That kind of money just sounds to much, For example Xbox could sell the first 15m Series X consoles $50 cheaper and that adds up to $750m and I'd consider that money much better spent than paying to remove access to a game on another platform.

That money is insane. No way it’s real.

Looked through his twitter, just another PS fanboy concern troll, lol.

True. I think it was announced timed-exclusive for PS long time ago. The first one was a timed exclusive on 360.

FF16 is almost a given at this point. SF6 - maybe, but I won't say it would make much sense for Sony. All SF community is already on PS because of SF5 exclusivity, so not sure what Sony gets from it. Silent Hill also I would say unlikely as a Twitter account was found for it and it has someone from MS as a follower. I doubt that MS employee would follow the hidden Silent Hill account if it was gonna be PS timed exclusive.

Not sure if it can be considered as a moneyhat, but as I see it, Sega hasn't intended to bring Yakuza 7 to next gen at launch. MS was interested in having Series X optimized version at console's launch, so they paid Sega to get them to make Series X version for console's launch. PS5 version is expected to release when it's ready sometime after game's release.

Not really. I also wouldn't be happy if Xbox users would just play these games on GamePass instead of buying them just to piss off publishers for making these deals. It would make the situation even worse in the future. Because it will decrease the sales of games on Xbox even further, making it even cheaper for Sony to offer such deals. The less game sales on Xbox, the cheaper it is for Sony to moneyhat such deals. And it's also not to mention that Microsoft probably pays to publishers to have their games launch on GamePass as they are definitely losing money on potential sales by doing so. The publishers will be really happy though if industry comes to this. First, they receive a truck load of money to keep the game off Xbox for a year. Then, they receive another truck load of money from MS to launch late port on GamePass. And they won't really lose that much on any sales as Xbox gamers won't be buying games in protest anyway. 

It's not about MS being worth 16x more than Sony or Phil. Nothing of it has anything to do with it. It's just a simple fact that MS fails to acknowledge and somehow Phil himself always speaks that he doesn't care about it but in reality he must care about it. Xbox is not selling well, that's the fact. Which means that Xbox userbase and potential software sales are way less than on PS. Which results in Sony having to pay way less than MS to get these deals. As we've heard from the same rumors, MS is also looking into getting such deals (and rightfully so), but it just costs them way too much that they think it's not worth it. To be honest, if I were MS, I would pay even if it costs that much because right now is a very important time for them to spend anything that helps them get back to being competitive. Even though, these deals are shitty, they matter to make a platform successful. It's just the way it is. Sony already have a huge advantage coming off extremely successful PS4 gen. MS can't afford to continue being beaten up in next-gen as well.

Well, I would say that it is really weird how everything turned out exactly the opposite of what it seemed from the start of next gen. MS has a lot of positive stuff going on at the beginning of the year - surprise Series X announcement at TGA last December, having more powerful console, all the tech stuff regarding B/C, enhancements for existing games, etc. While Sony on other hand, had a laughable logo reveal and the tech presentation about SSD. It all seemed like MS is really in for the win coming into next gen with a lot of exciting stuff, it was like MS has a well-prepared strategy, a defined roadmap, while the arrogant Sony has come back. Oh boy, how wrong it was. Now all the MS marketing campaign has turned out to be a mess of things that contradict themselves. Both game showcases turned out to be below everyone's expectations. And MS themselves are seemingly already going back with console sales doesn't matter mentality like they were doing during Xbox One gen. Basically admitting defeat before the fight even started. The worst part I would say is that Sony presumably has still a lot of stuff they haven't shown which can blow everyone away, while the only thing that MS still hasn't opened is Lockhart which we all know about and (if it happens) the drop of multiplayer paywall (which seems unlikely now after MS employee spoken up about that). I would say price really matters for MS. They can't afford to sell Series X for more than even digital PS5 at this point given all the stuff that's going on. So, I hope that they understand this pretty well before making a pre-order announcement. I would also say, that they need to drop Gold no matter how it can cost them in a long run. Don't be greedy. This would give a much needed advantage over PS5. If they fuck up the August pricing and services stuff, Series X is gonna be in for a very rough start.

