Epic Games and Microsoft are both competing with Valve and their venerable video game distribution service through somewhat similar methods (albeit to varying degrees of success); now, though, thanks to the recent Epic vs. Apple lawsuit which has been making waves throughout the tech industry, we’ve found out that Epic Games was at one point in negotiations with Sony about porting 4-6 PlayStation exclusives for a whopping $200 million.

That last sentence is densely packed with nuanced information, so let’s dive a bit deeper.

Epic’s attempt to bring PlayStation exclusives over to PC — and, by proxy, its Epic Games Store — is quite an ingenious (and obscenely expensive) undertaking. Had Sony agreed, they would’ve had to port between four and six of their titles which Epic would’ve then sold on their store as timed exclusives. Moreover, the $200 million offer was reportedly a guaranteed one, meaning Sony would earn that much regardless of how said titles would’ve performed. Sony’s revenue would then further increase over time as they’d earn a piece of the proverbial pie as well.

Interestingly enough, Sony’s door wasn’t the only one Epic knocked on. They were also supposedly in talks with Microsoft and even thought about approaching Nintendo, although it remains unknown why these negotiations failed to bear fruit. Then again, we can figure it out ourselves through sheer logic. Microsoft is, in many ways, a direct competitor of Epic’s, and they’ve even started selling their games on Steam in conjunction with their Microsoft Games Store.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has never been interested in such deals and that has remained the case to this very day. Their biggest assets are their first-party exclusives and IPs, and “giving them away” would practically mean they’d shoot themselves in the foot — no matter how lucrative Epic’s offer might be.

Sony has started porting some of their exclusives, so it seems like this revered Japanese tech giant had the same idea in mind. Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone are currently available on both Steam as well as Epic’s Game Store. We know for a fact that Sony plans on bringing additional titles over to PC (Bloodborne has long been rumored as the next port in line), so it seems like they’ve decided to just cut the middle man out of the equation and do the work themselves.

In any case, this is a very interesting tidbit as it shows us the inner workings of the industry and the many nuanced ideas and undertakings that we never really find out about. Epic’s attempt at bringing over PlayStation exclusives seems to be dead in its tracks, but we’re pretty sure they’re already hard at work on some other mind-blowing deal. That’s just their M.O. and it’s definitely been a fun one to analyze.