The Show
SonyYesterday, Microsoft shocked the gaming world when they announced that MLB: The Show 21, formerly a PlayStation exclusive franchise, was coming to Xbox Game Pass on launch day.
It was already known that The Show 21 would be released on Xbox, but to have that flip from being PlayStation exclusive since 2006 to “free” on Game Pass is a wild switch, and right now, all of this is an extremely bad look for Sony, more so than the usual “Game Pass has X new release” situation.
Here’s a rough timeline about what has apparently happened here, and where we are now:
- In order for Sony to retain the rights to The Show, part of their new MLB deal was that the game had to be multiplatform, hence the release on Xbox.
- But it seems Microsoft went directly to the MLB to try and work out a deal to get it on Game Pass too. The publisher of the Xbox version is listed as the MLB, not Sony. And so some (very large) amount of money was likely paid to make that happen.
- Now we have a situation where The Show has gone from being a Sony exclusive franchise for 15 years to being on Xbox Game Pass day one, with the game still built by San Diego Studios, a first party Sony developer.
- The PlayStation version of the show is listed for $70, while it appears the only way to get both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game together is an $85 bundle.
In short, ouch.
MLB The Show 21
MLBWhile this isn’t like Microsoft stealing Kratos or Nathan Drake or anything, it’s not that far off, honestly, and they have deftly outmaneuvered Sony here, which has now effectively produced a highly sought-after Game Pass game. I suppose it’s possible that Sony/San Diego received some amount of money for all this, as who knows the exact fine print of these deals, but most of this seems driven by the MLB where they wanted their baseball game on more platforms, and if MS will pay them for Game Pass access? Sure, why not.
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Microsoft has always tried to force this advantage over Sony, especially this generation, where Game Pass looks like a good alternative to full-priced games, but usually it’s comparing things like Gears 5 or Sea of Thieves to God of War or Ghost of Tsushima. Sort of apples and oranges and fans could make the argument that those games are “worth” full price on PlayStation, and are just better games in general. But here, this is an example of the same game, where Sony, who made the game, is listing it at $70 on PlayStation while Xbox players simply get it with Game Pass. That’s wild. This sort of happened with Ouriders too, another third party game Xbox snatched up for a Game Pass launch while Sony is selling it at full price, but the difference there is that a Sony studio didn’t make Outriders.
Game Pass is going to continue to be a thorn in Sony’s side indefinitely here, and they reportedly have no plans to match it past their current PS Plus/Now offerings, and things like the PS Plus Collection, a large bundle of great, free games for players. But for new releases, you can bet we are going to keep seeing Microsoft making moves like this, but what they’ve done with The Show here is on another level entirely.
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The Link LonkApril 03, 2021 at 07:38PM
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Game Pass vs $70: The ‘MLB The Show’ Xbox Deal Is A Bad Look For Sony - Forbes
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