Microsoft: Sony made arrangements to stop publishers from distributing games on Xbox

The $69 billion Activision megadeal sparked a huge battle between Microsoft and Sony, who are both desperate to convince competition watchdogs to side with them. In November, we got a closer look at the arguments of the two giants through their own submitted documents to the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, which released the documents to the public. And when the people had thought they scrutinized the statements enough to know everything, a huge detail was revealed to be overlooked: there is a huge chance Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XVI, and Silent Hill 2 Remake will never be on Xbox.

The submitted responses of Microsoft and Sony to CMA contain a lot of interesting information, so it is easy to get lost and miss some chunky items. Nonetheless, Xbox news page on Twitter Xbox News for Koreans was able to spot a huge revelation many failed to notice when Microsoft’s document was shared with the public in November.

According to the passage highlighted, Sony made agreements with third-party publishers to exclude Xbox from the platforms where they will make their games available. Microsoft directly named these publishers and their games as Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XVI, From Software’s Bloodborne, and Bloober team’s Silent Hill 2 Remastered. Interestingly, there’s more to the list since Microsoft said these are just “some prominent examples.” Here is the direct statement from Microsoft:

“In addition to having outright exclusive content, Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the “exclusion” of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on. Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered (Bloober team).”

One of the biggest proofs that back up Microsoft’s statement is the PlayStation-timed exclusive Final Fantasy VII Remake, which initially gave Xbox fans some hope that they would soon be able to play it on their platform. However, this tease was a false hope as it seemed Square Enix was only referring to its PC games. And as everyone knows, Final Fantasy VII Remake is already on Steam for Windows, leaving Xbox fans brokenhearted after realizing Sony won’t allow them to touch it. If Microsoft’s word is to be taken seriously, the same could be the fate of Silent Hill 2 Remastered and other games.

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