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Sony Had 'No Involvement' in Death Stranding Deal with PC Game Pass

Maybe they just have a contract saying they have the rights to publish the game on PC and that opened the door for it to be included on Gamepass. I doubt that Sony is happy with it but also no mad enough to do anything against 505, maybe 505 just had nothing to lose by taking the deal if they were offered good money.


Then third-party devs are left hanging if MS strategy of expanding Gamepass is successful. Good luck trying to convince people that got used to getting your games "for free" to pay $60 or $70 and good luck selling games on Xbox when it's entirely marketed around gamepass.

Then that would have been amended on Sony's end if they had an issue with it. 505 are in no position to fight on this. They're in a privilaged position
 
You can end or amend contractual agreement in case you didn't know, and yes, they need leverage if they wanted to fight Sony here.
Again, 505 doesn't need to fight for anything as they are well within their right to do anything with Death Stranding on the PC front. It would be Sony fighting an uphill battle if they seriously wanted to stop 505 Games from going through with the GamePass deal as they have no power over what the publisher wants to do in that space. Owning the IP doesn't help Sony's side when they signed away the publishing rights to a 3rd party.
 
Again, 505 doesn't need to fight for anything as they are well within their right to do anything with Death Stranding on the PC front. It would be Sony fighting an uphill battle if they seriously wanted to stop 505 Games from going through with the GamePass deal as they have no power over what the publisher wants to do in that space. Owning the IP doesn't help Sony's side when they signed away the publishing rights to a 3rd party.

They're well within their rights because Sony allows it. Yes that can be taken away. That's what owning the IP entails.

They would not be fighting an uphill battle lmao. Get fucking real here lmao. You're too desperate to turn this into some Xbox win
 
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freefornow

Member
There is no way Game Pass is financially viable. Microsoft just have too much money and it’s betting on something so risky. Games are not like movies where you just have a file that needs to buffer while watching it. Games need updates, stable connection every time, and much more investment.

I believe that not even Microsoft with PS2 levels of market share would make Game Pass viable.
Spider Man Lol GIF


MS will be fine. No need for the concern.
 

Haint

Member
Ah....ok. I misread that part. Even still, I don't think that represents the amount of money being distributed to third party. Aaron Greenberg has said Game Pass was not "a big profit play" yet. The loftiest word Phil Spencer has said is that it is "sustainable". So no, I don't think your claims about what the money from Game Pass could fund is realistic.

It can fund a sea of indies until the cows come home (which lets be honest, represents like 90% of its present library outside first parties). I also doubt they're paying a mint for "AAA" legacy/catalog titles either. New AAA third partys is the part thats arguably unsustainable unless they reach like 100+ million subs.
 
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That 505 would actually fight with Sony if they didn't want DS on gamepass
Maybe who knows, the contract they have with Sony probably didn't go ever it and it opened the door. What do you want Sony to do? They'll just move on, it's not a big deal at all.

Now that Sony is publishing their own games on PC this door has closed.
 
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Maybe who knows, the contract they have with Sony probably didn't go ever it and it opened the door. What do you want Sony to do? They'll just move on, it's not a big deal at all.

I'm not telling Sony to do anything. DS being on PC gamepass just tells me Sony doesn't care. Nothing more nothing less.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
It can presently fund a sea of indies until the cows come home (which lets be honest, represents like 90% of its present library outside first parties). I also doubt they're paying a mint for "AAA" legacy/catalog titles either. New AAA third partys is the part thats arguably unsustainable unless they reach like 100+ million subs.

Yeah, I agree with you here. Lots of indies and older AAA games to keep the service sustainable until first party starts churning out content.
 
I'm not telling Sony to do anything. DS being on PC gamepass just tells me Sony doesn't care. Nothing more nothing less.
If they cared what would they be able to do? They have no say in it apparently, so unless they were willing to threaten to retaliate 505 there was nothing to do.

Yeah, I agree with you here. Lots of indies and older AAA games to keep the service sustainable until first party starts churning out content.
No service is going to become popular on the back of indie games.
 
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If they cared what would they be able to do? They have no say in it, unless they were willing to threaten 505, no point in doing that.

