Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard

[Guardian_owl]

5 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

Well then... would you look at that...

 

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/458754/analyst-claims-sony-is-under-pressure-to-react-to-microsoft-acquiring-activision-blizzard/

 

*gets I Told You So sign ready for when they do just that*

 

Again... not saying it should happen, that I want it to happen, or if it's right to happen or not

I can tell right out of the gate that this individual doesn't get it, as one of their solutions is to do one of the things Sony has been smart to avoid, starting a film and TV entertainment streaming service with its catalog. Every studio and their mother has started one chasing that Netflix money, and all but 2 of them are running at a loss. There is only so much people are willing to spend on streaming every month and there isn't enough to go around for all of the services to be profitable. Sony is doing the smart thing, pumping out content and then licensing it to all sides trying to win the streaming wars (as well as traditional national and cable TV networks). Instead of spending billions on regular content and hoping its enough to retain enough subscribers to be profitable, they know exactly how much they are being paid per show/movie and can manage costs to meet that while making a profit.

 

In a gold rush, the sensible person to be is not a miner, but the the one selling the pickaxes to the miners.

 

Buying a multiplatform publisher and then making it exclusive is ultimately counter-productive. You get a bigger % share of the game sales than when you were just the console maker, but now they are also making fewer sales overall. I will be very interested to see where Zenimax sales land this year compared to previous years when they had big releases as this was the first year after the acquisition that they nearly completely turned the tap off to providing Playstation content.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Guardian_owl

[shadaik]

Aah, analysts. The laughing stock of anybody who knows anything about any given business.

 

They are what happens when you are so bad at knowing stuff, you don't even get to be called by the already meaningless monicker of "expert" and have to settle for the lowest rang of fake profession.

[Rozalia1]

16 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

Well then... would you look at that...

 

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/458754/analyst-claims-sony-is-under-pressure-to-react-to-microsoft-acquiring-activision-blizzard/

 

*gets I Told You So sign ready for when they do just that*

 

Again... not saying it should happen, that I want it to happen, or if it's right to happen or not

 

As I and others have said, you don't get into a money match with someone vastly richer than you. If Microsoft wants to outbid Sony they always can. Bungie for example they reportedly went to Microsoft who weren't interested. Partly no doubt because of the ABK heat, but also because Sony was offering extra money for the workers so they'd be happy and stay on and that simply ain't Microsoft who clearly sees developers as easily replaceable cogs. An even greater example is the latest big Spider-Man game. Microsoft not only had the chance to buy Insomniac, but they also had the chance to get the Spider-Man IP for a video game, rejecting both.

 

Insomniac was bought for 200 something million and yet is worth far more than that when it comes to Sony. They're also a far better studio than anything Microsoft has bought out and puts out timely games at a high quality. The workers at Insomniac are reportedly happy also. So in short Sony's way is going to remain buying studios at a low price and growing their value by aiding them greatly and trying to retain the talent they raise up. Microsoft meanwhile buys at high prices and then runs the value of what they bought into the ground because not being a creative company they look at creatives with distain.

[JPtheNeurotic]

21 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

They're also a far better studio than anything Microsoft has bought out and puts out timely games at a high quality

You can be critical of Microsoft without shitting on their developers. Obsidian, Inexile, and Double Fine  are amazing developers who have made some amazing games. 
 

 

 

[Rozalia1]

1 hour ago, JPtheNeurotic said:

You can be critical of Microsoft without shitting on their developers. Obsidian, Inexile, and Double Fine  are amazing developers who have made some amazing games. 

 

You need to quit trying to go after me like this because you just can't do it. This fake outrage of yours doesn't work. It wouldn't work even if I had done as you're making out, but I didn't. I stated that Insomniac was better and made no comment on those Microsoft studios beyond the statement that Microsoft runs them into the ground, which is putting the blame for failings on Microsoft and not them.

 

Some are better than others and that ain't an insult, that is just a fact of life. Now before you go make a status update where you allude to and make fun of me because you've been demolished again, wouldn't it be better to be friendly with me than have all of this negativity? With all the material you've provided... I've been more than nice. Is Microsoft, one of the most soulless companies in the world, really worth all this stress and embarrassment you're putting on yourself? Come on now.

