Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

There is already this thread but nobody goes there lol

OT Drama | Other Gaming Forums (GAF, ResetERA, D-Pad, Twitter, etc..)

I started this sticky because it seems like it would be something where people could share their feelings about how another site got them banned permanently or simply wanting to discuss the strengths of another site over this one. Remember the rules : NO personal insults of people regardless...

icon-era.com

I did not know this thread existed until now. Will have to visit it more regularly

 

[Plextorage]

Stalker 2 is just a tined exclusive, I thought?

Per Epic/Apples case, yes. Nevertheless, it counts, same as previously mentioned PS5 timed exclusive Silent Hill

 

[Dabaus]

don't believe his lies Sony!

November 2022

Is this old?

 

[AshHunter216]

Is this old?

Yep, I didn't notice the date at first either.

 

[Bryank75]

So, whatever Patch said it ends otherwise. So, it will be very bad for Xbox.

That's why it's unbelievable that he is still in the industry.... I mean, who pays him for the nonsense he spews?

Unless they actually do the opposite to what he suggests

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

i can type in at around 55 words a minute, what are you at 200.

I wished. Prob like 75 without correcting too much. I've seen of some people hitting like 150+ no errors and I just think they must have really flexible fingers.

This is first party.

But Ark 2 would fit.

That's a better example. Forgot about that game.

If the terms aren't fair, the duration is meaningless. It's always funny how openly guys like Tom Warren and Jez Corden have been doing MS bidding this gen as well.

Pretty ridiculous how hard they're all pushing the "unreasonable Sony won't sign the deal" narrative.

Edit: Just noticed that this is an old tweet. Point about the terms of the deal still stands.

It's a full-frontal assault on social media with all the usual suspects. Tom Warren, Jez Corden, Destin Legaire, Colteastwood, now add in new ones like Brad Smith, Bobby Kotick & Lulu Cheng Meservey and the seemingly endless wave of radicalized fanboys/fangirls who argue about the acquisition everywhere 24/7, even over doing stuff like playing games.

I haven't seen such a coordinated effort to cultivate public sway and misrepresent opponents since a Presidential campaign. Because that's how Microsoft are treating it now, and all of those negative side effects are seeping right into and feeding off the most toxic parts of discourse in gaming.

Purposefully.

That's why it's unbelievable that he is still in the industry.... I mean, who pays him for the nonsense he spews?

Unless they actually do the opposite to what he suggests

He just plays the part of an idiot in front of gamers. At his actual job I have to think he actually gives real analysis that are way different to what he runs with on Twitter and podcasts, otherwise he'd of been blacklisted ages ago.

 

[AshHunter216]

I wished. Prob like 75 without correcting too much. I've seen of some people hitting like 150+ no errors and I just think they must have really flexible fingers.



That's a better example. Forgot about that game.



It's a full-frontal assault on social media with all the usual suspects. Tom Warren, Jez Corden, Destin Legaire, Colteastwood, now add in new ones like Brad Smith, Bobby Kotick & Lulu Cheng Meservey and the seemingly endless wave of radicalized fanboys/fangirls who argue about the acquisition everywhere 24/7, even over doing stuff like playing games.

I haven't seen such a coordinated effort to cultivate public sway and misrepresent opponents since a Presidential campaign. Because that's how Microsoft are treating it now, and all of those negative side effects are seeping right into and feeding off the most toxic parts of discourse in gaming.

Purposefully.



He just plays the part of an idiot in front of gamers. At his actual job I have to think he actually gives real analysis that are way different to what he runs with on Twitter and podcasts, otherwise he'd of been blacklisted ages ago.

Pretty apt description. MS have been treating this deal like a particularly nasty presidential campaign.

 

[anonpuffs]

Stalker 2 is just a tined exclusive, I thought?

Yeah it's timed

 

[anonpuffs]

That's why it's unbelievable that he is still in the industry.... I mean, who pays him for the nonsense he spews?

