Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion [FTC sues to stop - CMA issues updated preliminary findings]

[Ashande]

20 minutes ago, AJ_-_808 said:

 

Are you purposely ignoring the MS internal emails that were outed in court that basically spelled out their plans to outspend Sony out of the market?  MS got caught with its pants down, but make no mistake, it's highly likely that's still their plan, even if they have to play nice for 10years with CoD

 

As an addendum to this, even if they have to “play nice,” I’m sure any contracts they have likely say only that Call of Duty has to release on PS5… not what Call of Duty, or any indication of the quality or feature parity of those Call of Duty titles. It’s entirely possible - likely, even - that they may have a “reduced feature set” version that gets released for Switch (or whatever follows the Switch) and PS5, while the “real” version is only on Xbox or PC, or DLC/maps/etc are delayed or unavailable on competing platforms. That specific concern was raised by Sony, if I recall properly, and I don’t remember any specific statement to the contrary from Microsoft or Activision.

 

That’s also putting aside Microsoft’s tendencies to say “yeah, sure, we’ll do that…” and then just gleefully ignore it anyway, paying whatever fines they incur with a wink and a smile.

[Rozalia1]

Knowing Microsoft's playbook they don't play nice with anyone. If they're being nice to someone it is because Microsoft sees being nice to them as useful when it comes to eliminating someone else. The niceness disappears the moment the original target is defeated and that other company is now marked for elimination themselves. No, this isn't an invite for someone to chime in that all companies are like that. Believe it or not, not everyone has their mind set to kill at all times. Companies can in fact have long term positive relationships with each other and even sacrifice themselves to help others.

 

As for 'not caring'. Simply not believable. The reason they've parroted that they don't care, and that MAU and the Cloud is more important is because they're embarrassed at selling less. When this came up in court of course suddenly they were just lying (not that many know of it as the media is weak) and actually their console sales were suddenly very relevant.

 

What irks Microsoft in all this really is that they truly do want to just do away with consoles, but if they do that then what will be the retention rate on the people they've got already? How many Xbox users will get converted into mobile users if Microsoft converts its gaming business into that as they would like to? As bad as Xbox currently is, at least there is always the hope that one day in the future it'll take off, especially if they're buying out third parties like they're doing as eventually they might hold enough content hostage that people decide they have no choice but to invest. If they convert everything to mobile, the large majority of Xbox gamers don't follow them, and then mobile gamers don't massively buy in... then their gaming division is just cooked. They'll have to downsize massively due to massive uncoverable losses, and they'll also have no way back into consoles as even their former true believer fans will have felt betrayed by Microsoft and not trust them again.

[UNLEADED_BRONZE]

On 16/07/2023 at 4:50 PM, DEI2EK said:

Everyone expects Sega to be the next MS acquisition 

No,but there remains close friends

 

[kidson2004]

2 hours ago, PeachesPK said:

I don't think this will be a huge deal tbh. They are going to keep the big money games like Call of Duty multiplat. Maybe they can actually fix Overwatch 2 before it fully dies. It would also be cool if they get WoW on Gamepass and push for an Xbox version. The only big game I could see them making exclusive is Diablo. But Diablo 5 would be at least another 6 or so years out, and I'll be upset about that when we get there.

 

Honestly, I see Microsoft playing nice with Sony here. They've been much more focused on their Gamepass and PC stuff lately. Like they don't seem worried if they sell more consoles than PS now, as long as they make money off the Gamepass subscriptions. Which is smart. 

I respectfully disagree. The biggest issue is that those games from Bethesda are now all locked behind M$ and Gamepass. And I'm not disrespecting anything in no shape or form, but now they're getting what they've been after for the longest which is to drive up more sales and buy out Playstation of the entire gaming industry. This acquisition is only the 1st step to make them a full blown gaming monopoly. And honestly let's be real here: M$ doesn't play nice with no one as that's only an illusion to lull the competition to sleep and for them to eat them alive. Honestly, I don't see this as a good thing at all as this'll damage the gaming world as a whole. IDK man, this is very telling as they already went to fix the old COD servers and people are flooding back to playing those on XBOX. PlayStaion users will not get that benefit. So already that's telling. But we'll see how this'll go; but I feel like I have an idea about it. 

