Guitar Hero Prototype World of Warcraft Deathloop Quake Rage The Evil WithinMicrosoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard
- Thread starter Darth Vader
- Start date
Guitar Hero Prototype World of Warcraft Deathloop Quake Rage The Evil Within
There's only 1 good IP on that list and it's dead (quake)
Absolutely! Unfortunately they also a have a huge complacent & reactionary fanbase. Quite a few on this forum too. But I think they won't have much a choice now but to get back to being hungry. They really thought timed exclusive deals would carry them this entire generation. They should have seen the signs the minute Xbox started buying up all those mid size studios years back... They still sat the steering wheel dozing off.
Can weebs stop deluding themselves into thinking capcom or square enix would match anything Activision puts out. They cost 69 billion for a reason, no japanese publisher is going to equal the pull they have with their titles. it's pretty much game over
1000% can't blame them. They've been stifled from expressing how they truthfully feel about the ABK acqusition, by Xbox fanatics and the mods & admins who protect & enable them across the forum. Even those who had constructive criticisms and were respectful about this disapproval or concerns over the deal (which was the majority), basically were gaslighted and silenced into oblivion.
That's not a conductive space for fans of a platform, when you have console-warring and disingenuous fake neutrals of another platform, alongside mods & admin, pushing regular anti-PlayStation rhetoric throughout the threads for what feels like at least two years now, and reached a fever peak in the last months of this acquisition.
Oh and this doesn't even get into the fake-progressivism that was exposed by militant Xbox/Microsoft & ABK defenders through this deal, with things like mods getting busted playing Hogwarts on Steam, ignoring Lulu's anti-union busting, even ignoring the sexual harassment and now apparently transphobic issues at ABK & Zenimax (the latter AFTER they were acquired by Microsoft, btw), all conveniently ignored to fellate a near $3 trillion mega-conglomerate's consolidation of 1/26th of the industry's market revenue.
That forum's going to see their traffic drop like a stone after this ABK stuff finally wraps up.
You can't simply look at it from just a money-making POV; Sony need to balance out the desire for increasing profits with retaining their enthusiast fanbase, and respecting their legacy alongside that.
Capcom has Monster Hunter, which is huge in Asian territories. Is that comparable to COD's dominance in the West? No. But it doesn't have to be, that's the point. Likewise, Square-Enix have Final Fantasy XIV, which has become a big game in its own right. Again, not COD big, but it's not like Sony need one singular game on that level to match what COD does.
They already have a ladder into PC gaming...arguably too much of one IMO. The live-service games on PC is a good idea, but the porting of non-live service/GaaS games to the platform IMO dilutes the brand optics and dollar power of those games on actual PlayStation consoles. At the very least, Sony should reconsider that strategy to where PC ports are closer to within a year of a new installment launching exclusively on the console. Nintendo didn't just luck into having such a dedicated pool of buyers who purchase their games Day 1 and at full (or near-full) price for the duration of the game's shelf life; they cultivated that by, to an extent, being stubborn to cries against them doing PC ports and rapid price drops. That had the psychological effect on gamers of perceiving more value of their 1P games and their hardware, hence the huge amount of sales and profits we see for Nintendo's consoles and games.
Sony could've had that to a larger degree than they currently do, if they weren't suckered into doing what Microsoft is doing. They don't have a vested interest in the PC market like Microsoft does with Windows. So I don't see why they have become so aggressive with the PC porting strategy. Again, for the GaaS titles, it makes sense. That's basically an evolution of what Sony Online Entertainment did with the EverQuest series, which was primarily PC to begin with, though even back then, Sony had at least more of a vested PC interest with their VAIO line of computers & laptops.
What I think is Sony can have residual income but do it in a way that doesn't compromise the prestige and selling power of their marquee traditional software on the console itself, that doesn't require turning so quickly to platforms outside of their own ecosystem. I also think they don't need to allocate nearly as much to live-service/GaaS funding for at least FY25 as has been forecasted, though FWIW absolute dollar increases FY over FY seems to be a real thing (i.e this year it being $300 billion yen for game funding, 45% for traditional games & content aka $135 billion yen or about $958.53 million American).
Last edited:
Just thinking about this, here is where things get crazy for the future.
MS could legit buy EA or any other big publisher and get away with it in every major region except possibly the UK, i say possibly as it will depend on how the CMA rule in the next few weeks.
This is how it will play out with each regulator.
1. China - Will approve, no questions asked.
2. FTC - None of the courts give a shit, MS will get away with whatever. It's clear they aren't interested in stopping vertical mergers.
3. EC - Behavrioul remedies and fines haven, and now they have someone from MS working there.
4. CMA - The only regulator who could stop it, but if they don't stop ABK then how the hell are they going to stop an EA acquistion? Console market concerns get thrown away because they believed MS won't remove COD from PS, MS could use the same arguement for FIFA. Now CMA could use the cloud concerns to stop them, but if MS have done a "small" pathetically weak divestiture with ABK, then they could do that in the future aswell with EA.
Again this is just a hypothetical, but that's the precedent that will be set.
MS could legit buy EA or any other big publisher and get away with it in every major region except possibly the UK, i say possibly as it will depend on how the CMA rule in the next few weeks.
This is how it will play out with each regulator.
1. China - Will approve, no questions asked.
2. FTC - None of the courts give a shit, MS will get away with whatever. It's clear they aren't interested in stopping vertical mergers.
