Games industry journalist Imran Khan has claimed that Sony has worked to secure plenty of timed-exclusives for PlayStation 5.
Appearing on Kinda Funny Games Daily (as reported by VGC), Khan noted that “There are things you will be shocked to find out that Sony is moneyhatting, like they are locking up for timed exclusivity."
Sony Securing More Timed-Exclusives
That's not "shocked" in a negative sense, either. Khan continued “Like, ‘wow, that is a game that you’re choosing?’ Not because it’s bad, but because it’s huge."
“So I am interested to see what this conversation is going to be in a couple of months because there are games that are widely accepted as multiplatform that Sony is locking up for a little while"
The conversation comes following news that Marvel's Avengers, a game slated for current and next-gen, will introduce Spider-Man as an exclusive character on both PS4 and PS5, leaving Xbox and PC players without access to the wallcrawler.
Crystal Dynamics' studio head Scot Amos commented on the deal in recent days, noting fans feeling left out and wanting to play as Spider-Man "have the option to do so on PlayStation".
As for what Sony could be locking down, that's up for debate.
We know that Godfall will be a PS5 and PC exclusive and that the likes of Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop will be timed-exclusives on the platform.
Call of Duty's marketing lines up with PlayStation at present - could the platform-holder surprise us all by keeping it to PlayStation? That seems highly unlikely, but it could be something we've not heard about.
While many will see these moves as anti-consumer, Sony's dominance in the current generation has largely been down to consistent exclusives, both in terms of first and third-party software.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has acknowledged that many Xbox Series X titles will be playable on the Xbox One family of consoles, while simultaneously tying upcoming releases such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 into its game pass service.