[Zephrese]

2 hours ago, PeachesPK said:

Honestly, I see Microsoft playing nice with Sony here. They've been much more focused on their Gamepass and PC stuff lately. Like they don't seem worried if they sell more consoles than PS now, as long as they make money off the Gamepass subscriptions. Which is smart. 

 

Exactly what they want you (and everyone else) to think. You took the bait.

[majob]

3 hours ago, PeachesPK said:

I don't think this will be a huge deal tbh. They are going to keep the big money games like Call of Duty multiplat. Maybe they can actually fix Overwatch 2 before it fully dies. It would also be cool if they get WoW on Gamepass and push for an Xbox version. The only big game I could see them making exclusive is Diablo. But Diablo 5 would be at least another 6 or so years out, and I'll be upset about that when we get there.

 

Honestly, I see Microsoft playing nice with Sony here. They've been much more focused on their Gamepass and PC stuff lately. Like they don't seem worried if they sell more consoles than PS now, as long as they make money off the Gamepass subscriptions. Which is smart. 

Keeping the COD multiplat isn't an olive branch, it's a power play. They know that Playstation is reliant on the IP and can use that leverage against Sony. Not to mention that this accelerates their plans to consolidate. MS wants people giving money to them through games one way or another, even if it means other platforms. The long term goal is consolidation until they're the largest player on the market that no one can fight against.

[boaly2008]

8 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

Knowing Microsoft's playbook they don't play nice with anyone. If they're being nice to someone it is because Microsoft sees being nice to them as useful when it comes to eliminating someone else. The niceness disappears the moment the original target is defeated and that other company is now marked for elimination themselves. No, this isn't an invite for someone to chime in that all companies are like that. Believe it or not, not everyone has their mind set to kill at all times. Companies can in fact have long term positive relationships with each other and even sacrifice themselves to help others.

 

As for 'not caring'. Simply not believable. The reason they've parroted that they don't care, and that MAU and the Cloud is more important is because they're embarrassed at selling less. When this came up in court of course suddenly they were just lying (not that many know of it as the media is weak) and actually their console sales were suddenly very relevant.

 

What irks Microsoft in all this really is that they truly do want to just do away with consoles, but if they do that then what will be the retention rate on the people they've got already? How many Xbox users will get converted into mobile users if Microsoft converts its gaming business into that as they would like to? As bad as Xbox currently is, at least there is always the hope that one day in the future it'll take off, especially if they're buying out third parties like they're doing as eventually they might hold enough content hostage that people decide they have no choice but to invest. If they convert everything to mobile, the large majority of Xbox gamers don't follow them, and then mobile gamers don't massively buy in... then their gaming division is just cooked. They'll have to downsize massively due to massive uncoverable losses, and they'll also have no way back into consoles as even their former true believer fans will have felt betrayed by Microsoft and not trust them again.

It's really just the newest iteration of the longstanding internal battle at Microsoft about what Xbox is and what it should be. Microsoft has no faith in Xbox to remain a console and hasnt really since the late 360 days. They also have zero faith in it to transition to something else.

 

The amount of smothered internal business pivots for the brand are fascinating in their own right.

 

[SelectiveGamer]

I know I said I wouldn't post in this thread anymore... but I'm making a slight exception for this particular post.

 

First of all... I'm trying to not care about this anymore. I really am. At the end of the day... time will tell and we'll see what happens. can't wait to say i told you so when xbox goes through with their real strategy to spend sony out of business

 

I've been playing some platformers recently if you can't already tell (from my trophy thread posts or my trophy card signature) and I've come to realize... that Sony/PlayStation actually has two console exclusive platformers sitting right under their noses that they could use as a de-facto Crash and Spyro 'replacement' if they do indeed lose those forever (I'm not saying they will or won't this is mostly just a hypothetical that they do which is still my assumption right now. Sorry it just is. Until shown or proven otherwise)

 

Those two platformers... are Astro Bot (Astro's Playroom) and Sackboy (Sackboy A Big Adventure). I wasn't even counting the latter until it slapped me with how AMAZING it actually turned out to be and how I shouldn't have underestimated it.

