Judge Corley Cited Final Fantasy XVI As A Reason For Her MS Injunction Decision

gameranx.com:

Thanks to a newly unredacted version of District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s decision, we now know a key reason why she blocked FTC’s injunction, clearing the way for the MS Activision deal.

Florian Mueller shares the pertinent section, but you can read it yourself in page 9 of the document. As Judge Clorey stated;

“As a game publisher, Sony’s PlayStation Studios, is responsible for blockbuster hits like God of War, The Last of Us, and Spider-Man, the vast majority of which can be played only on PlayStation.

And as a purchaser of third-party games, Sony views exclusive content as crucial to PlayStation’s continued success and to “differentiate [their] platform.”

As a result, Sony offers far more exclusive first- and third- party titles than Xbox. Sony also enjoys “an enormous competitive advantage” because it can draw on the intellectual property of “Sony Music, Sony TV, and Sony’s film library” for its game development.

The number of exclusive games available on PlayStation dwarfs the number available on Xbox, with eight exclusive games on PlayStation for every one on Xbox.

Sony has often paid third-party studios to “skip” Xbox—either entirely or to delay a title’s release on Xbox.

For example, on June 22, 2023, while this trial was happening, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XVI, the latest release in the iconic Final Fantasy franchise, exclusive to PlayStation 5.

Previous versions of Final Fantasy shipped on Xbox, but the reason Final Fantasy XVI is a PlayStation exclusive is because Sony “pa[id] to exclude Xbox.”

ZeniMax, too, was paid by Sony not to ship Deathloop or Ghostwire for Xbox, and one of the reasons Microsoft bought ZeniMax was concern Sony would also arrange for Starfield to go exclusive and