Microsoft exposed trying to kill PlayStation

[majob]

6 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

It's pretty telling that not a single xbox subreddit is talking about this document at all

To be fair, the playstation subreddit isn't talking about it either

[AquaNSky]

1 hour ago, dieselmanchild said:

Microsoft lost the war when they hired a guy called Matt Booty to run Xbox Game Studios.

If only they hired Max Booty.

[MidnightDragon]

Just now, AquaNSky said:

If only they hired Max Booty.

Well, Nintendo hired a guy named Doug Bowser.  

[cy1999aek_maik]

Damn, they literally said the quiet part out loud. I mean, we already knew that was the point of the ABK deal but them spelling it out like that feels surreal. Like, try to hide it a little bit. I wonder how the xbox dudes are going to hide behind the 'They are trying to put CoD on more platforms' spiel now. That seemed to be a dominant talking point

[Rozalia1]

UPDATE: Microsoft initially stated that such a email was not something to be seen and that they had no further comment on it. They now have commented: https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1671304215006773257?s=20. Whoever the representative is has told the reporter that they can't give any details, but the email is from 2019. A couple of things with that. First off considering Microsoft's conduct thus far and known love for PR it would not be shocking if this nameless representative is simply lying to the reporter (note, not a court of law), or more accurately 'telling the truth as far as they know it' which is a cute trick. Second, if the date truly is 2019 then that doesn't change anything regardless of what the green guys and Microsoft's agents are saying. 2019 already had Microsoft at work and they bought up 7 companies in the 2018-2019 period. ZeniMax was first announced in 2020, but from what I recall from the time period the word was that ZeniMax had been negotiating with several parties for a significant amount of time (wasn't rapid like with Activision) so possibly they may have come up in the above, again, if this faceless representative is telling the truth. Whatever the case, the fact remains that what is in the email is that Microsoft is seeking mergers with the aim of driving PlayStation out of the market. Keep in mind that if no such thing was attested to in the email then Microsoft's reaction would not have only been to deny it entirely (which they have yet to do), but they'd then likely seek to go after the "gamers" on top of that for essentially slandering them with a made up lie.

---

I've added the above to the OP so anyone entering the thread going forward sees it. My view on it is even if it is true that this email was not specifically about Activision, it still puts forward the strategy that they'll drive out PlayStation with enough buyouts. Those you'd expect are of course claiming that this exonerates Microsoft completely obviously.

[MidnightDragon]

Wrong topic

Edited June 21, 2023 by MidnightDragon

[Property_Damage]

57 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

Well, Nintendo hired a guy named Doug Bowser.  

You meaned sued into financial ruin

[MidnightDragon]

1 minute ago, Property_Damage said:

You meaned sued into financial ruin

 He’s the president of NOA

[Dry]

Admittedly Ol’ Jimbo and SIE throwing a temper tantrum over losing Call Of Dooty (should such a situation occur) would be equally pathetic.

 

Like for goodness sake, quit crying and go reboot Killzone or Resistance, heck why not revive both IPs?

[TalalHmd]

Aren't they going to keep releasing CoD on playstation? I think Microsoft care more about Gamepass than the competition with Sony 

 

anyway, If they want to kill PlayStation's casual market, they'd need to keep Fifa and Call of Duty exclusives. is EA for sale? 

[ExHaseo]

Isn't this the goal of every business and the point of every merger? To push out the competition and make the most money possible? I don't understand why people are surprised.

[majob]

2 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

Isn't this the goal of every business and the point of every merger? To push out the competition and make the most money possible? I don't understand why people are surprised.

No one is surprised, it just catches MS in a bald face lie they've  presented as being the humble underdog just trying to compete 

Edited June 21, 2023 by majob

[TJ_Solo]

7 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

Isn't this the goal of every business and the point of every merger? To push out the competition and make the most money possible? I don't understand why people are surprised.

 

 If you didn't  move the goalpost from "forcing a competitor out of business" to "maximizing profit" then I would agree.

Maximizing profit is a basic business theory.

Forcing competitors to close down is unethical and not normal.