[TheRetroManiac]

3 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

You need to quit trying to go after me like this because you just can't do it. This fake outrage of yours doesn't work. It wouldn't work even if I had done as you're making out, but I didn't. I stated that Insomniac was better and made no comment on those Microsoft studios beyond the statement that Microsoft runs them into the ground, which is putting the blame for failings on Microsoft and not them.

 

Some are better than others and that ain't an insult, that is just a fact of life. Now before you go make a status update where you allude to and make fun of me because you've been demolished again, wouldn't it be better to be friendly with me than have all of this negativity? With all the material you've provided... I've been more than nice. Is Microsoft, one of the most soulless companies in the world, really worth all this stress and embarrassment you're putting on yourself? Come on now.

Ha ha I saw what you did there even if you did not mean to do it lol.

 

 

[JPtheNeurotic]

4 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

Is Microsoft, one of the most soulless companies in the world, really worth all this stress and embarrassment you're putting on yourself? Come on now.

Hey I never said I was smart . 
 

I stand by what I said though. I think the games those three studios make are actually more valuable than what insomniac is currently providing outside of their tech expertise . And I love their Spider-Man games . 

[Zephrese]

16 hours ago, JPtheNeurotic said:

Obsidian, Inexile, and Double Fine  are amazing developers who have made some amazing games. 

 

I wouldn't get too used to that.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Zephrese

[majob]

On 10/19/2023 at 10:38 PM, Guardian_owl said:

I can tell right out of the gate that this individual doesn't get it, as one of their solutions is to do one of the things Sony has been smart to avoid, starting a film and TV entertainment streaming service with its catalog. Every studio and their mother has started one chasing that Netflix money, and all but 2 of them are running at a loss. There is only so much people are willing to spend on streaming every month and there isn't enough to go around for all of the services to be profitable. Sony is doing the smart thing, pumping out content and then licensing it to all sides trying to win the streaming wars (as well as traditional national and cable TV networks). Instead of spending billions on regular content and hoping its enough to retain enough subscribers to be profitable, they know exactly how much they are being paid per show/movie and can manage costs to meet that while making a profit.

 

In a gold rush, the sensible person to be is not a miner, but the the one selling the pickaxes to the miners.

 

Buying a multiplatform publisher and then making it exclusive is ultimately counter-productive. You get a bigger % share of the game sales than when you were just the console maker, but now they are also making fewer sales overall. I will be very interested to see where Zenimax sales land this year compared to previous years when they had big releases as this was the first year after the acquisition that they nearly completely turned the tap off to providing Playstation content.

Sony technically does operate their own streaming platform in Crunchyroll, one of the few actually producing a profit right now but thats partly due to their owning nearly all international distribution rights to anime and how cheap it is to run. The point with exclusives is less about sales and more about ecosystem. The goal is to push more people to your ecosystem for the content, not to necessarily sell more of a specific product. That's why microsoft was full of shit when they claimed making exclusives was counter productive to their goals because the goal was to push more people to their ecosystem and exclusives or at the very least, boxing Sony out, was part of the plan

Edited October 22, 2023 by majob

[majob]

On 10/19/2023 at 5:42 PM, SelectiveGamer said:

Well then... would you look at that...

 

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/458754/analyst-claims-sony-is-under-pressure-to-react-to-microsoft-acquiring-activision-blizzard/

 

*gets I Told You So sign ready for when they do just that*

 

Again... not saying it should happen, that I want it to happen, or if it's right to happen or not

Personally, I don't think Sony will be making a major acquisition, not in the way people think anyway. Everything Sony buys serves a point towards a goal, like Bungie, whom they bought for their GAAS expertise whereas MS is buying anything they can get their mitts on. Sony will be making an acquisition for sure but I don't think it will be any of the major players people speculate about like SE, which would have happened years ago by this point with the way it comes up. Sega has no desire to sell, nor does Capcom, and Kadokawa would be messy because it would lead to Sony becoming a monopoly in anime which no one should want

Edited October 22, 2023 by majob

[Rozalia1]

 

The other day they had quite the event over at Blizzard. Got everyone out of the workplace so they could do a photo, and the joke that is the Xbox management team got to walk around like big shots. Quite the career moment for all of them I'm sure.

