Questionable_Duck

I think this was announced a while ago

There's a rumored Arc System Works-developed Switch 2 exclusive that's supposed to be released this year. I assume it will be announced here.

@arsmolinarc As others have stated above, Metaphor wasn't a day-one Game Pass game.

@EfYI I can assure you most Game Pass subscribers don't stack their subscriptions, most people don't even know you can do that. The majority of Game Pass subscribers often sub for one or two months, and unsub after when they're no longer interested in playing any games on the service.

Btw Microsoft has nerfed the conversion trick in recent years, so you don't save nearly as much money as you do now.

I do find it funny, though, how some PlayStation players say Game Pass is "free" and "unsustainable," yet in the same breath, they claim Game Pass is too expensive and not worth the money. Both can't be true at the same time lol.

@Jrs1 Why do you think the game is trash without even playing it?

@EfYI If you were really interested in the game, you would have bought it earlier. Metaphor isn't even a day-one Game Pass game, it's arrived on the service nearly a year later.

"If you want to piss away your game for free, don't expect me to pick up the bill."

First, Game Pass isn't free. Second, Atlus has already sold two million copies of Metaphor. Why wouldn't they make some extra money on the side by putting the game on Game Pass now that it's fallen out of the sales charts?

"So far, none of the games I have "boycotted" have actually shown up on PS Plus, suggesting that the studios do prefer to actually get paid by gamers."

...Or, maybe it's because Sony doesn't want to pay extra to get new AAA third-party games on PS Plus? Sony would rather you buy Metaphor at full price, then subscribe to a subscription service to get access to it. They make more money that way. Microsoft spends more money to get more desirable games on Game Pass, compared to Sony, because their entire business model is heavily reliant on subscription services. PS Plus, on the other hand, isn't one of Sony's biggest focuses.

I find it really strange that some people actively want to limit the amount of games they experience all because it's on Game Pass or something.

@Vyse_the_Legend Yeah that is definitely possible, I think FF15's release may have been a perfect storm, which FF16 didn't have

@UltimateOtaku91 I think it's down to the art style, the virality of Expedition 33 (which Metaphor didn't have), and the low price tag. Expedition 33 is a $50 game, while Metaphor is a $70 game.

@John_Deacon Maybe it's because kids mostly bought Team Sonic Racing, and there aren't a lot of kids who use sites like Push Square. Whereas the Yakuza series is played more by adults, so you see it discussed more often on social media.

@SeaDaVie Still, though, that "5m shipped in 24 hours" figure includes both physical copies and digital sales, according to Wikipedia. The game also basically broke even on its first day, and it had the best console launch month in the Final Fantasy franchise's history.

I can't really say this for a fact, since I don't know the budget for the game, but it's possible that FF16 did not instantly break even in a day, like FF15 did.

@ThomasHL Not to mention FF16 sold 3 million in a week, while FF15 sold 5 million in a day. Comparing the two games, it's no wonder that Square Enix was disappointed in FF16's sales.

@naruball Sure, but it all depends on the sales expectations and the profitability of each game. FF16 may seem way more successful than Metaphor when you compare their sales numbers like that, but you have to bring context into account.

FF16 is the latest mainline installment in the popular Final Fantasy franchise, the last game of which (FF15) sold 5 million units in a single day. FF16, in comparison, failed to reach that sales number, only selling 3 million in a week. Since it was released nearly a decade later, FF16 also probably had a considerably larger budget than FF15.

Metaphor, meanwhile, is a completely new IP that, unlike FF16, has stylized anime graphics instead of a photorealistic aesthetic. 2 million copies in a year may be more successful for Metaphor than 3 million copies in a week is for FF16.

Final Fantasy 16 was made with a far bigger budget than Metaphor or Persona, so I wouldn't really say that comparing their sales makes a lot of sense. Final Fantasy is technically supposed to be way more popular than Persona. Two million units sold for a mid-budget game may be good, but three million units for a big-budget game may be disappointing. Both can be true at the same time.

Also, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is selling at a faster rate than Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so it seems to be doing decently.

@thefourfoldroot1 Most VR games are "reskinned" in the same way that flatscreen games are "reskinned."