Stop it? Again, they own it. and why would 505 even try to refuse? Again they have no standing. All they have is a relationship built on good faith and they certainly aren't throwing that away over a three year old title
 
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Stop it? Again, they own it. and why would 505 even try to refuse? Again they have no standing. All they have is a relationship built on good faith and they certainly aren't throwing that away over a three year old title
Stop it how if it up to 505? No way Sony cares that much about this, they might not even care at all if some of the money ends up back in their hands.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
im not surprise here, isnt 505 the publisher here?
 
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Rights reversion is a thing. if 505 decided to be stupid and play difficult yes they can terminate it. In what world do you sign away your property without recourse?
Damn, then why doesn't Marvel/Disney do that with the Spider-Man movie right? Wake up.

Which is why I think its popularity will grow once first party gets up to speed.
Maybe, it hasn't got up to speed in 20 years... we'll see.
 
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Lasha

Member
Rights reversion is a thing. if 505 decided to be stupid and play difficult yes they can terminate it. In what world do you sign away your property without recourse?

In what world do you pay to license something where the other party can unilaterally revoke the rights you are paying for without recourse? Sony can't renege on a licensing deal if the licensee is not in contractual violation of the agreement.
 
Clearly sony doesn't care about the PC branch of gamepass.
I guess either they forgot to define clear dates for how long and if they want exclusive subscription rights, or the defined period is already over. It's hardly the most important title among the major ones on PS+. So 505 might have been allowed to do it, or they waited just out of courtesy some time, or behind doors they are now fighting and 505 might be handled a little differently in the future if the contract allowed it cause Sony did not envision PC Gamepass then. For the customer irrelevant, companies are fighting all the time (Samsung vs Apple) but it may or may not alter the partnership between Sony and 505, if Sony did not plan to allow it or there might be no argument at all, just how they actually planned it.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Thank you, thought I was the only one. 600K is 3 or 4 devs max for one year anywhere in the USA. It’s nothing.

They make approximately 180~ m in revenue from game pass monthly alone (via Ampere), it's barely broaching 3% of one months revenue for a year or more of access. Pittance for MS but likely a very good deal for the small indie developers.
 
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yurinka

Member
Sony had “no involvement” with Death Stranding’s release on PC Game Pass, despite the platform holder owning the intellectual property and funding the development of the title. “Matters relating to the PC release of Death Stranding are managed by Kojima Productions and 505 Games,” a spokesperson told us. “SIE has no involvement in this promotion.”

It raises the question: how has the Japanese giant managed to negotiate a licensing deal where it has zero control over where its product is ultimately distributed? Obviously, we’ve seen a similar situation unfold with MLB The Show.

It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the PC Game Pass version of the release will be based on the original Death Stranding campaign, and not its expanded Director’s Cut. The latter was alsopublished by 505 Games on storefronts such as Steam, so it’s possible a different licensing arrangement may have been drawn up for that particular version of the game.
This isn't an MLB situation. What kind of leverage do you think 505 have over Sony that they can't control their own IP?

Think a little

Sony signed wih Kojima to allow him to publish it on PC via another publisher many years ago. I may be wrong but I think Kojima mentioned a PC version almost at the same time he announced the game or that had a game with Sony. That publisher, 505 decides how it's distributed, price cuts, discounts, etc. Back then Sony didn't publish their blockbusters on PC, so had to do this kind of deal.

Gamepass PC didn't exist back then, so pretty likely the deal they had didn't include an anti-gamepass clause. So Sony can't do anything to stop it now because they signed back then a deal with certain conditions. MLB The Show is different: MLB owns the IP and licenses Sony to make the game and publish it on PS. MLB themselves publish it on other platforms so MLB is the one who decides if they include it on GP or not and Sony can't stop it because as in the case of DS PC, Sony doesn't publish MLB The Show on Xbox. And in that case, Sony doesn't own the MLB IP.

There are older cases of Sony allowing 2nd party games to publish their games on PC with non-Sony publishing. Like the games from ThatGameCompany or Quantic Dream. So eventually they could end on PC GP too.

But other than that, forget to see internally developed Sony 1st party games on GP or pretty likely newer 2nd party games because probaly Sony would publish themselves on PC and wouldn't put them on GP, or pretty likely if they allow someone else to publish them then they'd pretty likely apply a anti-rival gamesubs clause on the deal similar to the one we saw in the leaked Resident Evil Village marketing deal contract.
 
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Foilz

Banned
I wish we knew how much money MLB the show made from IAP on gamepass compared to psn. I'm sure it being on Xbox there had to be a big boost to rev
 
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