The ransomware attack and subsequent release of a huge amount of files from Insomniac Games, not only highlighted the studio’s future plans for the next decade but also contained documents that were seemingly a lot closer to Sony’s chest.
Insomniac is a Sony Studio but the hack included a set of slides from the Japanese tech giant expressing concern that Microsoft‘s strategy could lead to the Xbox overtaking PlayStation in the coming years, reports Eurogamer.
The presentation appears to be an analysis of the threat Microsoft poses under the lens of the recent landmark acquisition of Activision Blizzard and its games such as Call of Duty and mobile king Candy Crush being pushed to the forefront and being able to, “disrupt and threaten console gaming and game subscription markets.”
Sony went on in the slides to identify that the acquisition could give Microsoft the opportunity to “leapfrog our current pillars, “ which Eurogamer states they then go on to classify as “already dated and behind the competition”.
It is entirely possible in the days and weeks ahead that more potentially damaging internal documents may be discovered in the file cache that were lurking undeleted on the server Rysida got access to. It is going to take some time for those interested in sifting through the ill-gotten gains to check every file.
For now, Sony sees Microsoft’s model of Game Pass as, although dangerous, as unworkable as an “expectation of free, best-in-class games creates [an] unsustainable model.” where monthly subscription fees fail to cover the investment put into game production.
Microsoft currently brings its big AAA titles such as Starfield and Forza directly to its Game Pass subscription service as Day One releases, meaning that players with a subscription do not need to fork out for the full price of the game. Sony meanwhile keeps its major releases such as Spider-man 2 and the Horizon games away from its own PlayStation Plus service, using that to focus on providing older games and newer, smaller titles.
