…it’s not.
A while ago, Capcom became victim of a ransomware attack, in which the company’s internal documents were accessed and leaked. One of the documents that leaked was a Resident Evil Village marketing agreement between Sony Interactive Entertainment and Capcom, the wording of which has been grossly misinterpreted by Xbox fans.
A “Feature, Content, and Technical Parity” clause in the agreement states:
During the term and for seven years thereafter, publisher will ensure each version of the game available on PS platforms maintains content, feature, and technical parity (subject to material platform limitations) with any equivalent version of the game or DLC released on any other competitive platform or PC/mobile platform. Publisher will not release the game or any DLC on any competitive platforms or PC/mobile platform on an exclusive basis, or offer any additional content or any additional features or benefits to end users of the game on any competitive platform or PC/mobile platform on an exclusive basis.
In layman’s terms, the paragraph above means that Capcom will ensure that the PlayStation versions of Resident Evil Village aren’t technically inferior unless there are platform limitations (hence, “subject to material platform limitations”). This paragraph does not mean that Sony has asked Capcom to limit Xbox Series X versions.
As pointed out by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the wording of the agreement isn’t anything out of the ordinary, and Microsoft has similar Xbox publisher license agreements in place.
For example, here is the Xbox publisher license agreement which has the same wording. And this isn’t even for a marketing deal.https://t.co/eRWhIMtuV2 pic.twitter.com/6qhnllEAbX
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 21, 2021
Capisce?
