Microsoft CEO says he'd 'love to get rid' of exclusives but it's all Sony's fault, your honor
pcgamer.comMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella is one of the many suits answering questions in court, as the US Federal Trade Commission attempts to block the software giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $65 billion. Nadella was asked about Microsoft's strategy in cloud gaming, its ambitions within videogames and, at one point, the much-discussed value of exclusive titles.
«If it was up to me I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles,» said Nadella. «But that’s not for me to define, especially as a low share player in the console market. The dominant player there has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world.»
It is clear from the context of these hearings that when Nadella says «dominant player» he's referring to Sony, with Microsoft's lawyers having a strategy of putting on the 'poor me' face while pointing to PlayStation's dominance in most global markets. PlayStation has of course always had a focus on exclusives, and grown into a formidable first-party developer as well as having the money to bankroll third-party exclusives (with oft-extraordinary results such as Bloodborne). Even if many of its titles are now finding their way to PC years later, a big selling point for PlayStation consoles remains the exclusive titles.
Needless to say, when PlayStation's head Jim Ryan was giving (pre-recorded) testimony, he said Xbox and Game Pass was actually the big problem here! Ryan said «all publishers unanimously do not like Game Pass because it's value destructive», that Sony had to «massively» invest in firstparty exclusives just to keep the wolves from its door, and added for good measure that it wasn't in Microsoft's interests to keep Activision
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