 

So there you go PlayStation. This is what you do if you lose Crash and Spyro forever. But will they? Personally I doubt it but Team Asobi is supposedly working on 'their biggest game yet' so only time will tell obviously.

 

And yes I know about Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter but clearly Sucker Punch wants to do nothing but Ghosts of Tsushima and Naughty Dog wants to do nothing but The Last of Us so clearly those won't be reappearing anytime soon or at all.

 

So I guess TL;DR... PlayStation has two console exclusive platformers they could pull out and use if they lose Crash and Spyro forever but they likely will never realize this or do this.

[AJ_-_808]

35 minutes ago, SelectiveGamer said:

 

And yes I know about Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter but clearly Sucker Punch wants to do nothing but Ghosts of Tsushima and Naughty Dog wants to do nothing but The Last of Us so clearly those won't be reappearing anytime soon or at all.

 

They could always hire or assign a support team to work those, I mean they do have Bluepoint on staff now.

 

Speaking of Bluepoint, maybe they should have those guys revive some shooters.

 

I personally think they should try to acquire netherrealm (hopefully with the MK IP) and rocksteady. Those are talented teams that WBGaming has been looking to sell

 

Edit

WB has been looking to sell their studios and license out their IPs.  Rocksteady might be devalued after suicide squad bombs, but they're still a quality studio

Edited July 25, 2023 by AJ_-_808

[Zephrese]

7 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

And yes I know about Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter but clearly Sucker Punch wants to do nothing but Ghosts of Tsushima and Naughty Dog wants to do nothing but The Last of Us so clearly those won't be reappearing anytime soon or at all.

 

I blame that more on Sony/PlayStation as a whole (or perhaps just Jim Ryan's crusty old, out of touch ass) for caring way more for the big, AAA, narrative-driven experiences they've been putting out over the last several years (not necessarily taking a dig at those games or their developers in of themselves, mind you). Sony had their - arguably perfect - chance to revive both IPs after the N. Sane Trilogy sparked a platformer renaissance of sorts, and they didn't take it or seem to care in the slightest. With that in mind, it's probably safe to say that those two series will more than likely - and sadly - stay dead for the foreseeable future (maybe even indefinitely).

 

Ratchet & Clank being in their good graces again after the 2016 game/reimagining and Rift Apart gives me some - albeit very small - hope that'll change at some point, but I still wouldn't get my hopes up either which way. I feel as though Astro's Playroom and Sackboy already gave me too much false hope when buying into the PS5, something that's admittedly left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and soured the PlayStation brand's image for me a good bit (as overdramatic as that might sound lol).

Edited July 26, 2023 by Zephrese

[Guardian_owl]

5 hours ago, AJ_-_808 said:

They could always hire or assign a support team to work those, I mean they do have Bluepoint on staff now.

They tried that a bit with Sly 4 as they handed it off to a different developer. The results for the game itself were pretty good, but its sales continued the downward slide from Sly 3. Is that because of Sly fatigue or did a portion of the players not consider it a "real" Sly game since it was by a different studio and avoid it? Despite being a fun addition to the franchise, Uncharted: Golden Abyss is treated like the bastard child of the series since it wasn't done by Naughty Dog, and has been passed over for remastering.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Guardian_owl

[Zephrese]

On 7/26/2023 at 0:03 AM, Guardian_owl said:

Is that because of Sly fatigue or did a portion of the players not consider it a "real" Sly game since it was by a different studio and avoid it?

 

Sony hardly advertised the game at all, and Sanzaru made a lot of questionable decisions that the fanbase didn't seem to like (almost nobody likes Sanzaru either way, R.I.F.).