@PinderSchloss If I could get a competent VR headset for $200 in the same way that I can get a Series S or a Switch for $200, I would be interested

@Jayslow I know people don't like Meta (I don't either), but the Quest 3 at least has a compelling lineup of exclusives, unlike the PSVR2.

The exclusive games on the PSVR1 were way better.

@CWill97 Fiscal year 2027 isn't the same as 2027 FYI. Persona 4 Revival could come out in 2026, since FY 2027 lasts from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027

@cainhurst94 So? Sony would be missing out on tens of thousands of dollars in free revenue by preventing players in these regions from buying their games. Even if only 10 people bought their games, that's 10 sales that Sony would miss out on for no good reason.

It's not like Sony has to pay extra to sell their games in all regions around the world.

I wonder if Stellar Blade 2 will be a multiplatform title, or if it will be a PS5 exclusive. Sony doesn't own the Stellar Blade IP, but it depends on if the contract Shift Up signed with SIE prevents them from releasing sequels on non-PlayStation platforms.

@PuppetMaster To be fair, Microsoft didn't own Bethesda when they were charging money for horse armor

I feel like Stellar Blade would have sold even better if it was day-and-date on PC, might have even come to close to rivalling Black Myth Wukong

@themightyant Steam and PC gaming is mainly big in Korea and China, not so much Japan (but it is steadily growing over there). That said, Korea and China are more than enough on their own to carry certain video games.

Even though the PS5 is doing better than the PS4 in China, the console market is pretty much dead in China. Nintendo barely exists over there, as well. Xbox, too, of course.

@Vyse_the_Legend The "never truly cared about gaming" part I can agree with, Microsoft has treated Xbox like a pet project since its inception and has refused to give them proper funding until recently. Ironically, it was a good thing that Microsoft didn't care too much about Xbox, because the moment they started caring, they ran the Xbox console division into the ground and turned it into a third-party publisher.

@Lowdefal I know, I was joking lol

I still remember getting my PS4 in 2009. DMC 5 came out nearly 20 years ago, and yet it looks better than 99% of AAA games that release today.

@Vyse_the_Legend Maybe for a longer period of time, but Sony and Nintendo would have definitely done it regardless anyways. The PS3 online services were not great compared to Xbox Live on the 360, and as Sony improved their servers for the PS4, they probably would have started charging eventually. Never underestimate what companies will do to maximize their profits.

@ChrisDeku I know this is an old post, but Rise of the Ronin is a third-person action RPG, while Hellblade 2 is an artistic walking simulator. Bit unfair to compare the two.

It's so funny seeing everyone here trash Star Wars 1313, when now everyone wishes it wasn't cancelled. People nowadays want a dark and gritty Star Wars game.

Wild to read these articles more than a decade later

@Vyse_the_Legend There's no way Sony wouldn't have started charging for online eventually as well, even if Microsoft didn't exist in the gaming space. Look at Nintendo, they initially kept online free during the Wii U era but then they started charging for it on the Switch.

@The_Decline_99 You're right, that was one of the stupidest decisions Microsoft has ever made. Right up there with them turning down Genshin Impact and GTA 3 as Xbox exclusives. Unlike Sony, Microsoft has a really bad eye for predicting with third-party games will be hits.

That said, Spider-Man was available on Xbox consoles beforehand, prior to Insomniac taking the reins of the franchise

@UltimateOtaku91 It still baffles me that Sony removed Resistance 1 and 2 from their cloud streaming program mere months after adding it. Why? It's not like they're paying anyone to add it to PS Plus. Would love to play all of Sony's PS3 back catalog, even if it's through streaming.

@SilentS I think it's just referring to the fact that anime is popular among young audiences, not that they are going to water down existing franchises to make them appeal to teens.

Sony should make an anime gacha game, like Genshin Impact. I know people don't like that stuff, but it'd make way more money than Concord, Fairgames, Marathon, or the other live service games they're working on.

@Czar_Khastik To be fair, if Sony put God of War and The Last of Us on Xbox, I wouldn't complain at all that the physical Xbox versions aren't complete on disc. I'd just be glad to experience these games on a platform I never thought I'd be able to.