Unless they actually do the opposite to what he suggests

There is no way he gives out analysis that he would be providing as a paid consultant. That's why it often seems like things go exactly the opposite of what pachter says. Imagine giving away your personal trade secrets in a public forum when you aren't retired.

 

[Plextorage]

Yeah it's timed

Nothing officially confirmed. Info is based on Epic/Apple case.

 

[Dabaus]

I wished. Prob like 75 without correcting too much. I've seen of some people hitting like 150+ no errors and I just think they must have really flexible fingers.



That's a better example. Forgot about that game.



It's a full-frontal assault on social media with all the usual suspects. Tom Warren, Jez Corden, Destin Legaire, Colteastwood, now add in new ones like Brad Smith, Bobby Kotick & Lulu Cheng Meservey and the seemingly endless wave of radicalized fanboys/fangirls who argue about the acquisition everywhere 24/7, even over doing stuff like playing games.

I haven't seen such a coordinated effort to cultivate public sway and misrepresent opponents since a Presidential campaign. Because that's how Microsoft are treating it now, and all of those negative side effects are seeping right into and feeding off the most toxic parts of discourse in gaming.

Purposefully.



He just plays the part of an idiot in front of gamers. At his actual job I have to think he actually gives real analysis that are way different to what he runs with on Twitter and podcasts, otherwise he'd of been blacklisted ages ago.

The presidential campaign analogy is perfect. Yes its the Trillion dollar company pretending to use a populist message to enrage the masses from evil, incumbent sony. Problem for them is, gamers like what sony are doing and sony are the only one between the two actually doing want gamers want, releasing games and making good partenerships with games they want. Microsofts message is only being received by people who already like xbox, which are mostly paid for shills at this point. This hyper aggressive campaign isnt spilling over to the mainstream, its staying siloed in xbox fanboy circles and some twitter fights but so far regulators, the people they need to actually win over arent having none of it.

 

[Swift_Star]

some people here should watch this video. and get educated a bit.

This video is pure self embarrassment

 

[Doncortez77]

I stumbled across this on my timeline and I never heard of this this guy or the channel until today but I feel that he's right about what he's saying about the online media coverage of Jim Ryan's objection of the deal.

 

[Ludwig]

Just look at the names of the games in your own article.

Do you think those have the same sway as huge franchises like Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, huge AAA projects like Death Stranding or the heavily rumored MGS remake ?

No, absolutely not, and saying that High on Life or Valheim will have the same sway as FF16 is just arguing for arguments sake.

Come on.


The damage has been done at that point. If FF7 remake comes to Xbox later this year, it would be a welcome game but it would have little to no impact as its already a very old game by now and most anyone who wanted to, would have played it one way or the other.

This is the very definition of bleeding the competition.

You can choose to ignore it as "but it will come eventually" that won't change the effect they're having.




Why ? If the games were releasing day and date on both platforms, they would have had similar kinds of reception on both platforms.

Elden Rings has only a 9~ % sales split on PS vs Xbox (using UK as an example) where PS hardware is almost 2, 3 times more available than Xbox (cross-gen keep in mind).

Lego Star Wars only has a sales split of 5% between the platforms with the same hardware split.

Assuming that "X game would not have done anything on Xbox and only be relevant on PS" is just a fanboy mentality.



All of these points are heavily subjective fanboy drivel.

But that's not really surprising.

Sources for those sales split.

 

[adamsapple]

Stalker 2, Darktide, not to mention locked Bethesda games from other platforms after acquisition like Hifi, Redfall, Starfield. When you trying to compare something, do it properly. And btw. Death Stranding. It is like you mentioned Bloodborne and why isn't a multiplatform. :/

We're comparing third party exclusives, Bethesda games are not third party exclusives.

Also, where did I mention bloodborne ?

What stopped Microsoft from making similar deals? I'll tell you what: lack of care. If we go by evidence, MS only seemed to start re-investing in the Xbox division around 2018. That's when they went and acquired several studios (that people were generally okay with them doing, BTW), it's also likely when they accelerated development on Series X and S (they would have had earlier design plans for 9th-gen prior to this, but I think Series S and that dual-SKU approach were NOT part of the initial plans until much later. I would also say the response they observed from the One S and One X solidified the Series approach, but they would have need until near the end of 2017 to actually gauge that reaction and build from it).

