I came across this story about the voice actor, Jason Kelly, who plays Colt in Deathloop:

Deathloop voice actor didn't have a PS5 so Bethesda bought him one | Metro News

According to the article, Jason posted on Twitter (half-jokingly, he claims) that he wished someone would send him a PS5 to play Deathloop. Besthesda's Pete Hines responded to his tweet, saying that MS would send him a PS5.

Jason later confirmed that he received the PS5, and a copy of the game.

Interesting times.

I love this whole dumb weird thing. It is so bizarre to see Microsoft not be able to directly promote a game from their in-house studio because it's exclusive to their competitor's platform. They're having fun with it which is great. Gives me a good chuckle every time.

they're just trying to be sport about it. Otherwise, they could have given him a gaming pc/laptop and an XSX gamepad.

Weren’t they all sold out?

So is this the last of the Microsoft Studios games contractually obligated to release on Playstation?

@frytup: Ghostwire Tokyo

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a PS5 "timed console exclusive" as well. I believe that is the final Bethesda game with a contractually obligation with Sony that MS needs to adhere to.

Also, while not a contractual obligation, I don't think we're likely to see MS stop releasing Minecraft on every platform under the sun.

So Microsoft has been hording the PS5 stock all along.

PS.

Microsoft, I need a PS5 to play Deathloop too.

Let me try this. Ahem. Arby's! I sure do wish someone would give me the meat!

Wait. Wait, no.

It’s like the least surprising thing in the world that Microsoft would either have PS5s to spare and/or the hookup through back channels to get one for this guy.

First of all, of course Microsoft has PS5s in their buildings, being played on the clock by employees. It’s called competitive research, and everyone does it. There are people hired by McDonald’s whose job is to eat Burger King and share thoughts. It’s not like they would never deign to ply a PS5 due to some purity policy. And on top of that, people that make games play games, even in the cases of it being just for work. Phil Spencer has a PS5. So does Miyamoto. It’s not like Vince McMahon not understanding movies vs wrestling as a source of entertainment.

Also, in the same vein, people at Microsoft have the job of taking PS5s apart to try to figure out their hardware and reverse engineer what they do to see if there are ways to mimic and/or do what they do better. Again, just logical competitive research.

Finally, the Microsoft approach publicly these days is a big tent, games are for everyone no matter how you get them approach. Yes, it’s still a completion, and you can read things like acquiring studios as aggressive moves, but their PR is not openly hostile. They are not putting out ads in the style of Sega does what Nintendont. It’s not to say that they don’t make hostile moves at all, but it’s more business hostility, not hearts and minds. If anything, the whole Deathloop exclusivity thing has been an example of them garnering public appeal for not being the guys that bought the company and aggressively shut down the past deal.

This story is funny, but it’s also sort of a nothingburger.

@tartyron: I don't think anyone is trying to read anything into this or thinks it's somehow significant in any way. It's just an amusing situation.

That's pretty interesting to hear this story, similar to something from 5 years ago, one of the guys from Remedy Entertainment who sent their physical copy of Quantum Break to Naughty Dog (The studio behind the Uncharted series).