Hate the idea of console exclusives? Feel free to blame Sony. During his testimony yesterday as part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft case, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that he actually hates the idea of console exclusivity and keeping some of his company’s biggest franchises on Xbox and PC, but he has no choice but to do so because that’s the exact game that PlayStation is playing—something that has proven to work out quite well for Sony. The implication seems to be that Halo, Gears of War, and more would be on PlayStation if Sony was more open to sharing.
“If it was up to me I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles, but that’s not for me to define especially as a low share player in the console market,” Nadella said. “The dominant player there [Sony] has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world.”
Nadella’s comment comes a day after it was revealed that Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan admitted that Xbox exclusives like Starfield weren’t anti-competitive. Ryan also claimed publishers think Xbox Game Pass is “value destructive” and that it was important for Sony to invest “massively” in first-party development and publishing to get an edge on Xbox Game Pass competition. Ryan also admitted it’s not in Microsoft’s best interests to make Activision games available on all platforms:
Source: The Verge