[Rozalia1]

23 minutes ago, Property_Damage said:

You meaned sued into financial ruin

 

That was Gary Bowser, the hacker of Nintendo games. Straight up has to give 25% of his income for the rest of his life to Nintendo now. Nintendo in court are ruthless.

 

19 minutes ago, Dry said:

Admittedly Ol’ Jimbo and SIE throwing a temper tantrum over losing Call Of Dooty (should such a situation occur) would be equally pathetic.

 

Like for goodness sake, quit crying and go reboot Killzone or Resistance, heck why not revive both IPs?

 

That was one of Microsoft's arguments. No big deal losing CoD especially if you accept our 10 year deal. 10 years to make a CoD killer, easy. Microsoft naturally has never attempted to make such a game.

 

15 minutes ago, TalalHmd said:

Aren't they going to keep releasing CoD on playstation? I think Microsoft care more about Gamepass than the competition with Sony 

 

anyway, If they want to kill PlayStation's casual market, they'd need to keep Fifa and Call of Duty exclusives. is EA for sale? 

 

If they get this through then they have actually signed something with Nintendo already to put it on their console, they say they can even get it running natively on the Switch which is quite the claim. What they can certainly do is shut out PlayStation yes. The PR would be easy as they'll just claim that Sony simply just never accepted the deal so that is that. The EU's decision should mandate them to put it on PlayStation, but from what I recall that only applies to Cloud gaming so they could just offer Sony CoD only on the Cloud and that'd do a whole lot of damage.

 

Well EA did just internally split their company between the sports related studios and everything else, but if Microsoft buys them or not they wouldn't get the sports titles as exclusives. The owners of the IP would mandate it to be multiplatform and they'd then either do it or they'd lose the license. They would get the marketing rights and it on gamepass though which isn't a minor detail.

 

2 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

Isn't this the goal of every business and the point of every merger? To push out the competition and make the most money possible? I don't understand why people are surprised.

 

Monopolies aren't illegal either. What is illegal is how some get there. If you're just that good, your opponents just that bad, and you naturally build towards a monopoly? No problem, though you will be watched if you try to crush any new competitors before they get off the ground. If you get there with dirty tactics, which tastelessly buying everything out is one, then there is a problem. Xbox had 0 capacity to buy Zenimax, let alone Activision. All of this money is coming from Microsoft's other ventures where they built monopolies (via dirty tactics, which in one case they were punished to an extent for). So they're using monopoly money to try and create a new one. If you let companies like Microsoft, who is the worst of the big tech in this respect, just buy out whoever they want then they'll just build up monopoly after monopoly. Which is in no way good for anybody. I mean we've seen Xbox's (poor) efforts when they're actually trying, so imagine their efforts when they hold a monopoly and can coast.

 

As was said by @majob, there is no surprise at all that Microsoft intends to do this. It is just we finally have evidence and as he also says, further shows how fake their good guy act has been, which many of us knew right from the start was fake.

[MidnightDragon]

The way I see it, doesn’t really matter when the letter was written and whether or not it’s specific to this. Still a chicken shit strategy.

[AlexOffLimits]

The problem is that, in their attempt to destroy sony, they are destroying several things: the quality of the outgoing games, forced to fit within the budget offered by an extra convenient subscription (gamepass); the freedom of indies, which if they stay out of the gamepass they don't sell even a copy, and to enter it they have to submit to Microsoft's offers; the physical market, which is increasingly opposed because it reduces the profits of software houses. All to point to a world where the gamepass becomes the Netflix of videogames, with huge future earnings for Microsoft, Sony halved, and the quality of videogames reduced to a minimum, where the software houses aim to stay within the costs offered by the gamepass, rather than aiming to create masterpieces to sell millions of copies

[Property_Damage]

1 hour ago, MidnightDragon said:

 He’s the president of NOA

I stand corrected

Theres far too many bowser’s out there in the wild

[majob]

32 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

The way I see it, doesn’t really matter when the letter was written and whether or not it’s specific to this. Still a chicken shit strategy.

