One of the biggest PlayStation console exclusives was almost an Xbox exclusive, according to a new report. Between games like Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, Bloodborne, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us Part 2, the PS4 had some absolutely killer exclusive games. So far, the PS5 is continuing this trend with the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Gran Turismo, and of course the new God of War Ragnarok. The PlayStation’s most popular console exclusive is none of these award-winning games though, it’s Genshin Impact, a free-to-play game that is still slated to come to Nintendo Switch but remains a PlayStation console exclusive for the moment. While the game is still supposedly Switch-bound, there’s been no word of the game coming to Xbox. And it may never come to Xbox consoles as it sounds like PlayStation locked down some exclusivity deal during the game’s development. Before this happened though, Xbox reportedly had the same opportunity but passed on the game, a decision that likely cost it millions.
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Genshin Impact is one of the most popular games of the last decade, generating billions of dollars since its release. Before its release, not many forecasted the game for extreme success, including Xbox. According to a report from Reuters, which cites two anonymous sources “familiar with the matter,” Microsoft spoke to developer miHoYo early in the game’s development about a potential partnership but couldn’t reach a deal. Not long after this, PlayStation struck a deal in its place.
Adding to this, the report claims the experience has been a major driving force behind Xbox’s growing interest in working with Chinese developers, who are increasingly leaving the Chinese and Asian regional markets in favor of global releases.
Of course, this is all a report, which means that it should be taken with a grain of salt, even if it comes from a respectable source. It’s also worth pointing out that a majority of revenue the game has generated has been on mobile devices, which means it’s unclear how much slice of the pie PlayStation has received as a result of striking a deal with miHoYo when Xbox couldn’t. Whatever the case, even a small slice of the pie would be a lot of money and a very fruitful investment for Sony.
