Sony is blocking Final Fantasy 16 and Silent Hill 2 from Xbox, Microsoft says
Looks like Xbox players won't be returning to Silent Hill
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: PlayStation exclusives
😔 Looks like Final Fantasy 16 and the Silent Hill 2 remake won’t come to Xbox
📃 Microsoft revealed the news in a filing to the UK’s CMA
🤚 It used the opportunity to hit back against Sony’s opposition to its proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard
☹️ Xbox fans will be disappointed
In its latest bid to push through its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has hit out at Sony’s dominance in console gaming, revealing the PlayStation owner has entered into a number of exclusion agreements that will prevent games like the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 and the Silent Hill 2 remake from appearing on Xbox platforms.
The information was revealed in a recent filing made by Microsoft in response to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into the buyout.
“Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the ‘exclusion’ of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on,” the filing reads.
“Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered (Bloober team).”
The filing highlights that “Sony has more exclusive games than Microsoft”, many of which Microsoft says are of “better quality”. Microsoft is likely hoping to shift the spotlight onto Sony and its big bundle of exclusive games to present the PlayStation maker as the dominant force in the gaming industry, thereby assuaging regulators’ fears over the buyout.
For us players and consumers, though, it’s a disappointing and surprising insight into the future of Silent Hill and Final Fantasy. While it had already been announced that the Silent Hill 2 remake would be exclusive to PlayStation for at least 12 months after launch, many had assumed the game would eventually make its way to Xbox consoles. Microsoft’s filing suggests otherwise.
Similarly, trailers have suggested Final Fantasy 16 will be a PS5 exclusive for six months before coming to other systems including PC, but this latest document indicates it will never come to Xbox. That’s disappointing news for Xbox fans, but anyone who’s already secured a PS5 restock will be able to play the much-anticipated JRPG on release.
It’s uncertain whether the buyout will successfully pass. The US’s antitrust regulator the FTC recently sued to block the deal as rumors had intimated. Activision Blizzard, for its part, is confident the deal will pass, while the CMA just recently revealed that the UK public broadly look to favor the deal.