11 US Congressmen ask Biden Admin to pressure Japan over allowing Sony to buy console exclusivity deals

[Kyuu]

chakkra said:

Zippy6 said:

Because Xbox did so well in Japan when they did have access to Final Fantasy last generation. Even if somehow banning Sony from third party exclusive deals was possible it will not change Xbox's fortunes in Japan. This is incredibly stupid and obviously motivated from a nationalistic desire to see an American based company gain dominance, or simply complete ignorance of the Japanese market.

Not one of these politicians knows the games market well. They got told something and now they will parrot it without understanding the reasons to further their agenda.

Have you ever stop to consider why does Sony even bother blocking FF and other japanese games from coming to Xbox? What exactly do they gain from it?

It almost feel like they are wasting money that they could have used into developing more 1st party games.

My two cents: Sony likely allocate an annual "moneyhatting budget" to complement their 1st/2nd party studios which are at full capacity; budget isn't the only bottleneck. Also, they're probably not paying anywhere near enough to fund a full decent game. Some of these exclusivity deals are initiated by the 3rd party publisher who may have little faith in an Xbox version selling well and think "Hey, let's see if Sony can moneyhat us and help market our game". They won't necessarily ask for much.

Finally... part of the Playstation appeal (PS1 and PS2 in particular) was "high quality 3rd party exclusives" that may no directly sell that much (especially not on Xbox to warrant PS exclusivity) but constitute the reputation and diversity of the console's game library. Their sales figures don't reflect their full benefits; they add value upon accumulation.