The type of games this was affecting was never specified, however screenwriter Gary Whitta recently claimed that Sony had paid Cult of the Lamb’s developer, Massive Monster, to stop the indie-hit from appearing on Xbox’s service. The game’s publisher Devolver Digital has now rebuked Whitta’s statement. Responding to The Gamer, a spokesperson for the company said “this is absolutely not true”. The claim Sony was blocking games from going onto Games Pass emerged in light of Microsoft’s intent to buy Activision Blizzard, in a record breaking $68bn deal. It started when Sony argued that Activision’s Call of Duty is a franchise with no rival. In short, the PlayStation maker suggested, among other things, that the inclusion of Call of Duty on Microsoft’s Game Pass service would hamper its ability to compete. Microsoft hit back at Sony following these remarks, and claimed Sony itself hampered competition by paying developers for “blocking rights”, to prevent titles appearing on Xbox Game Pass. As for Cult of the Lamb, it seems to be doing just fine without being included in Microsoft’s subscription. Following its release, it saw an impressive concurrent peak of 61,780 players - on par with Stray’s 62,963, one of the biggest indie successes of the year. It has also proven to be popular on Twitch, with streamers applauding the game’s integration, which allows viewers to influence the game with channel points and enter a raffle for streamers to name their cultists after viewers. Meanwhile, our Christian Donlan gave Cult of the Lamb a Recommended badge on its release, saying its “desire to please shines throughout”, while calling it a “charmer with a hundred moving parts”.
