Sony has already lined up a number of major exclusives through third-party publishers for PS5, like GhostWire: Tokyo and Deathloop from Bethesda – not to mention exclusive Spider-Man DLC for the PlayStation versions of Marvel's Avengers.
Now, though, a new rumor suggests that more multiformat games are destined to become PS5 exclusives – at least for a timed period. On Kinda Funny Games' Games Daily show, writer Imran Khan, formerly a Game Informer senior editor, shared a little info from an unnamed source about Sony's plans for PS5.
"There are things you will be shocked to find out that Sony is moneyhatting, that they are locking up for timed exclusivity," Khan says. "'Wow, that is a game that you're choosing?' Not because it's bad, but because it's huge.
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"So I am interested to see where this conversation is going to be in a couple of months, because there are games that are widely accepted as multi-platform that Sony is locking up for a little while."
You can watch the clip below.
Khan's wording suggests that exclusivity may be involved with a game that's already been announced. We wouldn't like to speculate on that front, but it suggests Sony has big ambitions beyond the line-up games we already know about.
State of play
Sony isn't new to timed exclusives. This year's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is largely expected to release on Xbox and PC at some point next year, after debuting on PS4.
One of Xbox's biggest moves of this generation, meanwhile, was lining up Rise of the Tomb Raider for Xbox One exclusivity back in 2015. The game then released 11 months later on other platforms, including PS4.
For Microsoft's part, the Xbox Series X will be the only next-gen console to get the game Yakuza: Like a Dragon this holiday season, though it will still release on PS5.
If Khan's timeframe of a couple of months is true, we should find out about more PS5 exclusives before the console's expected launch in November.
Are exclusives good for players?
When exclusives come from third-party developers and publishers, it's a very different deal to Sony or Microsoft releasing their own in-house exclusive games like The Last of Us 2 or Halo Infinite. From a player perspective, it's more like certain platforms have been denied the opportunity to play something cool, just because a deal was made that was in the platform holder's best interests.
When it comes to DLC, exclusivity has been around for a long time, though usually on a timed basis. For full games, it's a rare occurrence, but it arguably makes more sense to platform holders at the start of a new and very competitive generation of consoles.
In some cases, PC players are arguably in the best position to benefit. GhostWire: Tokyo and Deathloop seemingly aren't coming to Xbox at launch, but they will launch on PC.
