As part of Microsoft’s current Activision-Blizzard deal, there has been some very public back and forth between Sony and Microsoft. Sony has claimed that Call of Duty is a monster that shouldn’t be a first-party title, while Microsoft has said, a couple of times, that it wouldn’t limit Call of Duty to a single platform.
However, in all of this, Microsoft has also claimed that Sony is paying for “blocking rights” that prevent third-party developers from putting games on its Game Pass service. In a way, this is nothing new.
Now, alleged leaked documents from last year showed an agreement between Sony and Capcom that prevented the latter from putting Resident Evil Village in Xbox GamePassand while something could be said about the competition between Sony and Microsoft, the response from Sony a Game Pass shouldn’t be paying to keep games out of it.
Also, the latest game to be caught up in this drama is said to be the indie hit from Devolver Digital, Cult of the Lamb. In it, players take on the role of a possessed lamb who must build a cult in the name of the ominous being that saved them. It’s an interesting premise, and Cult of the Lamb has been compared to Animal Crossing and Hades, which speaks well for the game’s popularity.
However, it is not in Xbox GamePass and the fans took notice. Many Xbox gamers are getting so used to the Day One games on Game Pass that anything that isn’t there is a rarity. But, it is said that Sony paid to keep Cult of the Lamb outside of Xbox Game Pass.
This comes via Kinda Funny’s Gary Whitta, who claims to have heard from a source that Sony did exactly that with Cult of the Lamb. That’s all he has to say on the matter, but given the competitive environment and Sony’s apparently well-known use of “blocking rights,” it’s an easy rumor to believe. Of course, this must be taken with reservations.