The controversial “Parity Clause” that Microsoft’s Xbox division operates under has shown to be a divisive subject of conversation amongst both developers and consumers of video games. Phil Spencer however is very clear on his stance, having said “I don’t want somebody to come in and just think ‘I’m going to go do a special game on one platform and then I’ll get to Xbox whenever I get to it.’ I don’t think that’s right”
Now, in a recent interview with Agostino Simonetta, who serves as the European Exec of the ID@Xbox scheme, some strange answers have been given to questions regarding the parity clause. When asked by Eurogamer if there is anything outside of console exclusivity preventing a game coming to Xbox, Simonetta answered, “Correct. Unless a title can never come to Xbox, because a developer has signed a publishing deal with someone else, any title can come to ID@Xbox.”
When asked if this applied when “a game has come out on a previous platform before or not?”, Simonetta diplomatically dodged the question by talking about how the decisions that influence which platform a game launches on can sometimes be outside the developers control due to limited resources.
Remaining evasive when given closed questions to answer, Simonetta refused to give an answer as to whether or not they regretted not getting No Man’s Sky. Not mentioning it, or any or game, by name he said “My personal answer is that we have a very strong line-up.” A somewhat poor answer, all things considered.
It goes without saying that this has left a number of gamers and independent game developers, more than a little confused.
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