Legal slap fights aside, it’s interesting to hear about these “block fees” that target this specific subset of Microsoft’s platform. Since it isn’t involved in the big launch sales, and feels more common among smaller budget / indie games, it may be much cheaper for Sony to offer this deal to many prospective Games Pass games.

(Though the laissez-faire answer to Microsoft’s frustrations remains “well Microsoft’s publishing platform should pay more than a figment of Sony’s marketing budget if it’s actually a profitable/sustainable business unit”)

Shhh, don't point fingers at their anti-competitive acquisitions and mergers. It's clearly the people paying fair wages in a free market who are at fault. /s