 

In other news due to this buyout they're projecting massive gains to come. Something that the guys in the media are unlikely to share is that the projection is actually a decline of the revenue of Xbox + Activision, but being fair that tends to happen with these sort of buyouts. Their console numbers keep declining and even with all of this they'll still be last, whatever anyone says. Just remember that Microsoft hides their accounting and based on what we do know, they do it differently. This difference is why Nintendo seems to oddly have much less revenue than Sony and especially Xbox, even though they're actually the most profitable easily. Though again, to be fair, Sony has had to devote massive amounts of their profits into their business to combat Microsoft's tasteless moves which counts against their profits.

 

Oh, also a small detail which is a little odd. Nadella and others get their big bonuses as we know, big bonuses they've been losing millions on (Nadella just lost 8-9 million of it) due to Game Pass failing. Good news for the boss man. He has now gotten Game Pass succeeding removed as counting against his bonus (the perks of the corporate rich) so he no longer has to worry about Xbox costing him money personally. The odd thing though is... why? Microsoft's boss has made this massive buyout and yet isn't confident that Game Pass will now conquer the world? Then why even do the buy out? Career moment?

[ZenaxPure]

7 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

The odd thing though is... why?

I realize you mostly pose this as a rhetorical question, but, my extremely cynical take is that it's easier to convince people everything is fine when you don't have multiple years in a row where you fail to get a bonus because the sub growth doesn't meet your goal. Which has happened multiple times so far and each time it actually makes some people question if all this is really sustainable.

 

But on the flip side if I am being less cynical it could have something to do with them rebranding gold. Technically game pass subs probably shot up like 200% or so last month since now all XBLG members are GP subs. There was obviously way more of them seeing as they tried to force people to convert to GP with their plan to raise the price a few years back since it wasn't a good look that their main sub service was doing poorly compared to Gold (but they wouldn't get rid of it because easy $$$$.) Basically the number of subs they have is not going to be a very good success metric anymore. Though I still fully expect them to come out at some point and say like "wow we have like a bajillion GP subs now, look at how awesome things are" completely leaving out the fact most GP subs are likely just XBLG members who want to play CoD/Fifa online or whatever and don't care about GP.

 

Personally I think the most telling thing in the recent news is that I couldn't find how much an effect Starfield really had on the service. I did see the quote that said the Starfield launch day is the highest numbers of subs ever added to the service in one day. But the fact they didn't give a number makes me feel like it wasn't as good as they hoped.

[fenrir54565]

23 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

The other day they had quite the event over at Blizzard. Got everyone out of the workplace so they could do a photo, and the joke that is the Xbox management team got to walk around like big shots. Quite the career moment for all of them I'm sure.

i wounder how many of them will be employed there next year as microsoft want to replace developer with ai. looks like microsoft is reorgs its xbox and marketing teams.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/23933049/microsoft-reorg-xbox-marketing-ai-leadership-changes

Quote

Microsoft is reorganizing its Xbox gaming and marketing leadership, less than two weeks after acquiring Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is promoting Matt Booty to president of game content and studios, including the new responsibility of ZeniMax, and Sarah Bond to Xbox president, overseeing all Xbox platform and hardware work. On the marketing side, chief marketing officer Chris Capossela is stepping down after 32 years at Microsoft.

The Xbox changes mean Booty will now lead an expanded organization inside Microsoft Gaming that now includes ZeniMax and Bethesda. “ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Matt,” explains Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

Booty’s expanded role should help Microsoft Gaming avoid scenarios like Redfall in the future, with Microsoft clearly focusing on better collaboration between the teams it acquired with the ZeniMax / Bethesda acquisition.

 

[Rozalia1]

24 minutes ago, fenrir54565 said:

i wounder how many of them will be employed there next year as microsoft want to replace developer with ai. looks like microsoft is reorgs its xbox and marketing teams.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/23933049/microsoft-reorg-xbox-marketing-ai-leadership-changes

 

Was about to post about that. A whole bunch of people have been 'promoted' to jobs they already had but now they're 'presidents'. As usual with Xbox, it is all so fake.