Let's look at it this way; almost all of the XBO 3P exclusives that came from 2013 - 2016 were signed by Don Mattrick near the end of the 360 gen. We can say he started negotiating those deals around 2010 - 2011. That includes games like Ryse, Killer Instinct, Dead Rising 3, Crimson Dragon (IIRC was supposed to be for the 360 as a regular game but got pushed back and forced to support Kinect 2) etc. This is probably also around the time Sony started negotiating deals for what they could (given the PS3's market performance at the time; even if it was improving, they were still getting curbstomped in markets like US & UK by 360) for 3P exclusives on PS4.

Now, since PS4 proved itself to be a rather big success out of the gate, that gave Sony more negotiating power when the time came to start securing certain early 3P exclusives for PS5, but they probably didn't start doing this until 2017/2018. The reason Microsoft did not negotiate for deals of a similar scale is twofold: first being due to their weakened market position in XBO gen, the 2nd being because they most likely did not begin fully designing out their next-gen systems until late 2017. Again, Series X & S mirror One X & One S, but both of those were gambles by MS to regain goodwill and hopefully market share. They would not have pressed full steam ahead on Series X & S until they had enough time to gauge One S & One X reception, meaning they needed until the end of 2017.

This isn't even a wild theory to have considering the first semi-credible next-gen console rumors started in early 2018. And, AFAIK, those were mainly focused on basic performance of the then-unknown next-gen Xbox systems. If MS waited until late 2017 to start pushing full steam ahead on Series X & S development, then that would have limited their ability to go after certain 3P exclusive deals, because they would not have had much in terms of prototype hardware or semi-mature devkits, to provide to 3P developers. We can also infer that, given this possibility, they did not have time to talk with 3P developers in terms of feedback for the Series X & S platforms, plus during that time MS would have needed to focus on transitioning the XDK to the GDK.

As you can see, MS's lack of locking down certain key 3P exclusives was their own fault, for scaling back on Xbox funding in the Myerson years, and not really pushing through in funding until 2018. They knew even then they would be far behind the curve which is why that funding was focused on small studio acquisitions. And FWIW, if Sony were as hungry to "squeeze MS out" with 3P exclusivity deals, they would have locked down timed exclusivity deals for SF6, RE4 Remake, Hogwarts Legacy, Avatar, etc. They didn't.

At the end of the day, MS could have locked down some of these same games, and if you actually think about it, most of the 3P games they have locked down are not massive AAA releases. Deathloop barely qualifies, same with Ghostwire Tokyo, and both of those could be argued are more high-budget AA games similar to Plague Tale: Requiem. Sifu and Kena, as well as Stray, are all AA games. I'd actually say Microsoft have locked in more Game Pass Day 1 releases of 3P games than Sony have locking down 3P AA or AAA exclusives for PS! Just off the top of my head:

-As Dusk Falls (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-High on Life (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-Outriders​

-The Ascent​

-The Gunk (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-Wu Long​

-Guardians of the Galaxy​

-Ollie Ollie World​

-Ravenlok​

-Benedict Crumb​

-Replaced (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-MLB The Show​

-Crossfire X (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-The Medium​

-Scorn (also Xbox console-exclusive)​

-Stalker 2​

-Atomic Heart​

-Persona 5R​

If you honestly think Sony have to go out of their way to lock down niche Japanese games from Xbox, then you're insane. And for any 3P exclusive Sony has coming along the way that is already known of, Microsoft have one of their own.

