Sony and Microsoft seem to be at odds with each other, with both parties attempting to make big moves against the competition on every possible front. Most of the time healthy competition ultimately benefits the end-consumer, but it seems that Sony's recent moves might not be an inherent positive.
While not confirmed and possibly false, documents recently surfaced online stating Sony and Capcom have some kind of agreement prohibiting Capcom from adding the heavily-anticipated Resident Evil Village to Xbox Game Pass for a year. In light of recent decisions and announcements made by the company, this seems a pretty bad move to compensate for a Game Pass competitor.
It's Easily Bad Publicity Right Now
Xbox Game Pass has been rapidly growing in popularity, mostly thanks to Xbox's continued push to make the service a viable alternative to conventional gaming. The tech giant has already made its point by making Outriders and MLB The Show 21 available on the service at launch. Sony and Capcom's unverified documentation seems to hint that Microsoft might be eyeing a Resident Evil Village deal, which seems plausible.
If these documents are to be believed, Sony's approach to combating Game Pass seems to be arguably non-competitive. In spite of at least making the game available on its service, prohibiting less fortunate gamers who rely on Game Pass for the majority of their gaming consumption is certainly a bad move. In addition to this, Sony's recent decisions have garnered a lot of fan backlash, such as the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita store shutdown. The backlash became so severe that Sony evidently reversed its decision.
Sony seems to be overly reliant on developing big-budget games that are bound to sell well. Sony downsized its Japan studio and forced a significant restructuring at Bend Studio; by both rejecting a Days Gone 2 pitch in favor of a new franchise, as well as becoming a supporting role for Naughty Dog's projects. A lot of this certainly comes out as Sony being distant from its community, and the Resident Evil deal adds to that.
Sony Is Silently Making Small Moves For A Change
While a lot of what Sony is doing certainly turns out to be negative, the company is continually putting in efforts to effectively compete with Xbox Game Pass. Sony's PS Plus and PS Now have seen a lot of improvement in the last year, with high-profile releases such as Bugsnax, Destruction AllStars, and Oddworld: Soulstorm being available to subscribers at launch.
In addition to this, original God of War creator David Jaffe has said that Sony is currently working on a potential competitor to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service. Of course, it is understandable that building such platforms requires huge capital, and will probably take some time. For the time being, Sony should instead focus on dumping more and more resources into its PS Plus/PS Now services, which could very well be its saving grace until the rumored competitor sees the light of day.
