Microsoft Blocking pre-orders for Persona 3/4 on Switch and PS4 in order to cook books for the xbox versions, purposefully gimped the PS5 version
- Thread starter Bodycount611
- Start date
Because they need to compete and get Xbox back in the mindshare of gamers.
They're in a catch 22 situation where Xbox doesn't get these games because nobody buys these games on the console... but nobody buys these games on the console because it's never guaranteed that Xbox will get these games... So essentially they have to eat the cost of the lack of sales, and continually get these games on their platform so that people will become comfortable with buying these games on that same platform.
None of the posts in the thread are that bad? I thought @Bodycount611 explained their points very well. If you can't handle very light criticism you could join XboxEra instead.
They blame Sony all day and they have a very nice Phil shrine too ❤
That would require the devs of these games to ignore the bulk of their fanbases on other platforms in the meantime. Fairly risky prospect for them when there's no evidence a large enough new audience would exist or that the current audience would leave their preferred platform in large enough numbers to get that game.
Eh, they could end up losing $ betting the farm on Xbox.The power of the dollah
At best they may convince these devs to go multiplat instead of Playstation exclusive. Unless they decide they want to buy up another publisher, which may annoy regulators if they do that immediately after ABK if that goes through.
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kinda agree. Sony does that too. but not at that level of ''stealing'' games which are associated with xbox.The power of the dollah
most of the staff back and forward, i have no problem. just stop buying publishers, it is xbox, sony or nintendo. doesn't matter. gamers gonna be screwed long term whomever does that.
I've made it clear plenty of times that Sony are no saints.
Hell, I'm firmly on the "PSVR2 is too expensive" camp, and wouldn't have bought a PS5 at the new RRP.
But that's just me, I guess. I know plenty of folks here disagree with me.
Again, the power of the upfront dollah compels them. These deals are made every single day.
I personally think Sony and Jim Ryan in particular have made some bad decisions this gen as well. The huge live service push to me feels like they are hoping they can make the next fortnite and rake in the dough at the expense of there being less of the types of games I personally would like to see from them.
They've also made several unforced errors with regards to pricing and customer service imo.
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It would be really annoying if the Persona franchise stopping releasing on Playstation after having been on it since the 90s.
Sega really have a history of shitty business decisions. It's the main reason they are no longer a platform holder, honestly (despite so many people trying to blame Sony for that). So if this is true, I'm not really surprised.
Also, I guess what's fair is fair. I know some people are going to mainly blame Microsoft for this but honestly, it's up to Sega/Atlus to agree to the terms. The ball's in their court at the end of the day. Same way some Xbox people want to blame Sony for stuff like Final Fantasy exclusivity on PlayStation, when ultimately it's up to Square-Enix to determine if they want to agree to those terms.
In Square-Enix's case, they have sales data that shows how insignificant Xbox actually is to justify taking those deals. For Sega/Atlus, I'm assuming part of this is part of some comprehensive benefits between them and Microsoft tying in with the announcement of Sega becoming a client for Azure cloud back in early 2022. The cloud partnership was only a part of it and the Xbox division (in this case specifically led by Sarah Bond) were involved in talks to get that partnership happening.
So I knew right from the jump there would be certain benefits for Sega/Atlus games on Xbox even if those didn't include outright exclusives and, well, here we are. I'm just curious if this ends up having an adverse effect on hardcore/core fan buying habits of their games on PlayStation and even Nintendo platforms in return (given such an increasing amount of Sega/Atlus games are getting versions in Game Pass, so makes you wonder how PS & Nintendo fans feel paying $60/$70 Day 1 for those games when people on a platform that's done little to grow popularity or revenue of those Sega/Atlus games historically are getting some of the best benefits in terms of paying less for access to the same games)?
Guess we'll see somewhere down the line.
At the rate this is going I would be surprised if it DOESN'T extend to Persona 6 to be perfectly honest. It's just something fans of that IP on non-Xbox platforms will have to probably accept. Not saying it's right, but at the end of the day Sega/Atlus could have challenged some of these stipulations yet chose not to.