 

Pete Hines who just left Bethesda, his days appearing numbered when we saw that email where he was angry at how Bethesda has been treated in comparison to Activision, appears to be the assigned fall guy for Redfall and other failures. Bethesda and the related studios will now be under Booty of the Xbox management team, with the guy who is supposed to be in charge there now reporting to Booty instead of Spencer himself. They still call it 'limited integration' because people against these buyouts said this would happen and Microsoft's shills denied it, so they'll continue denying it for a while yet until the order goes out for the shills to suddenly all start saying 'obviously them being brought fully under Xbox was always the plan. Only an idiot would think otherwise.'

 

This ultimately is going to be the future of Activision and could well happen as soon as Bobby Kotick leaves, though I would think that Microsoft being who they are will give it a good while longer because as always, PR. Who knows, maybe they'll get their agent Mike Ybarra to find some sexual malpractice within Activision from some guys Microsoft knows are going to leave as soon as possible, so Microsoft can then sweep in to 'clean it up' and then place Activision firmly under Xbox management. It really wouldn't be a surprise to me if Redfall, which Spencer and co reportedly saw and were fine with, allowed it through just so they could castrate Bethesda afterwards and have everyone say they are right to do so.

 

Now to be fair, ordinarily bringing things under a singular management wouldn't be a bad thing, and Bethesda's management was clearly not in the best place. The problem is that Matt Booty is a known incompetent (biggest at Xbox, which is quite something considering the competition) who rather than being replaced is instead being rewarded with further companies put under him. Oh well, that is the old boy network for you. In the end it can only be a good thing for everyone that Microsoft so consistently entrusts important tasks to these fools.

 

23 hours ago, ZenaxPure said:

I realize you mostly pose this as a rhetorical question, but, my extremely cynical take is that it's easier to convince people everything is fine when you don't have multiple years in a row where you fail to get a bonus because the sub growth doesn't meet your goal. Which has happened multiple times so far and each time it actually makes some people question if all this is really sustainable.

 

But on the flip side if I am being less cynical it could have something to do with them rebranding gold. Technically game pass subs probably shot up like 200% or so last month since now all XBLG members are GP subs. There was obviously way more of them seeing as they tried to force people to convert to GP with their plan to raise the price a few years back since it wasn't a good look that their main sub service was doing poorly compared to Gold (but they wouldn't get rid of it because easy $$$$.) Basically the number of subs they have is not going to be a very good success metric anymore. Though I still fully expect them to come out at some point and say like "wow we have like a bajillion GP subs now, look at how awesome things are" completely leaving out the fact most GP subs are likely just XBLG members who want to play CoD/Fifa online or whatever and don't care about GP.

 

Personally I think the most telling thing in the recent news is that I couldn't find how much an effect Starfield really had on the service. I did see the quote that said the Starfield launch day is the highest numbers of subs ever added to the service in one day. But the fact they didn't give a number makes me feel like it wasn't as good as they hoped.

 

You make good points. Not having it as a bonus weakens the chance of people taking issue with it as not sustainable, and also the adding of Gold as Core and Activision makes giving a good target tricky also. These targets after all have to be reasonable, not too high but not too low. Which is notable because, I don't know if you've seen this, but a defence that Microsoft's fans, real or otherwise, have made for Microsoft missing the targets is that these targets were internal targets that were set massively high and not expected to be reached. The rich management being fine with massive unreachable goals that if not reached means less bonus pay for themselves certainly sounds like something these guys who take all they can would do doesn't it? The reality, especially now that we've seen the crazy numbers Microsoft wants Game Pass to reach, is that they certainly expected the growth to just be absolutely massive, something which hasn't come and thankfully won't even with Activision on board.

 

Yeah, they are very secretive with their numbers because we all know they don't want people seeing the actual state of their business. In regards to the Starfield claim I'm assuming they've cooked the books so it is most subs added since the service had core added to it, it now being internally marked as a 'new/updated service'. Otherwise I don't see how that can be true. Game Pass early on had rapid growth until it hit the wall and stagnated. If Starfield legitimately beat those early Game Pass days then we'd certainly have heard about it as they'd be shouting that from the rooftops.

[Yiuumii]

I wonder more if they truly want to try and boycott Sony as much as no games under Microsoft will be released any more for this console. I would hate to see it. Not going to play on XBOX even if they gift me the console because I grew up with Sony ... but I would be sad to see games disappear because of this stupid war. I have a gaming Computer for FF14 ... before I buy an XBOX I am gonna wait for 75% Steam sales and buy shit there ngl ._.