This is a smart strategy because Sony has been able to port games like God of War to PC without damaging their console sales. Even though almost all PlayStation games this gen are available on PC, the PS5 is still selling as well as the PS4 and may even outpace it in the future.

Going full day-and-date on PC did harm Xbox console sales to some extent. Though, to be fair, Xbox's brand isn't nearly as powerful as PlayStation's.

@Ainu20 Exactly, Sony has always had a direct competition in the console space. Technically, before Xbox, they had two competitors, because Nintendo was fighting tooth and nail with Sony at the time. That changed after the release of the Wii, however.

The moment that Sega dropped out of the console space, Xbox filled their place. The moment Xbox drops out of the console space, no one will fill their place. You're not gonna see Apple or Google make a console.

@MrPeanutbutterz Last I checked, Microsoft hasn't locked Office, for example, behind a subscription service, and you can still buy a lifetime membership if you want. Most of the other features that MS offers via subcription service were never sold outright by the company. Selling video games individually, on the other hand, is still a lucrative business. It wouldn't make business sense to prevent people from buying their games, especially since Game Pass is never going to reach the heights of something like Netflix due to its platform limitations.

I'm not flaming, I've been responding to your points in a respectful manner, because I strongly disagree with most of what you've said.

@Ainu20 I appreciate your sentiment, but I respectfully disagree. Part of the reason why I signed up for a Push Square account is to converse with people and express my opinions. And sometimes, I'm not able to get my point across without getting into a debate.

For the record, I do like PlayStation games, but I don't own a PlayStation. I primarily play them on PC if I can.

@MrPeanutbutterz Xbox wouldn't have been able to sustain a compelling first-party exclusive lineup with just one or two studios, hence why they bought two publishers.

And, for the record, Microsoft would have never been able to make CoD exclusive to Xbox, even if they wanted to. The FTC didn't allow it, and now MS is legally obligated to keep CoD on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles for a minimum of 10 years.

It's also worth noting that Activision's non-CoD lineup is paltry, to say the least. Activision has released only 4 non-CoD games in the last five years. Blizzard, meanwhile, has released just two games in the same time frame. Losing these non-CoD games on PlayStation wouldn't be remotely catastrophic for the industry.

Making all Bethesda games exclusive to PlayStation, meanwhile, would put Xbox on equal footing with PlayStation and Nintendo. Xbox has long lacked compelling exclusive content, and something like ES6 being an Xbox exclusive (note: Morrowind and Oblivion were both Xbox exclusives at launch) would likely push Sony to innovate in the Western RPG space. In fact, it was Elder Scrolls Oblivion being an Xbox exclusive that incentivised Sony to fund Demon's Souls, which spawned the Dark Souls series. Demon's Souls probably wouldn't exist if Oblivion wasn't an Xbox exclusive.

Last but not least, there is zero indication that Microsoft will ever force people to subscribe to Game Pass to play their games. There isn't a single Game Pass game that you can't go out and buy on the Xbox store. Besides, it would make no business sense to prevent people from buying a game as massive as ES6.

@Ainu20 You do realise I'm talking to a person who said they can't wait for Microsoft to quite gaming, right? I'm not here to console war, I'm here to share my opinion. And I simply disagree with some people on this site.

If you prevent people from arguing and sharing their thoughts in a respectful manner, then this site will just turn into an echo chamber.

@crackeastwood I mean, I'm just sharing my opinion.

@crackeastwood Is what I'm saying about Spider-Man and X-Men vs Fable and Perfect Dark not true?

@MrPeanutbutterz

"I mean, they had plenty in the Xbox One era"

Xbox had, like, six studios in the Xbox One era. Definitely not enough to sustain a compelling exclusive lineup. That's why all Xbox released was Halo, Gears, and Forza back then.

"They're a trillion dollar corporation who fluctuate between being the most wealthy company on Earth and second wealthiest, of course they could've got some studios together."

Just because they're a trillion dollar company doesn't mean they can build studios to rival Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Nintendo, etc. out of thin air. It would've taken ages to build a sizable portfolio of Xbox first-party studios without any sizable acquisitions whatsoever.

