I think with a $100 million budget they were screwed either way.
MS stumps up $20 million for 1 year exclusivity but Xbox has too low of a user base to make profit, which was always obvious.
Multiplatform release gives you more sales, but you now have to make over $100 million to break even, which means >3.7million full price sales or equivalent. Which was maybe more likely than achieving ~ 3 million in full price sales without PS4, but still not guaranteed.
I can totally see the allure of a $20 million cash up front injection. Money now is better than money later, but I don;t know if it was the right path to achieving or maximising profits. It's possible SE simply overestimated the popularity of the reboot and they should have forced a lower budget on the game, thereby reducing the level of concern over profitability.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
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