[Rozalia1]

11 hours ago, Yiuumii said:

I wonder more if they truly want to try and boycott Sony as much as no games under Microsoft will be released any more for this console. I would hate to see it. Not going to play on XBOX even if they gift me the console because I grew up with Sony ... but I would be sad to see games disappear because of this stupid war. I have a gaming Computer for FF14 ... before I buy an XBOX I am gonna wait for 75% Steam sales and buy shit there ngl ._.

 

I don't know about getting a 75% sale at this point. As stated previously, Redfall has yet to have a single sale when you would imagine it'd certainly have one (heavy at that) by this point. Looking up their smaller stuff you can find some discounts, but they're in the 20% range. If you look at the older stuff they've had some heavier discounts but those games are likely operating under different rules.

 

I'd say it is all Game Pass related as they want you on the subscription, not buying games, but in this case I wouldn't say that is why, or at least not the only reason. Sony as we know has tried to emulate how Nintendo does things so that Sony's games become respected as evergreen titles in the eyes of gamers. Xbox as is has known and has been spoken about by people who have been around their management team, is obsessed with whatever PlayStation does. So if PlayStation is going to try and move to a evergreen state for their games then Xbox will also because otherwise their games will be seen as lesser.

 

As for the 'war', it is more of a one sided offensive from Microsoft than anything else. Be it from management or the fans, real or otherwise. This is why these people who enter threads like this and try to chastise people are so tiresome, because they treat it as everything is even and Xbox is being treated unfairly by so many people. Meanwhile:

 

As said, the same exact thing comes from Microsoft management. We saw it from them in the court cases. They attack Sony endlessly and then cry that they're treated so unfairly.

 

 

[fenrir54565]

looks like Microsoft is increase console prices now as they did with there game prices last week. 

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/xbox-series-s-just-got-a-price-increase-in-brazil.1662804/

Edited October 27, 2023 by fenrir54565

[ASMODAIOS344]

Another price increase for Microsoft, till now we have information about India and Brazil and it seems that we will see price increases in all the countries that Xbox is available.

 

For some strange reason Xbox Series X is more expensive in my country that PS5 I wonder why?

 

PS5 standard edition: 550€

 

Xbox Series X: 560€

Edited October 27, 2023 by ASMODAIOS344

[Rozalia1]

No hiding behind Activision on this one. As we knew with the Activision game price hike, this is all Microsoft.

 

Most people are shocked because this appears bizarre, but it ain't to me. To start with remember that this is Microsoft. Literally in their playbook they have that people are to be used until their usefulness is over against someone else, and then destroyed too. Both the Brazilian regulator and Brazilian gamers were very loyal to Microsoft and fought hard for them... and this is their reward. As the saying goes, 'rewarded as a traitor deserves'. As for what sense these increases make? Remember the massive projections for Game Pass that Microsoft has had and still follows. Game Pass they really believed was going to have absolutely titanic growth and just utterly crush the competition. It didn't, but now that they have CoD they likely are once again confident that they'll have 100 million+ subscribers by 2027-2030. So they likely think that none of this matters, whatever the price people will soon come crawling to them regardless because of all the IP they've captured. This is why I've told people that they need to reject Microsoft on every platform, not just Xbox, which Microsoft doesn't even care about anyway.

 

Looking online it appears that the Xbox accounts are largely finding this indefensible because it is so stupid. The best attempt at a defence I've seen is to try and claim that you can still get an Xbox cheap if you use the grey market. Will blowback on this cause Xbox to go back on this decision? Ummm, possible, but perhaps unlikely for a few reasons. To begin with them getting Activision will have further increased their already gargantuan arrogance. Secondly is the fact that this is affecting Brazilians. Xbox's main care is Americans. They know that the British exists so a bit of effort goes into there too. Everyone else might as well be on Mars for all that Xbox cares about them.

 

With all that said, what stupid mistakes that Xbox's infamous management makes (not one deserves their position). Brazil has been a market they've actually been able to build some presence in. The Series S was priced cheaper which is more important in a market like Brazil than in the bigger markets. They've been able to build up a (toxic) fanbase there also, which is a difficulty for Microsoft elsewhere hence all the astroturfing. Now they're poised to throw it all away on the fantasy that nothing will change because... to use their term around the Xbox One mess... they're 'sticky'. We'll see.