The former element played a significantly larger role in the game not selling well, for sure. Perhaps the timing wasn't quite right as well, but on that note I am unsure.

 

Golden Abyss being on the Vita is probably a larger reason behind that game's "bastard" status than the fact that it wasn't made by Naughty Dog specifically.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Zephrese

[majob]

9 hours ago, Zephrese said:

 

I blame that more on Sony/PlayStation as a whole (or perhaps just Jim Ryan's crusty old, out of touch ass) for caring way more for the big, AAA, narrative-driven experiences 

Jim Ryan has his flaws but he's not to blame for the shift in focus for first party games. Sony has been doing what they've found they do well, which happens to be third person games. Many of their experimental games as of late have underperformed while their tried and true franchises have stayed profitable. As a company that was always focused on third party software, having variety in their own lineup was never a big issue to them because they knew other creators would fill the gaps. Though with MS consolidating, an old IP or two might be revived but I wouldn't expect Sony to go back to old properties because they're not going to rely on things they know might underperform in favor of the new projects they have and probably doubling down on buying exclusives. 

[Z1MZUM]

On 7/25/2023 at 4:26 AM, PeachesPK said:

I don't think this will be a huge deal tbh. They are going to keep the big money games like Call of Duty multiplat. Maybe they can actually fix Overwatch 2 before it fully dies. It would also be cool if they get WoW on Gamepass and push for an Xbox version. The only big game I could see them making exclusive is Diablo. But Diablo 5 would be at least another 6 or so years out, and I'll be upset about that when we get there.

 

Honestly, I see Microsoft playing nice with Sony here. They've been much more focused on their Gamepass and PC stuff lately. Like they don't seem worried if they sell more consoles than PS now, as long as they make money off the Gamepass subscriptions. Which is smart. 

 

This

 

For COD all of the old servers are up and running again as of now (for about 2 weeks) at least on the XB. What a coincidence, it's totally not a coincidence obviously or an Activision incentive as these servers have been neglected and broken for years so we all buy the new game. In any case MW2 2009, full local lobbies and I live in a low populated nation. Someone knows what people want? I'm not making friends here of course but these are good days for me.

[Zephrese]

46 minutes ago, majob said:

Jim Ryan has his flaws but he's not to blame for the shift in focus for first party games. Sony has been doing what they've found they do well, which happens to be third person games. Many of their experimental games as of late have underperformed while their tried and true franchises have stayed profitable. As a company that was always focused on third party software, having variety in their own lineup was never a big issue to them because they knew other creators would fill the gaps. Though with MS consolidating, an old IP or two might be revived but I wouldn't expect Sony to go back to old properties because they're not going to rely on things they know might underperform in favor of the new projects they have and probably doubling down on buying exclusives. 

 

I was already aware of Sony's reasoning for doing it, although that doesn't change my outlook on it in the slightest. Only pointed it out because I don't think it's fair to blame the shift on developers like Naughty Dog or Sucker Punch, when it's mainly at the behest of PlayStation's leadership.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Zephrese

[Rozalia1]

On 25/07/2023 at 10:34 PM, SelectiveGamer said:

I know I said I wouldn't post in this thread anymore... but I'm making a slight exception for this particular post.

 

First of all... I'm trying to not care about this anymore. I really am. At the end of the day... time will tell and we'll see what happens. can't wait to say i told you so when xbox goes through with their real strategy to spend sony out of business

 

I've been playing some platformers recently if you can't already tell (from my trophy thread posts or my trophy card signature) and I've come to realize... that Sony/PlayStation actually has two console exclusive platformers sitting right under their noses that they could use as a de-facto Crash and Spyro 'replacement' if they do indeed lose those forever (I'm not saying they will or won't this is mostly just a hypothetical that they do which is still my assumption right now. Sorry it just is. Until shown or proven otherwise)

 

Those two platformers... are Astro Bot (Astro's Playroom) and Sackboy (Sackboy A Big Adventure). I wasn't even counting the latter until it slapped me with how AMAZING it actually turned out to be and how I shouldn't have underestimated it.

