was even day one on PS+.

Since many of these exclusives were from Sony or Nintendo, MS is the most benefited one. It's because Sega wants to make more money by putting their games in more places, not because they signed anything with MS.

Regarding parity clause, when a console maker signs a timed exclusive or the inclusion of a game in their game sub at launch they require that their version shouldn't be worse (excluding obvious things related to the limitations of the hardware) than the other ones.

In the case of MS, they also require -or at least did some years ago- that quality parity to all games released on Xbox after timed console exclusivity elsewhere, in addition to ask them for some extra stuff (maybe some bundled dlc) that makes it different/"better" than the original release.

From Sony's side, the Sega/Atlus titles they had (which aren't big sellers for them) keep being released and sell most of their copies on PS, and now they also get some extra games that previously were Nintendo exclusives, and get more Sega/Atlus PS+ games. So they don't care if also released in Xbox/GP.

Same goes with Nintendo, Sega/Atlus games weren't big sellers for them. They keep getting them and now they have more Sega/Atlus games than before for Switch and its game sub. So they must be fine too.

Sony and Nintendo don't care about Xbox, specially considering that every year keeps losing market share and now MS is moving to multiplatform.

 

[FatKaz]

Do what Sonys done the last 30 years, be proactive, something that Jim/Hermen clearly aren’t good at. Almost everything they’ve done so far this generation has been reactive, in a horrible way!

But publisher's like se and sega not releasing on Xbox had nothing to do with Sony being proactive. They just didn't see it viable releasing on Xbox, until Phil dropped bags of cash on his port begging tours aswell as them wanting to expand.

You brought up MLB which again not Sonys fault, MLB clearly forced their hands otherwise they would lose the license if they don't play ball.

 

[Kokoloko]

…

It’s a dead platform and they’re going third party.

All third parties should consider ceasing development. It already wasn’t worth it without a gamepass handout from Microsoft. Why waste the resources? To sell to who?

Xbox platforms cannot sell software. Gamepass has conditioned an entire playerbase to be fed whatever Phil Spencer can sign or buy to avoid buying games. It’s catastrophic.

Yes, I cant wait for them to leave the console business. Bloody Vermin ( in my best bloodborne impersonation )

 

[Kokoloko]

But publisher's like se and sega not releasing on Xbox had nothing to do with Sony being proactive. They just didn't see it viable releasing on Xbox, until Phil dropped bags of cash on his port begging tours aswell as them wanting to expand.

You brought up MLB which again not Sonys fault, MLB clearly forced their hands otherwise they would lose the license if they don't play ball.

I dont understand why Sega would just release Persona and Yakuza on PS. Its not like they didnt have games on Xbox and Gamecube/Nintendo etc. Yakuza was always exclusive to PS and Persona too, there must be a reason otherwise they would of bene multiplatform, games like Shen Mue 2, Panzer were on Xbox

 

[Vertigo]

I now somewhat believe bodycount has some sources. I do walk back some of what I said. Don’t fully trust it but he’s swayed my belief for now.

 

[Wraith Phantom]

Sega being goofy as usual.Took short term money instead of steady long term growth. At least MS leverage their Azure play. That was a Good move. That's always been their plan control industry via their azure. One way or another. Good thing

 

[Kokoloko]

Sega being goofy as usual.Took short term money instead of steady long term growth. At least MS leverage their Azure play. That was a Good move. That's always been their plan control industry via their azure. One way or another. Good thing

They must have offereed Azure for free or something lol. Given them a deal they couldnt refuse.
Hopefully it ends soon for Xbox and we dont have to deal with this crap anymore

 

[JAHGamer]

But publisher's like se and sega not releasing on Xbox had nothing to do with Sony being proactive. They just didn't see it viable releasing on Xbox, until Phil dropped bags of cash on his port begging tours aswell as them wanting to expand.

You brought up MLB which again not Sonys fault, MLB clearly forced their hands otherwise they would lose the license if they don't play ball.

It had everything to do with being proactive! Sony getting shafted by several their long term partners all at the same time is NOT a coincidence. You think this is the first time Xbox has flashed cash to partners for games? They were only successful this time around due to Sonys utter incompetence!

Xbox has never been LESS relevant, yet they’re somehow getting a bunch of former exclusives? There’s no such thing as a coincidence, put two and two together.

 

[FatKaz]

I dont understand why Sega would just release Persona and Yakuza on PS. Its not like they didnt have games on Xbox and Gamecube/Nintendo etc. Yakuza was always exclusive to PS and Persona too, there must be a reason otherwise they would of bene multiplatform, games like Shen Mue 2, Panzer were on Xbox

I mean I'm sure there were some deals in place, we know that for a fact with persona 5 Sony got exclusivity and ff7 remake.

But alot of people are blaming Sony for alot more then just one game going to Xbox. Any game SE or sega game released on Xbox is blamed on Sony.

I have to wonder what people want Sony to do here? They want Sony to spend money to prevent every game going to Xbox? just sounds ridiculous.

 

[FatKaz]

It had everything to do with being proactive! Sony getting shafted by several their long term partners all at the same time is NOT a coincidence. You think this is the first time Xbox has flashed cash to partners for games? They were only successful this time around due to Sonys utter incompetence!

Xbox has never been LESS relevant, yet they’re somehow getting a bunch of former exclusives? There’s no such thing as a coincidence, put two and two together.

Microsoft flashing cash to third party companies aswell as those third party companies wanting to expand, is something Sony won't be able to do anything about.

People need to accept this reality. Sony continue to make exclusivity deals, but won't do it for every single game by sega or square enix, as that's makes no financial sense.

 

[JAHGamer]

I mean I'm sure there were some deals in place, we know that for a fact with persona 5 Sony got exclusivity.

But alot of people are blaming Sony for alot more then just one game going to Xbox. Any game SE or sega game released on Xbox is blamed on Sony.

I have to wonder what people want Sony to do here? They want Sony to spend money to prevent every game going to Xbox? just sounds ridiculous.

Microsoft flashing cash to third party companies aswell as those third party companies wanting to expand, is something Sony won't be able to do anything about.

People need to accept this reality.

If you think it’s ok for PlayStation market share to GROW and for them to have LESS, then you’re literally giving Sony leadership a free pass. And I’m not sure why since you know full well how stupid they can be But we’ll just have to agree to disagree

 

[Nhomnhom]

How much did Sega got paid for this waste of time?

I'm boycotting Sega as much as I can. Why? Because I hate Xbox.

 

[Kokoloko]

I mean I'm sure there were some deals in place, we know that for a fact with persona 5 Sony got exclusivity and ff7 remake.

But alot of people are blaming Sony for alot more then just one game going to Xbox. Any game SE or sega game released on Xbox is blamed on Sony.

I understand what you mean

They want Sony to spend money to prevent every game going to Xbox? just sounds ridiculous.

This is the way lol.
They have alot of influence and market share, they need to throw that weight around. Boss it up a bit, especially for games they help build.
They lost there exclusivity for games like Tekken, DMC, Kingdom Hearts during the 360 era

Games like Yakuza and Persona were always exclusive to PS. Then Xbox ended up with a sneaky better timed version of Yakuza. Shouldnt happen.