Microsoft says Sony paid third parties to keep games off Xbox
At this point I’m more concerned with Windows exclusivity. Obviously there’s a financial incentive for Xbox to only release on Windows, but it’s hard to argue you’re not locked into a platform in a similar way.
When games are developed for “PC” that means “Windows” unless otherwise noted. If something works on Linux or OSX that is usually specifically called out on the game.
The direction Windows is going with Win11 is concerning enough that a non-trivial number of people (myself included) are planning a move to Linux for desktop workstations once Win10 goes EOL next year. At that point I’d be locked out of games that only work on Windows in the same way I’m locked out from console exclusives. (And yes, I know it’s possible to emulate/Wine/dual boot - all of those options still require a license that I’m not interested in.)
Steam seems to be pushing Linux pretty hard, and it’s working for a lot of develoeprs, but there’s still a lot of AAA games not jumping on that bandwagon.
