Resident Evil Village PS5 PlayStation 5 1

Leaked legal documents published online as part of the ongoing Capcom leak have started yet another social media sh*tstorm, as non-lawyers misunderstand the language and share their interpretations online. A clause in Sony’s marketing contract for Resident Evil Village mentions that “each version of the game available on PlayStation platforms [must] maintain content, feature, and technical parity (subject to any material platform limitations) with any equivalent version of the game or DLC released on any other competitive platform or PC/mobile platform”.

Some people on Twitter and enthusiast forums have taken this to mean that PlayStation has paid to ensure the title performs identically across all platforms, but it’s not true. In fact, this is just bog-standard legal language that stipulates Capcom can’t add “exclusive” features to Resident Evil Village on any other platform if they’re not present on PlayStation 5 and PS4, which obviously makes sense given the context of the document. Similar language can be observed in a comparable Microsoft contract through here.

This is the second time in as many days that social media has been outraged by a leaked document it doesn’t understand. Earlier in the week, it was widely reported that PlayStation had paid to delay the PC version of Monster Hunter: World, and was responsible for the release’s lack of cross-save and cross-play. That information was misunderstood before being shared, and has since been clarified by the proliferator – another example of why you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

With regards to platform parity, it’s absurd that people would even think such a thing to begin with. Sony’s corporate mitts are all over Marvel’s Avengers, but that game has a lower overall resolution on PS5 than, for example, the Xbox Series X. There is a clause within the Resident Evil Village document which states that PlayStation has dibs on adding the game to one of its subscription services, such as PS Plus or PS Now. Again, this is all fairly standard stuff – the marketing arrangement also means PS5 and PS4 players have been able to play the title’s demo first. Shocker!

[source twitter.com]