Can't have your cake and eat it too.

If a publisher wants to go the route of giving certain audiences the shaft, in exchange for some immediate compensation, they can't then expect that said audience will later welcome their game with open arms. I'm not going to boycott these games because I want to "piss them off," I'm going to not spend money on these games because they've told me that my money isn't particularly important to them. If you don't want me to believe that my money is not important to you, don't tell me that my money isn't important to you. Simple.

The fact of the matter is that in this day and age, there is an abundance of quality entertainment at all times. Be it games, music, movies, tv shows...whatever. I am literally never lacking for something to watch, play, or listen to. I don't have to concern myself with hurting some publishers feelings, because I didn't happily open my wallet for them regardless of how little effort they make to earn my business. I'm not going to lose a second of sleep over that.

MS has done BS in the past with money hats, let's not kid ourselves. GTA DLC, Rise of the Tomb Raider, etc. However, to me it looks like they are changing for the better. Investing in game pass and first party above these insane moneyhats I really don't want to hear that BS about those launch "exclusives." Imagine being so short sided that you compare indie games and lower budget game on game pass to multi million dollar publishers like SE or Take Two. There is clearly a distinction. I hope when they are shown there is at least 1/4 the backlash Xbox got for TR though.

As Ryuu said, these timed exclusives from publishers do absolutely nothing except for the 13 year olds that champion this console war BS. Shame on gaming websites for perpetuating this BS as well.

I would disagree with doesn't benefit anyone part. It benefits the platform holder who is doing this first of all, and it also benefits their users long term no matter how shitty it is. Sony has been doing it throughout the entire PS4 gen and of course such deals play a significant part in PS4 becoming a huge success that it is. And PS4 users benefitted from it. It's literally impossible to imagine a game dev not releasing a game on Playstation console considering how huge it is. If MS spending 750m on timed exclusivity for a big game will result in people jumping in to the Xbox ecosystem and strengthtening the Xbox position on the market, if it will result in more games coming to Xbox. OF course I'll be all for it. Who won't? 

But well, I still hope that at some point we won't be seeing such deals, because it's essentially a bribe, which is a crime when it comes to politics, but for some reason it is allowed in gaming industry and not prohibited by any law.

Yet, meanwhile Microsoft has decreased the money invested in moneyhats and marketing deals, we'll soon see more games coming to Xbox and better services like game pass. I would argue the benefit of moneyhats you describe is quite minimal for consumer.

On previous topic, I'd say it would be good business for publishers to launch their PS5 timed-exclusive games on game pass. They get a shitload of players and potential mtx purchasers, while GP games also seem to sell well. Just look at No Man's Sky, doubt it sold much on Xbox but after game pass they've been boasting about their success.

I think there's still a chance that AT&T changes their mind about selling the WB gaming division in the first place, but we'll see.

Destiny, Street Fighter, even Call of Duty deal, all of these happened in the first couple of years into the generation. And yes, as you mentioned, Sony had all the stuff in bold going on for them which made the first push and then they started to double down on it by making these deals, increasing their marketshare even further. For PS5 they don't have the hardware which means that they felt the need to double down on such deals once again. As I've said, this thing is shit and shouldn't be happening but it until it stops working, it's not gonna change. It's a bad, anti-consumer strategy but it works. Sony just literally makes sure that if someone doesn't want to miss out on some big games on the date of release, Playstation is the only option on the console side. And as we've seen, it pays off because as I've already mentioned, skipping Playstation is not an option for game developers.

Not every game has MTX yet (and hopefully never will). And it seems like that's exactly the type of games Sony is looking to moneyhat, though I can be wrong. FF16 is the most rumored one and I don't see it having any MTX stuff in it. You also seem to have missed the most important part of my post. It would be great for MS and GamePass I guess if these games will do well once they launch on the service and many people will play them. But it would definitely suck for Xbox community if these shitty practice will allow publishers to still be successful on Xbox platform by launching the game later than on PS. Because then it would become the norm which shouldn't happen. In the best case scenario, doing such deals should hurt publishers financially so they would stop doing this.