 

So there you go PlayStation. This is what you do if you lose Crash and Spyro forever. But will they? Personally I doubt it but Team Asobi is supposedly working on 'their biggest game yet' so only time will tell obviously.

 

And yes I know about Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter but clearly Sucker Punch wants to do nothing but Ghosts of Tsushima and Naughty Dog wants to do nothing but The Last of Us so clearly those won't be reappearing anytime soon or at all.

 

So I guess TL;DR... PlayStation has two console exclusive platformers they could pull out and use if they lose Crash and Spyro forever but they likely will never realize this or do this.

 

Don't give them any satisfaction. Yes, Xbox fans real or otherwise, including Xbox's own management (completely pathetic) has and will be using them to taunt Sony/Sony fans. What have they gained with that really however? An IP they'll leave to rot? One that if they take exclusive will likely instantly die anyway? Either way I'd say that is a bigger embarrassment for them. Sony now seems to use Astro Bot as their mascot, who is 1st party, and I'd say a better mascot anyway.

 

As for platformers. Hard to successful and not a lot of money in them unless you're Nintendo. Sony still has a few which is good. Unsure how long Sackboy has in this world still, but Ratchet and Astro Bot appear secure.

 

All we can do in the face of this aggressive Microsoft who authorities are completely unable to deal with is to trust and hope that justice and good taste wins in the end. If everything Microsoft captures turns to crap the moment it is in their hands then eventually the beast will lose interest and retreat.

[Z1MZUM]

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

All we can do in the face of this aggressive Microsoft who authorities are completely unable to deal with is to trust and hope that justice and good taste wins in the end. If everything Microsoft captures turns to crap the moment it is in their hands then eventually the beast will lose interest and retreat.

 

Well maybe, except all of the old COD servers are back online and safe not to mention heavily populated after years of complete neglect. Oddly this happened on the 12th? Was this Activisions doing? Hell no. I think they are back up on psn as well, Now this is just dangling a carrot? MS reduces the cost of all COD's and suddenly the day after we are able to play them again. For me this is just amazing and no more need to use Plutonium or the likes. This isn't the big picture however it is what I was thinking and hoping would happen, along with the Majority of the COD community who aren't casuals. So in Short not everything Microsoft touches turns to crap, What would be not be crap? Well the worse thing by a long shot is Sony giving control of the Playstation to the US. Japanese people don't want to play boring ass games like Horizion or TLOU etc etc, the abundance of second hand PS5's I've recently seen there is amazing. Sony have shot themselves in the foot or face. So who wins? Well nobody really, PS loses popularity in the East, MS possibly changes what happens with Activision and releases said dumb ass games only on XB.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Z1MZUM

[Rozalia1]

4 hours ago, Z1MZUM said:

Well maybe, except all of the old COD servers are back online and safe not to mention heavily populated after years of complete neglect. Oddly this happened on the 12th? Was this Activisions doing? Hell no. I think they are back up on psn as well, Now this is just dangling a carrot? MS reduces the cost of all COD's and suddenly the day after we are able to play them again. For me this is just amazing and no more need to use Plutonium or the likes. This isn't the big picture however it is what I was thinking and hoping would happen, along with the Majority of the COD community who aren't casuals. So in Short not everything Microsoft touches turns to crap, What would be not be crap? Well the worse thing by a long shot is Sony giving control of the Playstation to the US. Japanese people don't want to play boring ass games like Horizion or TLOU etc etc, the abundance of second hand PS5's I've recently seen there is amazing. Sony have shot themselves in the foot or face. So who wins? Well nobody really, PS loses popularity in the East, MS possibly changes what happens with Activision and releases said dumb ass games only on XB.

 

Microsoft has done many little things for PR purposes and then stopped once they got enough of said PR. As such it should be little surprise if Microsoft is doing that. It'll help promote them as good custodians of CoD and also help in their future focus on astroturfing the CoD community. Of course the best PR of all would be you know, putting out good games and all that, but Microsoft seems to reject putting out good products on principle.