I will also note that, although you do have a fair point with Rise of the Ronin, I never mentioned Helldivers 2. Helldivers is an IP that Sony owns, unlike Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin. And, in Stellar Blade's case, that game was originally planned to be on Xbox. I was just pointing out in my previous comment the amount of third-party games that Sony has locked away from Xbox players, without regarding if Sony published them or not.

@crackeastwood Spider-Man and X-Men games have been on Xbox and Nintendo consoles for ages; wasn't just referring to their Insomniac counterparts. The fact that Sony has secured exclusive rights to the Spider-Man and X-Men IPs for more than a decade and isn't letting anyone else make Spider-Man and X-Men games is wild.

Fable and Perfect Dark, on the other hand, have never been planned for PlayStation.

@crackeastwood Cool, now tell me how many of these games are major AAA exclusives. Oh right, almost none of them. The majority of these are indie titles and PS5 versions of games that are already available on PS4, and they've landed on PlayStation in just a year or two after their release on Xbox.

Stellar Blade, Nioh, X-Men, etc. are major AAA titles and they will never come to Xbox. Meanwhile FF7 Remake was a five-year exclusive.

And why did you include Fable and Perfect Dark in your list? These games were never planned to be on PlayStation in the first place.

@MrPeanutbutterz I never said platform holders signing third-party exclusivity deals is a bad thing, I said it isn't feasible for a third-place console manufacturer like Xbox.

Xbox would have to pay way more money compared to PlayStation to keep a compelling AAA game off PlayStation (to make up for the loss of PlayStation sales), so it's not a viable business model for them.

You complain about Xbox buying up publishers for exclusivity, but it's frankly the only way that Xbox could have secured compelling AAA exclusives in the first place. Xbox needed exclusives, that I think we can agree on. Since they couldn't sign tons of third-party exclusivity deals in the same way that Sony can, and they can't build tons of studios from the ground up, acquisitions were the quickest and only reasonable way to get exclusives.

By the way, Gears of War and Forza were more second-party games than third-party exclusivity deals, Microsoft still published them at the end of the day.

@crackeastwood Starfield, Hellblade 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Avowed, South of Midnight, Indiana Jones, etc will all be on PlayStation. No one on PlayStation is sad that they're missing out on Redfall.

The Xbox exclusivity for these first-party games is not much compared to the games that PlayStation has taken away from Xbox players:

• Silent Hill 2 Remake
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake (5 year exclusive)
• Final Fantasy 16
• Zenless Zone Zero
• Honkai: Star Rail
• Wuthering Waves
• Nioh 1, 2, and 3
• Rise of the Ronin
• Infinity Nikki
• Spider-Man (the first Spider-Man was technically a second-party exclusive since Insomniac wasn't owned by Sony at the time)
• X-Men (according to the Insomniac leak, X-Men will be exclusive to PlayStation consoles for a mininum of 10 years)
• Stellar Blade (was originally announced for Xbox)
• Deathloop
• Ghostwire Tokyo
• Pacific Drive
• Knights of the Old Republic Remake (might be multiplat now, but was planned to be an exclusive)

@MrPeanutbutterz It's so strange that you point out Microsoft buying up studios for exclusivity as if it's a bad thing, when it would've led to increased competition in the console space had MS not chickened out and kept their games permanently exclusive.

Even if Microsoft made all Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios titles exclusive, they would've had roughly the same amount of exclusive content that PlayStation and Nintendo currently have. Plus, building studios from the ground up or signing third-party exclusivity deals wouldn't have been feasible at this stage for a third-place console manufacturer like Xbox; it made sense to buy publishers up, it's pretty much the only way they'd be able to secure exclusive content from major tentpole IPs.

Sure, it would've been bad for PlayStation players in the sense that they'd lose access to Bethesda games, but it would've also been good for them in the long run as it would've encouraged Sony to double down on their first-party exclusive content.

@crackeastwood Sony is releasing so few first-party games that they sign exclusivity deals for third-party developed titles with the sole intent of keeping them off Xbox.

It doesn't matter if they don't acquire the studios outright, when it leads to the same exact outcome.

Nioh, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, etc. All franchises that were taken away from Xbox players.