If you're a diehard Sega/Atlus & PlayStation fan and you're still buying their games Day 1 on PlayStation, even after knowing this, I'm sorry but you're being stupid.
Azure. They signed a deal and this was probably a part of that.
Yah, they are giving Microsoft/Xbox preferential treatment due to Sarah Bond acting as the middleperson between them and the Azure team for that strategic partnership.
The slap in the face being, when that was first announced I thought it meant MS funding a few Xbox exclusives from Sega/Atlus like back in the OG Xbox days, which would've actually been interesting. Instead it seems they are both stupid and petty enough to not add more creative output to the industry slate; they just want to be an inferior copy of PlayStation.
This just further goes to show Phil Spencer has virtually zero creative impetus as a leader.
Well one can hope Sony was smart enough to sign or negotiate Persona 6. Before 2020. But either way, Sega took this deal because they knew 95% of the sales will come from Playstation if it's just Xbox / Playstation. So they get paid while still reaping some profits.
Well that is also the problem: they are taking their primary customer base for granted to appease a company that simply wants to be an inferior duplicate of a brand that already exists, instead of carving out their own path in a way that actually resonates with the majority of gaming customers.
As long as people continue being Day 1 supporters of Sega/Atlus releases on PlayStation, they will continue to enable these sort of deals by Microsoft, as it keeps the price manageable for them. If those sales dry up, though, suddenly Microsoft has to pay out a metric ton more to make up for that drop. It could even get to the point where they don't feel it is worth paying.
I've already been boycotting them ever since they withheld the Yakuza 7 PS5 patch.
They can go fuck themselves.
Only a matter of time till Microsoft tries to bribe Capcom as well.
Jim Ryan will twiddle his fingers then tell Nixxies to speed up the PC port, so they can attack M$ on their home turf again.
I think Capcom will be fine; they have historically made better business moves as a games publisher than Sega, and they prioritize B2P sales revenue. I think they know what goodwill they'd stand to lose by cutting a deal like this with Microsoft, while expecting their primary customer base to act as paypigs on PlayStation in turn allowing Microsoft to keep prices for such deals manageable.
You may get a few more games like Exo Primal to Game Pass, but nothing AAA. Meanwhile Capcom's already generally been quite multi-platform and while Xbox accounts for the lowest percentage of their Western game sales by far, it's still some easy money to pick up releasing there. Though, yes, it would suck if Microsoft tried forcing Capcom or anyone else into supporting their platform; 3P should have the choice of where their games go.
I actually wonder if this contract they have with Sega/Atlus can potentially be considered anticompetitive in a way. Only way I can see it is if they "tricked" Sega/Atlus into such a term but these game publishers tend to have good lawyers who'd spot that type of thing ahead of time. So at most they coerced Sega/Atlus into those terms...though leaving Nintendo out of it definitely shows a targeted intent on Microsoft's part that when paired with the bevy of other leaked information and plans from them, could be considered quasi-anticompetitive intent piecing together in the myriad of ways they want to "spend Sony out of business".
I shouldn't but I can't resist.
% convinced that's what they're going to do & I'll laugh my arse off when they announce it & the xbots assemble to damage control & say its still 'the best value in gaming'