 

The keyword I used was 'if'. For that to happen people need to continue to reject Microsoft and not give in to them. 'If' that happens, which does mean everything them touching withering away, then that will scare them off from bothering further. Turning 70 billion into a 70 billion asset is something that can be sold internally clearly as it is happening. Turning 70 billion into a 35 billion or less asset? Not so much.

 

In terms of Microsoft thus far by the way... they have... Mojang as a success. A bought property that was already successful and as seems clear from what we heard in court, is essentially confirmed to be operating with a great deal of independence (though 10 years is almost up... ummm) from Microsoft (more than Bethesda which is officially separate, but clearly less so if Microsoft can cancel their PlayStation versions but can't with Mojang). Playground games has been considered their most successful developers for putting out Forza at a good rate and having them rated high enough... but they've been delayed quite a bit with the next Forza and Fable... they're 6 years into development on that and many think it is still many years away, with the recent trailer being one of those put out so people stop asking about the thing/treating it as vapourware. Not exactly the picture of success if with all they have that is all that can be mentioned positively.

[majob]

6 hours ago, Z1MZUM said:

Well the worse thing by a long shot is Sony giving control of the Playstation to the US. Japanese people don't want to play boring ass games like Horizion or TLOU etc etc, the abundance of second hand PS5's I've recently seen there is amazing. Sony have shot themselves in the foot or face.

I really don't know how or why this narrative goes around but lets put out some facts.

 

SIE has made more money since moving to California, not less, moving the division was a sound financial move.

 

The playstation 5 is still the second best selling console in Japan and at one point overtook the Switch in sales for a solid while up  until BOTW released.

 

Those "boring ass games" have sold millions of units worldwide, including Japan. This glosses over the fact that Sony has always primarily relied on third party games to push units, not their first party lineup. People also seem to forget that SIE was effectively controlled by westerners by the time the PS3 rolled around, so moving the division to the US was a matter of course by the time it happened.

[Lance_87]

In other news, FF14 is coming to Series X|S and the new S-E CEO wants to release other big titles over there.

[majob]

I feel really dumb

Edited July 29, 2023 by majob

[N1cktim]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:34 AM, Z1MZUM said:

 

Well maybe, except all of the old COD servers are back online and safe not to mention heavily populated after years of complete neglect. Oddly this happened on the 12th? Was this Activisions doing? Hell no. I think they are back up on psn as well, Now this is just dangling a carrot? MS reduces the cost of all COD's and suddenly the day after we are able to play them again. For me this is just amazing and no more need to use Plutonium or the likes. This isn't the big picture however it is what I was thinking and hoping would happen, along with the Majority of the COD community who aren't casuals.

 

These are the small details I'm excited about if the deal goes through. Imagine Microsoft bringing back the old transformers servers back or releasing those games on new platforms.

[Rozalia1]

14 hours ago, Lance_87 said:

In other news, FF14 is coming to Series X|S and the new S-E CEO wants to release other big titles over there.

 

Only took them 4 years after saying it was going to happen. The whole commitment thing has happened before and even with other companies. It'll last until they get the horrible sales numbers for a number of games, ask for bags of cash from Microsoft for future games to make up for it, and get rejected.

 

At the end of the day companies love making money as much as Spencer loves spending it. The idea that Square Enix, of all companies, was on some jihad against Microsoft was absurd and manufactured nonsense to hide the embarrassment of a third party seeing your platform as so lowly that it wasn't worth even releasing many of their games on it. The only companies that can operate without care for money are either ones ruled absolutely by someone/a group who can do things on principle, or supremely rich ones like Microsoft (though only if they can hide losses like they can at Xbox).

 

21 hours ago, majob said:

I really don't know how or why this narrative goes around but lets put out some facts.

 

SIE has made more money since moving to California, not less, moving the division was a sound financial move.

 

The playstation 5 is still the second best selling console in Japan and at one point overtook the Switch in sales for a solid while up  until BOTW released.

