eh, xbox is in a really bad spot right now with most just assuming they'll leave the console business sooner or later. it's been so long since they released anything worthwhile.
a lot of guys are just looking for any sort of win to quell their buyer's remorse over investing in the xbox's failed ecosystem.
They've always been this way. Shit, I posted way too many posts back in 2011/2012 about how the new xbox would fail and why it would fail. Or why Kinect could have the right games but Microsoft are looking in the wrong areas. Everytime I have been shot down by shills.
It wasn't that long ago I was having arguments about how Microsoft were going to purchase ABK because ABK were going to be put up for sale (6 months later ABK went up for sale and MS bought them). It's frustrating to deal with them.
This is not, and was never, about mobile.
That’s a smokescreen for the gullible.
This is about winning the console war and forcing as much of gaming as possible into subscriptions.
Literally NOTHING was ever stopping Microsoft from getting into mobile gaming, aside from their own incompetence and lack of vision. If they wanted King, they’d have bought it when Activision did.
Congrats on being played by the worst PR in the industry!
I respectfully disagree with the first half and agree somewhat with the second half.
It is about forcing as much as gaming as possible into subscriptions, but it is mobile which will be the trojan horse in which Microsoft do it in the console space.
Microsoft are incompetent and usually enter industries by buying their way in. They cocked up their own mobile so there's no reason to believe they would try again. Instead, they will do what Microsoft do: "buy em out boys".
From King's website:
We have developed more than 200 fun titles, and offer games that are enjoyed all around the world. Our franchises include Candy Crush, Farm Heroes, Pet Rescue and Bubble Witch. We have 250 million monthly active users as of Q1 2022 across web, social and mobile platforms.
Microsoft get access to 250 million users and 200 games to bring to console gamepass. They add all of those mobile users to Gamepass/Xcloud mobile for free, bolstering Gamepass numbers. They use this metric to bully 3rd party (console) games into coming to Gamepass because "look at our user number and MAU count". etc etc
I believe we see the same end goal here; The console industry held hostage on a subscription service, which would eventually become a streaming service so they could do away with hardware. The only difference is, I think they will use mobile to do it and you think they will be direct about doing it by using 3rd party games.
Maybe we're both right? King and Acti-Blizz will be a two pronged approach. One to flood the service with games and numbers, the other to reduce the reach of the competition?