[Rozalia1]

 

 

Another thing that has happened since they've gotten Activision is that Microsoft has now come for third party controllers that aren't licensed (not paying them a fee). Essentially a lot of people with these controllers, some quite expensive (more than a Series X) are going to have bricks instead. They've been doing this with headsets already for a while, where headset makers have to pay Microsoft a fee to have them work with Xbox. This is why you often see two different versions of those headsets. Headset makers have been absorbing the cost and paying Microsoft, but there has been cases coming up where they just price the Xbox version slightly higher to pay for the fee. Others have simply made it so only certain versions have an Xbox compatible version, with other versions not being available to Xbox.

 

A fun detail here is that this matters primarily for fighting games due to fight sticks. There has been a vocal group online who has really gone to bat for Xbox and being against fighting game tournaments using PlayStation. They argue that Sony has captured fighting games unfairly (imagine saying this when you support Microsoft), they've put out FUD about how PS5 ports easily melt which wouldn't happen to Xbox, and I even saw a joker put himself together a Xbox 360 looking fight stick as some manner of protest I suppose. Once again, this is their reward. Their only hope is that the affected controller makers surrender to Microsoft and pay them a bunch of money, which those companies don't really have to do for their already sold products.

 

Now to be clear. All of this is not to say that Sony is different on the matter. Since the start Sony has been against these controllers on the PS5, but there is the key element. Since the start. Xbox has allowed it for 3 years now and only now is pulling the plug which means loads of people who spent a lot of money on controllers are now going to be losing out. Microsoft allowed it to get some good boy points for PR purposes and now that they no longer need it they're all too happy to screw people over.

[majob]

On 10/26/2023 at 4:03 PM, Rozalia1 said:

 

Was about to post about that. A whole bunch of people have been 'promoted' to jobs they already had but now they're 'presidents'. As usual with Xbox, it is all so fake.

 

Pete Hines who just left Bethesda, his days appearing numbered when we saw that email where he was angry at how Bethesda has been treated in comparison to Activision, appears to be the assigned fall guy for Redfall and other failures. Bethesda and the related studios will now be under Booty of the Xbox management team, with the guy who is supposed to be in charge there now reporting to Booty instead of Spencer himself. They still call it 'limited integration' because people against these buyouts said this would happen and Microsoft's shills denied it, so they'll continue denying it for a while yet until the order goes out for the shills to suddenly all start saying 'obviously them being brought fully under Xbox was always the plan. Only an idiot would think otherwise.'

 

This ultimately is going to be the future of Activision and could well happen as soon as Bobby Kotick leaves, though I would think that Microsoft being who they are will give it a good while longer because as always, PR. Who knows, maybe they'll get their agent Mike Ybarra to find some sexual malpractice within Activision from some guys Microsoft knows are going to leave as soon as possible, so Microsoft can then sweep in to 'clean it up' and then place Activision firmly under Xbox management. It really wouldn't be a surprise to me if Redfall, which Spencer and co reportedly saw and were fine with, allowed it through just so they could castrate Bethesda afterwards and have everyone say they are right to do so.

 

Now to be fair, ordinarily bringing things under a singular management wouldn't be a bad thing, and Bethesda's management was clearly not in the best place. The problem is that Matt Booty is a known incompetent (biggest at Xbox, which is quite something considering the competition) who rather than being replaced is instead being rewarded with further companies put under him. Oh well, that is the old boy network for you. In the end it can only be a good thing for everyone that Microsoft so consistently entrusts important tasks to these fools.

 

 

You make good points. Not having it as a bonus weakens the chance of people taking issue with it as not sustainable, and also the adding of Gold as Core and Activision makes giving a good target tricky also. These targets after all have to be reasonable, not too high but not too low. Which is notable because, I don't know if you've seen this, but a defence that Microsoft's fans, real or otherwise, have made for Microsoft missing the targets is that these targets were internal targets that were set massively high and not expected to be reached. The rich management being fine with massive unreachable goals that if not reached means less bonus pay for themselves certainly sounds like something these guys who take all they can would do doesn't it? The reality, especially now that we've seen the crazy numbers Microsoft wants Game Pass to reach, is that they certainly expected the growth to just be absolutely massive, something which hasn't come and thankfully won't even with Activision on board.