 

Those "boring ass games" have sold millions of units worldwide, including Japan. This glosses over the fact that Sony has always primarily relied on third party games to push units, not their first party lineup. People also seem to forget that SIE was effectively controlled by westerners by the time the PS3 rolled around, so moving the division to the US was a matter of course by the time it happened.

 

Success isn't exactly a cure all here. People often would rather have something less successful if it is more to their tastes, or alternatively they believe that what they like would bring far more in if it was pushed correctly (usually this is delusional). That said, while a real concern from PlayStation gamers, it is noticeable that Microsoft astroturfs that view heavily to amplify it. Just ask any of their shills what their issue with PlayStation is and that is their go to for a reason.

 

Microsoft's aggression will hopefully get Sony back into building themselves up in Japan. I understand that the games made in Japan, as much as many of us think fondly of, didn't actually sell all that well as PlayStation's demographics aren't quite as positive towards such games as Nintendo's are (Xbox's is non-existent), but it is worth keeping these things around for variety/future opportunities. Sony top management knows this as from what I recall hearing they basically keep their phone division around simply to keep hold of the expertise and be ready to move on any opportunity that presents itself (Microsoft meanwhile scrapped their phones which they now heavily regret).

[majob]

2 hours ago, N1cktim said:

 

These are the small details I'm excited about if the deal goes through. Imagine Microsoft bringing back the old transformers servers back or releasing those games on new platforms.

Unless Activision still has the Transformers license, that's not likely to happen

44 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

 

 

Success isn't exactly a cure all here. People often would rather have something less successful if it is more to their tastes, or alternatively they believe that what they like would bring far more in if it was pushed correctly (usually this is delusional). That said, while a real concern from PlayStation gamers, it is noticeable that Microsoft astroturfs that view heavily to amplify it. Just ask any of their shills what their issue with PlayStation is and that is their go to for a reason.

 

Microsoft's aggression will hopefully get Sony back into building themselves up in Japan. I understand that the games made in Japan, as much as many of us think fondly of, didn't actually sell all that well as PlayStation's demographics aren't quite as positive towards such games as Nintendo's are (Xbox's is non-existent), but it is worth keeping these things around for variety/future opportunities. Sony top management knows this as from what I recall hearing they basically keep their phone division around simply to keep hold of the expertise and be ready to move on any opportunity that presents itself (Microsoft meanwhile scrapped their phones which they now heavily regret).

I won't deny that success isn't a cure all but Z1MZUM calling a group of games boring when their financial success say otherwise is a tad disengenious. If you don't like them personally, just say that, don't paint in  in broad strokes. I honestly feel this is going to make Sony reinvest into their first party lineup but no one knows what their long term plans are going forward. I don't know if their silence speaks of confidence or fear at this point but they certainly need to let people know what their plans are going forward. MS is already making moves on Square Enix so the clock is ticking. 

Edited July 29, 2023 by majob

[Eraezr]

On 25/07/2023 at 6:48 AM, Rozalia1 said:

Knowing Microsoft's playbook they don't play nice with anyone. If they're being nice to someone it is because Microsoft sees being nice to them as useful when it comes to eliminating someone else.

 

I know there's a great deal of fervour to the tribalism aspect of discussions like this, but there is actual substance to how ruthless and corrupt Microsoft can be behind-the-scenes. They committed corporate espionage against the PS3's R&D, re-purposing the CPU architecture, while retaining a chunky mass of engineering code which was signed by Toshiba and Sony programmers (intended for PS3). It was one of the reasons why Xbox 360 ended up being stronger than what Ken Kutaragi anticipated.

 

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6056634-the-race-for-a-new-game-machine

 

You don't have a monopoly on the world's majority of PC architecture by keeping your hands clean. It's why they are the giant now.

15 hours ago, Lance_87 said:

In other news, FF14 is coming to Series X|S and the new S-E CEO wants to release other big titles over there.

 

Makes me wonder if the rumoured Square Enix acquisition by Sony has fallen apart.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Eraezr