Phil Spencer: Sony buying third party games, all to do with money, not market share

[thismeintiel]

Zekkyou said:

thismeintiel said:

Of course they do.  Why else would SE be kicking themselves in the ass over the TR deal.  I'm pretty sure this is the only time I have EVER heard of a company announcing when the exclusivity ends before the "exclusive" game has even launched.  And this isn't just a few days/weeks before launch, either, but over 3 months from the XBO release.

I don't think that's necessarily because SE are "kicking themselves". I'd assume, based on the fact the bolded is indeed somewhat rare, that it's something normally discussed in the initial deal. That SE were able to make such an announcement when they did would imply that they actively chose not to include a block against such things in the deal (or at least only a short term block). They were obviously happy enough with the deal when they made it, so i don't think that announcement has anything to do with their present feelings.

My guess would be that they knew they'd be upsetting a lot of people with the deal (PlayStation presently being the brand best associated with TR), so thought an early announcement of the deal's length might help negate some of the inevitable long-term negativity that would surround the game.

They made that deal a little over a year ago, when the gap was only 4M.  I'm sure they also saw the sales jump after MS dropped Kinect and dropped the price by $100.  And MS probably let them in on their ideas to make a comeback for the holidays, which worked short term.  However, I doubt they are happy about it now that that gap has grown by another 7M+ in just the time from the agreement.  I doubt MS paid them enough to cover that kind of gap.  I think that led to some renegotiations.