Gotcha, but heres my question & you kind of made my point. You are making it sound as if Microsoft did in fact do what your saying. And on the other hand making Sony look like a church choir. How do you know that Microsoft didnt go to Square & say the same thing?? Look we will help fund the game in exchange for some exclusiveness. And the end result is what we got. Its not like Microsoft made Square do it. They obviously offered something & Square took it because it made sense to them. I just think we may be painting one out to be something its totally not without any inside information. But automatically assume when Sony does it, its ethical & innocent.
But is there an example of Sony doing it?
As a primarily PC gamer, I would still be just as pissed and think it was just as shady... well, if I cared about the game on PC like I did with RotTR... well, I'd think it was shady still, but I wouldn't be as aggravated about it.
You're right, I don't know who approached who... but I don't really care either way, it's the actual agreement that infuriates me and I'm pissed at both parties for entering into it.
I still think it's a lot like a movie theater where customers are waiting in line (gamers of all platforms) and some dude (MS) walks in, circumvents the line, starts talking up the manager (SE), eventually handing him a briefcase FULL of money. The manager then comes over and says, I'm sorry, but we will not be able to allow all of you to see the film tonight, that gentleman has bought out all the seats. And at this point, the guy (MS) just starts picking out people he knows/likes/whatever (Xbox customers) to go in. And even if he doesn't have enough people to fill all the seats, he still says "No, I'm not allowing anyone I didn't choose in here... well, okay, sure, you can come in, but you have to pay me $$$ for the seat and be my new friend." And this repeats for the next few weeks until the film is no longer showing at your local theatre (timed exclusivity).
The analogy continues to work for me on the level that I believe that if someone did this, that there would be increased piracy of the movie online via torrent sites and the like (PC version once it exists/leaked) as well as a drop in the overall success of the movie if extrapolated over a large enough population because there were not enough people interested in the film (RotTR) to pony up whatever to get in via the dude's rules (MS) and by the time the film is released on other avenues (streaming, physical retail, dollar theatre, etc.) a large number of the people who were in line to see it when it came out have lost interest and are now captivated by some other entertainment.