Head of Sony: ‘Xbox Game Pass is Hated’

Microsoft – Activision Blizzard deal, which will be the largest acquisition in history when approved, US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had encountered an obstacle. The commission had blocked the purchase until the court decision.

The much-anticipated court day has finally arrived, and the FTC and Microsoft have come face-to-face. On the fifth and last day of the court, Microsoft and Sony officials took the floor. Jim Ryan, President of Sony Interactive Entertainmentmade striking claims about the game industry.

“All streamers hate Xbox Game Pass”

One of the biggest claims made by Jim Ryan was the Xbox Game Pass system, which led to the renewal of PlayStation Plus within Sony. Ryan, Xbox Game Pass “value destroyer” he called it.

Ryan also stated that the number of Game Pass subscribers is low. Comparing the 25 million subscribers shared in January 2022 with Sony’s 55 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, “considering the money they spent i expected more” he said.

“The reason Xbox games are popular in the US is because they involve shooting”

Another striking explanation that came out of Ryan’s mouth was about why Xbox is more popular in the USA than the rest of the world. According to Ryan, this was because:

“Most Xbox games include an element of shooting, and many of their games are online multiplayer. Both are typically more popular in the US than they are outside of the US.”

It also became clear why Minecraft doesn’t have a PS5 version:

Last week, Xbox President Phil Spencer shared that Sony did not give them a PlayStation developer kit, so the development of the PS5 version of Minecraft was prevented. Today, from Sony even greater explanations came.

Jim Ryan shared that they are hesitant to give the developer kits of future consoles such as PlayStation 6 to a company that is a direct competitor of Sony:

“We cannot risk a company owned by a direct competitor accessing this information.”

It was the same doubts that the PS5 kit was not given to Microsoft:

“Development kits allow developers to have visibility and work on the feature set that our new console will deploy. Delaying development kits often means that a developer can bring their content to the new platform later than usual. The commercial risks associated with leaking information for these feature sets to our main competitor is not something we can rely on to enforce any contract.”