 

Yeah, they are very secretive with their numbers because we all know they don't want people seeing the actual state of their business. In regards to the Starfield claim I'm assuming they've cooked the books so it is most subs added since the service had core added to it, it now being internally marked as a 'new/updated service'. Otherwise I don't see how that can be true. Game Pass early on had rapid growth until it hit the wall and stagnated. If Starfield legitimately beat those early Game Pass days then we'd certainly have heard about it as they'd be shouting that from the rooftops.

I think it's microsoft making sure none of their other properties can pull the same stunt Bungie did which was break off when they'd decided they no longer wanted to be part of microsoft. Gutting leadership and putting in their own people all but ensures those companies never break away

[unkind-tear4]

Farewell, Crash and Spyro. You were the best part of my teenagehood (as I never got a PlayStation console until Christmas 2001 with a PS2, which was a month after I turned 13, and my dad got me the Crash and Spyro collections when I was recovering from a nasty bee sting in the following summer).

[Rozalia1]

On 10/29/2023 at 5:44 PM, majob said:

I think it's microsoft making sure none of their other properties can pull the same stunt Bungie did which was break off when they'd decided they no longer wanted to be part of microsoft. Gutting leadership and putting in their own people all but ensures those companies never break away

 

It was ages back, but I'm pretty sure that was a case of Bungie having an out written into the contract. It really doesn't matter if Bethesda/Activision/whoever leadership later want out, because if it the option isn't in the contract then it won't happen. The only company under Microsoft that might have such an option would be Mojang. I've suspected that Mojang's contract is different for a long time, but we've pretty much had it confirmed based off what came out during the Activision court case. Spencer, who is the head of Microsoft gaming (not just Xbox) wanted to make one of those Minecraft games exclusive to Xbox and couldn't 'make it happen' when he is literally the boss. So Mojang at the very least has something in there that allows them to keep their games multiplatform (might have a time limit though), so there is certainly a chance that in there is also a clause that says that if Microsoft ever goes back on this then cool, Mojang can break away.

[fenrir54565]

looks like Microsoft is talking back loaned consoles from Brazilian websites and content creators after they dared to question the xbox series s price increase.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/xbox-is-reportedly-asking-for-loaned-consoles-back-from-brazilian-websites-after-they-criticized-the-price-increase.1662946/

https://gamehall.com.br/xbox-esta-supostamente-pedindo-de-volta-consoles-emprestados-aos-sites-brasileiros/

Edited October 31, 2023 by fenrir54565

[Rozalia1]

Just saw the news. Wow. Having finally gotten Activision and received all those PR hits in the process they may well have stopped caring. Alternatively Spencer has disconnected himself enough from the Xbox part of what they now call Microsoft Gaming, that his PR obsession is no longer as heavily followed as it once was.

 

For those unaware, the process of game journalists getting free stuff is something that very much happens. However, there are differing levels to this. Microsoft are known to be extremely 'generous' with what they give out, which as they naturally will get compared to Sony/Nintendo makes these journalists see Sony/Nintendo as stingy. The one that sticks with me due to the absurdity of it is one journalist who stated that they've received 7 Xboxs from Microsoft and yet has received nothing from the other platform holders. Take a guess on who they love to promote.

 

Them pulling these consoles the moment these Brazilian outlets do the smallest bit of pushback is really quite something. Platform holders have of course cut people off in the past, but it is never 'we bribed you to say good things and if you don't then we'll be taking the bribe back'. Sony has cut out a number of outlets which are nakedly pro-Microsoft and anti-PlayStation. Nintendo has cut off outlets like Kotaku for doing some ugly stories towards Nintendo such as telling people how to pirate Nintendo games, comparing Nintendo to Nazis/Imperial Japan, you get the picture.

 

Fun note. All of this happens after Xbox fans tried to reverse the price increase story by posting images of a yet un-updated page that had the old price. Once the regional Xbox branch was asked about it they said the price increase is happening and updated the un-updated page. For a short while though we had these people championing Xbox once again saying 'Xbox listens to the people' and that sort of thing, only to then have to delete their comments out of embarrassment.