-Sony: Rise of the Ronin​

-Microsoft: Contraband​

​

-Sony: Stellar Blade​

-Microsoft: Perfect Dark (The Initiative is barely a studio and CD are a 3P dev owned by Embracer Group)​

Otherwise all of Sony's other AA and AAA exclusives are either 1P-developed or being done in collaboration with smaller 3P studios not dissimilar to what Microsoft or even Nintendo do. So really, your whole talking point, when we shift through the nonsense, is about Final Fantasy being PlayStation-exclusive. Lord forbid PlayStation has even a few 3P exclusives, even for games they help fund and develop as the FF XVI team themselves have said is the case.

And the hilarious part is, most of the Final Fantasy games AREN'T PlayStation exclusive . Didn't Crisis Core just come to Xbox and sold like 6% of all sales there? Not to mention historical sales data for FF XIII and XV in terms of console splits, and you wonder why Square-Enix doesn't have a problem working with Sony on mainline FF games in return for them having console exclusivity?

 

[Darth Vader]

We're comparing third party exclusives, Bethesda games are not third party exclusives.

Death Stranding is not a third party exclusive. If you go by general definition, it's a second party game: Sony commissioned, paid for, provided engine and developers, and owns the IP.

Yeah, lack of arguments usually leads to witty responses. Have you not received today's briefing?

 

[adamsapple]

Sources for those sales split.

Elden Ring is approx 40% to 29% between PS and Xbox.
Lego SW is approx 39% to 34% between PS and Xbox.

I see the goal posts have been moved once again. First it was Sony bad for doing timed exclusives, reasonable people pointed out that MS does them too, and now it's changed to the quality of the timed exclusives. Sony's timed exclusives are better, according to you, so that means Sony is bleeding the competition. I don't mean to be offensive to you, but you are really reaching here.

I'm not the one who posted a link which listed valheim, hifi rush as timed exclusives and tried to pass them off as the same level of an FF16.

If some of you guys legitimately think Hifi Rush has the same cache as an FF16, who am I to say otherwise.

And here comes the dishonesty. Death Stranding was commissioned by Sony. They paid for the development of the game, supplied the game engine, and kept the IP. It's not a timed exclusive, it's an exclusive that they paid to be developed.

Leaked documents show SH2 Remake was pitched to Sony and Sony is co-funding the development of the game. Suffice to say that perhaps the rumoured MGS remake follows the same logic. Final Fantasy yes, they paid for exclusivity.

So right away you provide 4 games whereby only 1 was actually "moneyhatted" by Sony and 1 is inconclusive (it may not even exist). The other 2 would not exist as games without Sony.

Please don't peddle in leaked documents.

If we go by leaked documents we have iron clad statements from sources that Sony explicitly pays companies to make sure games don't go on game pass.

If you want to believe one, you should believe the other as well.

What about them? Aren't you the one cheerleading for every single Xbox exclusive? You still haven't answered my question:

Oh, I do.

But it's good to see that you now do as well.

Also, what was the volume of timed exclusives Sony paid for this gen and how is it bigger than last gen? I suppose you have data for that?

No idea about the volume, but they've already started this gen with 3 exclusive final fantasy games, something that hasn't happened since the PS2 era.


If you're going to cite leaked documents, then allow me to site reputable industry insider Imran Khan saying that Sony has approached pretty much every single multi platform publisher for money hats.

They're trying their best to bleed the competition with timed third party exclusives. No if and or but about it.

 

[adamsapple]

Death Stranding is not a third party exclusive. If you go by general definition, it's a second party game: Sony commissioned, paid for, provided engine and developers, and owns the IP.

and Bethesda's games are fully first party, citing their name is inaccurate.

Yeah, lack of arguments usually leads to witty responses. Have you not received today's briefing?

Yeah, no, I'm not reading thicc's novella, no one does , you didn't either.

I skimmed it real quick and saw that he called Perfect Dark a 3P game.

fucking lol, last time I skim through one of these novellas.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

fantrolls are losing their mind. You gotta love to see it.

 

[anonpuffs]

fantrolls are losing their mind. You gotta love to see it.

When aren't they? You can literally find posts and livestreams by RDX et al. every single day having a meltdown at "sony bad" or "regulators bad" or "microsoft can have my firstborn"