The date actually lines up with Microsoft going on their spending spree, they would buy Zenimax not long after that. It's also important to note that while the actual negotiation for ABK only happened recently, companies talk informally about these things years in advance and Kotick even went on record that ABk internally debated on how to compete with the growing metaverse and brought up putting themselves for sale. Odds are the impending bad press and lawsuits just jump started the process

Edited June 21, 2023 by majob

[MidnightDragon]

23 minutes ago, majob said:

The date actually lines up with Microsoft going on their spending spree, they would buy Zenimax not long after that. It's also important to note that while the actual negotiation for ABK only happened recently, companies talk informally about these things years in advance and Kotick even went on record that ABk internally debated on how to compete with the growing metaverse and brought up putting themselves for sale. Odds are the impending bad press and lawsuits just jump started the process

Well, my point is regardless if the letter was four years ago or just four days ago, it’s still bullshit. 

[majob]

6 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

Well, my point is regardless if the letter was four years ago or just four days ago, it’s still bullshit. 

Yeah I know I was just reinforcing your point. Claiming the email is old doesn't change their intent 

[Xenoblast91]

Come on, children. Let's gather and let me tell you a story when I was your age:

 

A long time ago, since the beginning of the 6th generation a.k.a. the "128-bits Wars", there was a huge change in the battleground. A titan rose into glory, but fell due to a heavy and fatal wound that prematurely made it die, and its remains were absorbed and devoured by two other colossuses. One stubborn yet incredibly stupid, arrogant and oblivious behemoth wanted to make its move within the frontiers to wage in the War. A computer company, that despite having the infrastructure, knowledge and economic prowess to make a change in the tides of fate, was exactly that, what really doomed them to the bottom. The envy, the unjustified resentment, a feeling of incompetence and due to a perception of defeat, i.e. finding a worthy competition in a region they historically have trouble to establish into, sealed within their innovation and apparent good vision for their bet, blinded it by greed, just succumb to jeer and scorn by their own allies.

 

Its own, auto-defined enemies, took different paths, while taking strategic advantages of what they indeed offered and developed, but they understood basically what means to succeed and came victor in a bloodbath made of incredible, unique, amazing and wonderful stories as arsenals to bring harmony within the ecosystem; a world they wanted to conquer, but failed catastrophically because despite their well established endeavors and ideas for the future, were gulped down due its own frailty. A sad but worthy story of a task failing successfully; a remembrance to always avoid suffering from success. 

 

 

And yeah, I don't want to play devil's advocate, but they even stated that that was their initial intention since the 2000s because they were afraid the PS2 will become a new PC, like for fuck’s sake... I mean, sigh.? I really love to watch this type of documentary; they're incredibly nostalgic, and a tear drops from my eyes from here and then. Remembering the E3 (R.I.P.); the monthly magazines, the mystic atmosphere of the early years. I mean, wow.

 

 

[Z1MZUM]

7 hours ago, majob said:

Microsoft buying Activision would actually give them the tools to do so because Call of Duty is by far one of the most popular games in the world and being able to monopolize that IP as a platform holder gives MS a massive advantage. That's why they constantly refused concessions asking them to sell the IP, they knew what they were doing

 

This is %100 the reason I want this to happen. We are all being unrealistic thinking that MS would successfully push Sony out of the market. 

 

I have one simple question, are there that many of us that are religiously attached to a Console maker? Yes this is a trophy sight but the best games we will ever see have already been released more or less, every now and then something nice shows up but rarely. If we play Activision on XB or PC and the games are good enough (they aren't) then we shouldn't notice what we are playing on.

[SnowxSakura]

11 hours ago, majob said:

To be fair, the playstation subreddit isn't talking about it either

Well, they're finally talking about it now, and as expected, it's a bunch of circle-jerking.

 

Their main argument is, "sony has exclusives, nintendo has exclusives, why isn't microsoft allowed to have any?"

Edited June 21, 2023 by SnowxSakura

[Kristen Danielle]

No surprise here. Microsoft is owned by Bill Gates, after all.

[Colin_Raleigh]

In the end, I think one console manufacturer trying to run another out of business is a bad idea in the long run. Eliminating the competition would make for less options and less creativity, it's been shown time and again that when any type of business becomes the only game in town that the products they make eventually have less effort, become less interesting, and are full of problems since they know that customers have no other options to turn to. Having no competition results in negative complacency, so doing this is bad for everyone involved in whatever business that it is.