Image: Push Square

I think we’re all fairly familiar with the cycle of Xbox news these days: Asha Sharma sends out an internal memo or hosts a staff townhall, and the information “inexplicably” makes its way into the hands of journalists within the hour.

In the latest example of corporate bluster, reported by The Verge, the new CEO has boasted about first-party growth and improved brand sentiment.

She also allegedly announced a deal with GTA 6 that “no other platform holder is doing” – exclusive cloud streaming rights. Except it’s not true.

Here’s the original excerpt from The Verge, which has since been edited:

“The deal will mean only Xbox Cloud Gaming can stream GTA 6 to players at launch, but it's not clear how long the agreement will be in place. Rockstar Games still hasn't announced a PC version of GTA 6, so this deal will allow Xbox to market its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to PC players who would otherwise need an Xbox Series X|S or PS5 console.”

Xbox’s CSO Matthew Ball was, er, on the ball, and he promptly clarified the messaging on social media:

“While the excitement for GTA 6 and Xbox is great to see, it has also led to some misreporting. We are looking forward to launching GTA 6 on Xbox 19th November, though the game will not be streaming exclusively or to PC.”

It’s unclear whether Sharma misspoke during the abovementioned townhall or if The Verge’s reporting was simply wrong, but ultimately it sounds like there’s no “special relationship” between GTA 6 and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Not that this would have made much of a difference anyway: to take advantage of the feature, fans would have needed to purchase a full-price copy of the game and an Xbox Game Pass subscription, and still would have been limited to a maximum of 15 hours of cloud streaming gameplay per month on the most expensive tier.

However, with Ball clarifying there’s no exclusivity in play, this does mean Sony should be able to offer its own GTA 6 streaming solution via PS Plus Premium, meaning you may yet be able to beam it directly to your PS Portal like large chunks of the PS5 catalogue.

[source theverge.com]