Sony and Ubisoft may have struck an exclusive deal to give PlayStation 5 players more than those on other platforms in the new Avatar game.

Reddit has discovered Sony’s latest strategy briefing, and here, Avatars: Frontiers of Pandora is mentioned with several games that are currently timed PlayStation 5 exclusive titles (Forspoken, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Deathloop), but there are also console exclusive titles on the list (Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy XVI).

There was also a deal between Sony and Take-Two for the latest re-release of Grand Theft Auto V: the standalone Grand Theft Auto Online was available for free for PlayStation Plus players for a limited time. For NBA 2K, Take-Two’s annual North American basketball sports game, PlayStation 5 is the official console for eSports events (NBA 2K League), and the FIFA license from Electronic Arts, which is leaving them this year, follows in similar footsteps (here the battle is being fought in FIFA 22 Global Series).

So Ubisoft’s game stands out somewhat from the list, as it is a multiplatform title. It’s coming to PlayStation 5, but it’s also launching on Xbox Series, Google Stadium, Amazon Luna and PC by March 2023, so there’s no exclusivity in sight. Therefore, there is some kind of marketing agreement between Yves Guillemot and Jim Ryan (head of Ubisoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment, respectively). It could be something like the exclusivity Sony and Activision Blizzard used to have with Call of Duty (the franchise went from Xbox 360 to PlayStation 4, so Sony was the first to have beta testing and new content). Is the mention due to Ubisoft+?

Speaking of Activision Blizzard’s license, there’s a bit of weirdness. Sony has left Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (in development at Infinity Ward) off its list. Maybe Sony is already prepared for Bobby Kotick’s company to end up under Microsoft (as did ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda)? Sounds logical.

Source: PSL