I'll say this: whether some think it right or wrong, I personally can't say it's the latter because hey, if Microsoft have comarketing rights to the games, and Sony could have gone for those comarketing rights but chose not to, Microsoft can do something like exclude preorders from non-Xbox platforms if they feel that directly allows competing platforms to benefit from money they themselves have put in for comarketing etc.
But I really bring this up for the Xbox diehards who complain when Sony have Game Pass exclusionary clauses in contracts for 3P games they have comarketing deals with because guess what? It's the exact same mentality! Sony want to protect their financial investments and not allow a competitor to undercut them for essentially free, they have the right to stipulate it as long as the publisher's given the right to agree to the terms or choose not to (and walk away from them as a result).
So it makes Microsoft in particular bringing up the fact Sony does this, to regulators, absolutely laughable considering they do the exact same thing in almost all the same ways as we're seeing with this Persona stuff!
Of all the Japanese 3P publisher, Sega are most realistic (and really, the ONLY realistic) one I could see them acquiring. They've worked together in some capacity going back to 1997 at the very least (MS helping with a version of Windows CE for the Dreamcast and the API tools therein), and Sega gave them a lot of exclusives on OG Xbox and even some on the 360. They've also used Xbox-based hardware in the arcade (Chirico).
Obviously that might create issues with primarily PlayStation gamers (mainly due to Yakuza & Persona), and I can even see it causing some strife with Nintendo people & Nintendo themselves (Sonic sells way more on Nintendo platforms than Xbox or PlayStation; Nintendo is basically Sonic's post-Dreamcast home and it's been that way since the GameCube).
But if it DOES come down to MS wanting to, say, cap off their publisher acquisitions after ABK with a Japanese publisher, it's hard to not see it being Sega. If that were to happen, there's no way they remove Sonic from Nintendo platforms, though I can see scaled-backed amount of Sonic games for PlayStation. They probably keep Persona & Yakuza on PlayStation still because those games do a lot of their numbers in Japan/Asia where Xbox just generally has very little presence, but for Western releases I can see Microsoft doing timed exclusivity on English/non-Japanese/Asian releases for Xbox platforms first, then bringing them to Western PlayStation platforms like six months or so later.
That's as far as I see MS going in terms of securing any Japanese 3P publishers however, and I think some of these partnerships and the history they have with Sega are ways to establish that they've had a working relationship for years prior to acquisition, or have contributed to Sega's revenue in some large capacity. Otherwise them going after say, Capcom or Square-Enix, would not only immediately raise alarm bells (because we know Xbox accounts for a puny amount of their revenue), but also as a means of simply controlling Asian game content in a way preventing a direct competitor whose platform provides the bulk of those publisher's revenue, from being able to work with them or make deals with them in an open way (the way a platform holder would expect & be able to with 3P publishers).
A play for any Japanese publisher outside Sega would probably be (rightfully) looked at suspect and shut down for the content-starving play it is. With Sega, though, there's a long history of them working with Microsoft in some capacity and now they have this Azure partnership adding onto that. And realistically they would not take Yakuza, Persona or Sonic away from Sony & Nintendo because a lot of their sales come from Japan where Nintendo & Sony hold a lot more market share than Microsoft.
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OP
OP
Happy to break this story as an IconEra exclusive.
We need statements and clarification from both Sega and Atlus, ASAP.
We need statements and clarification from both Sega and Atlus, ASAP.
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peter42O
Guest
Yep. Sony having clauses in their contracts that prevents marketed games from going on Game Pass for a duration of time is the same as this example here or anything else for that matter from both sides - it's business plain and simple and every company will always do what's best for their business as they see fit.
yeah, i have no problem with this back and forward between platform holders.
just don't consolidate market, we as gamers gonna lose big time.
Same here, get exclusive games if you need to, but taking whole publishers off the market is another thing entirely.
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peter42O
Guest
I agree but at the same time, there's going to be more consolidation and not just by Microsoft and a lot of people simply need to accept it especially since none of us can do anything about it.