Whatabout-isms begin
It seemed like we'd never find ourselves a moment in time when Microsoft's attempts to carve out some small thing of their own in the gaming landscape would come to any result whatsoever. Sony have ruled the roost with their endless console exclusivities, locking award winning games away from literally anyone in the world who didn't have a Playstation- Microsoft somehow managed to find themselves in the role of the plucky underdog, trying to establish their own niche in the shared knowledge that their games would be enjoyed by console players and PC players- because Xbox aren't callous enough to believe they can force console sales out of gaming PC owners. (Plus, I guess Microsoft owns Windows so it's a win-win for them.) Microsoft have gone out their way to gobble up studio after studio but the output has been... meagre and unimpressive to say the least.
Redfall was about the straw that broke the camel's back, when it all seemed beyond hope Microsoft would ever have a backbone to stand with. But now we have Starfield coming to the Xbox fortunes have been aroused for the first time since this whole entertainment arms race began. It's a wild hail mary of a shot, banking on the ability of Bethesda to deliver in a manner they never have before, but it's hope beyond hope that Microsoft and Xbox players would finally have something to call their own. And, of course, Playstation and it's players immediately want it for themselves because that is just the nature of things. There can't be good natured competition, humble respect is a myth, everyone in this world is a parasite who persists sucking the joy out of others.
Sony have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent Microsoft's acquisition of companies under belief that, if given the chance, Microsoft would do something horrible like make console exclusive games. (Imagine that!) The Activision deal has been a particular hotspot, with Sony treating the potential of Activision falling under new management as the coming of the anti-Christ. Sony have acted petulant, kicked over tables and chairs, straight up refused to share PS6 information with Activision if the deal goes through and now they're pointing fingers at Starfield's exclusivity as proof of just how 'unfair' Microsoft is, not letting them have that game. Which I guess means Xbox will be getting Final Fantasy back any day now, right? No? How about God of War? Not that either? Uncharted? Horizon? Literally any game made alongside Playstation studios? I mean Sony wouldn't want to be scum-sucking hypocrites, would they?
But at least Sony have the excuse of being corporate sharks to excuse their behaviour, their fans are just being weird. Point-in-case, the Change.org petition that was started to beg for Starfield to not only be a Playstation game, but to be transferred into a Playstation exclusive. My gut reaction to seeing this was that it must be satire, but if that is the case then it's a poor satire, because the punchline just appears to be the arrogance of a single internet weirdo. That's actually been a reaction that has blossomed across the entire Playstation fandom. Either people saying the game looks terrible, ignoring how the rest of the world is utterly enraptured by what is presented, or claiming that Bethesda are a terrible company that are only capable of putting out bad games because... Fallout 76 was bad and... that's Bethesda's entire catalogue now I guess. (Ignore those consecutive Games of the Years, I guess.)
Meh, enough beating around the bush- let's ask the real question! What has the Xbox community done to not deserve Starfield? Well, the biggest crime seems to be that they're not the Playstation community. As the Petition states, they've had the gall to be excited about the game which the poster has taken to view as wanton arrogance. Honestly, the most discourse I've seen on the game beyond just excitement about it's features are people dogging on it for either being an exclusive or just existing after titles like Destiny 2. Yes, I saw one person rant about how this game is redundant since we already have Destiny 2. Not sure how those games in anyway cross over apart from both being in space, but there you are. So 'arrogance' might be taking it a bit far but there we are.
Xbox as a platform doesn't deserve the game either because it's not the most popular platform and therefore the potential buyer base isn't as large... the same was true with Playstation once but the PS3 still got The Last of Us, now didn't it? And games run better on Sony. Now that one is a bit more interesting, there was one Xbox first party game that did, indeed, run better on the PS5, but by and large the differences between the console have been negligible. And if we're to delve back into history than by a wide margin Bethesda games have tended to run abominably on Playstation. Skyrim was such a mess that there's an entire generation of gamers who seem to think the game was a hardly functioning dumpster fire at launch and seem genuinely surprised when every other platform owner shrugs their shoulders and says "Yeah, it was kinda buggy but nothing game breaking." PS3 Skyrim had to have the DLC delayed for months whilst Bethesda tried to figure out how to make the game stay in one piece, it was bad!
And last of all; Sony fans are just the only one's who would appreciate a game like that, the poster claims. Quality gaming is the home of Sony and exclusively Sony, and all the lower ambition trite should wash up on Xbox. By the sheer merit of turning out to be rather ambitious, maybe the most ambitious game that Bethesda has made, the title was instantly disqualified for the Xbox library and should be transferred post haste. And Xbox players should be deprived of the game because... they smell funny, I guess. You can tell why I thought this was a satire, I bet. But somehow it makes the whole thing even funnier to think it actually isn't and someone out there is really this twisted up about one single exciting looking game that they can't get their hands on. Oh, the humanity.
Now as I've said before, I'm not a believer in exclusivity as a concept. I think it's painfully redundant to the pursuit of the art of gaming and places far too much importance on hardware when it's the products themselves that deserve scrutiny. But I understand that exclusivity deals have helped fund some truly incredible products and I'm not heartless to the extreme financial commitment any odd video game simply demands. So when between a rock and a hardplace, I'm always going to default to supporting the platform that serves the most people, and as long as Sony remains bitterly allergic to the PC audience that's always going to be Microsoft. Here's an idea; why not everybody just start releasing their 'permenent exclusivity' contracts in favour of timed ones and we can all get back to enjoying gaming again?
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