LittleBlueAlien

It's a master stroke by Phil Spencer. If Sony signs the deal, it gives them the guarantee they need and the regulators can let the acquisition go forward. If Sony refuses to sign and continues to argue against the buy-out, Sony will then have to explain to the regulators how having guaranteed access for 10 YEARS somehow threatens their market position if the acquisition goes forward. COD is not the real prize here for Microsoft - it's the studios and the backlog of unused IP that Activision has locked in the basement. All Sony cares about is one frickin' title - and that demonstrates weakness, lack of strategy and flat-out ruthless business tactics.

@Prime_Objective well it's technically lost profit - not direct cost - but since we're going down that route - if they can't give everyone $10 - how can they possibly justify free games every month? Again, if it's that big a deal to do it for everyone - they should just have not done it

@phil_j better to not do it at all really. Considering how little it is - I would think you'd do it for everyone or forget it. It just causes unnecessary reputational damage.

to be fair, Sony isn't in complete control of what is and is not compatible - this comes down to licensing from individual publishers. At present, legal agreements on PS4 titles are for the Playstation 4 platform only. To ensure a title works on PS5, all studios will need to sign-off on a new agreement that would permit Sony to allow their titles to play on the new platform.

@zeppray with you on that - my best mate did four tours and i've lost all interest in war shooters

@MarcG420 i disagree. The Series X doesn't have the throughput that the PS5 does but it does have a lot (and still significantly more than previous gen) - also - the Series X compensates with a more efficient texture processing capability so I think between the two they will probably balance each other out

pfft - just NDA's at play here. Nothing to derive from this either way.