3. EC - Behavrioul remedies and fines haven, and now they have someone from MS working there.
4. CMA - The only regulator who could stop it, but if they don't stop ABK then how the hell are they going to stop an EA acquistion? Console market concerns get thrown away because they believed MS won't remove COD from PS, MS could use the same arguement for FIFA. Now CMA could use the cloud concerns to stop them, but if MS have done a "small" pathetically weak divestiture with ABK, then they could do that in the future aswell with EA.
Again this is just a hypothetical, but that's the precedent that will be set.
D
Deleted member 223
Guest
Even if COD goes the way of Halo, COD is starting at a much higher, global mindshare, consumer peak, so the death curve is going to be inevitably longer, and that is enough time for MS to do serious damage with it to their rivals. So don't delude yourself that COD will become insignificant overnight just cause Sony or hardcore PlayStation fans decide COD must be "dropped". Doesn't work like that. Add to that the amount of content MS will be able to churn out just by inertia, regardless of their ability to manage, and well you got serious competition now - regardless of what you think. Casuals don't give too much shit what hardcore PS fans think if they get, at the other side of the equation PC/Xbox doing counter marketing. Only strength prevails - as usual.
Last edited by a moderator:
Nobody is deluding themselves in thinking any Japanese Publisher can match ABK.
We are just being realistic on what Sony can acquire to help dampen the blow. A massive blow.
Thankfully Sony leadership isn’t under you.
You would have pulled your pants down and bent over for Microsoft.
This is very possible to happen as MS could make its money back after 2 quarters. Owning FIFA/COD would immediately put Playstation out of business, like full stop. If I were Sony I'm either showing up to ea trying to get a majority stake in the company or acquiring them, because MS is only like 2 more publishers away from owning all of playstations third party money makers.
all weebs go on the ignore list btw. no casual gives af about any of square or capcoms games on the level of cod. wouldn't soften any blow but waste money similiar to the bungie acquisition
I think sony could basically watch how this plays out, and if MS do really get away with it, well the rule book is now set for sony.
Again it comes down to what the CMA do, if they accept weak divestitures with MS then they very well be prepared to do that with sony and every one else.
And actually its gets worse, amazon and google will be frothing at the mouth if CMA doesn't block it again and accepts whatever trash divestiture MS gives them.
Basically the CMA future as a regulator will be decided by this case, as other corporation will use this case as a weapon. They need to hold or ready to bend in the future.
I may end up eating my words, but considering what is at stake i still think CMA will stand firm, unlike the FTC or EC it actually cares about it's reputation. Feel free to reply and laugh at this comment if i'm wrong.
Last edited:
D
Deleted member 223
Guest
The obsession with Square is indeed brain dead fear. Pollutes all sensible discussion. Square won't do shit. People need to stop pushing for a Square acquisition.
The war is for the FPS, WRPG western audience, not the JRPG, weeb audience. Square and its IPs won't help in any significant fashion. But who am I kidding, won't stop weebs from pushing for a Square acquisition under the guise of "do something". So fucking stupid from my POV but ohh well.
The war is for the FPS, WRPG western audience, not the JRPG, weeb audience. Square and its IPs won't help in any significant fashion. But who am I kidding, won't stop weebs from pushing for a Square acquisition under the guise of "do something". So fucking stupid from my POV but ohh well.
Square owns the biggest MMO in the world. It's not just about what IP can push consoles. You need to take revenue into account. Though I think Sony should focus on securing IPs.
D
Deleted member 223
Guest
It's about what IPs, deprivation of, hurts your competitor the most to ship consoles and makes your ecosystem less desirable. If MS was a full blown third party publisher with no console platform operation we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. The threat wouldn't be high. But they do, as a direct Sony PlayStation competitor, and MS is also pushing PC, an indirect one. They'll do it through exclusion of IP's or suppression (first or better or whatever scheme).
There are a million ways to go about revenue - if it's just a coffer operation. So yes, it's all about the First Person Shooter (shooters in general) and Western RPG audience - thus a western audience of NA/EU and not weebs or the JRPG crowd.
End of discussion. Square has been a massive failure trying to compete for the western audience in those areas, thus the divesture and sale of their western oriented IPs and studios. How obvious does this have to be? They're one of the least adequate publishers out there that can provide any significant advantage to Sony in this regard.
Last edited by a moderator:
Sony has a 2 fold problem buying a western publisher.
One is they don’t have waste amounts of money and secondly they will be outbid by others.
That’s why acquiring Japanese is realistic.
D
Deleted member 223
Guest
That's a lot of assumptions to still fit the dream of an Square acquisition based on a lot of conditional ifs. Again, Square does nothing to combat the problem, except as a coffer operation. Opportunity cost comes knocking so absolutely fucking no.
WRPG studios - CDPR, Larian etc.
Shooters and impact IPs (Ubisoft, Warner Gaming). EA/Take-Two/Epic out of sensible $$$ range.
Konami IP acquistion now that it's garbage bin level. Castlevania for a W/JRPG hybrid. Metal Gear Solid for a TPS continuation. Contra as sleeper IP for a potential FPS/TPS.
FromSoftware - W/JRPG hybrid machine.
That should be the main targets. Bungie is already out the way.
WRPG studios - CDPR, Larian etc.
Shooters and impact IPs (Ubisoft, Warner Gaming). EA/Take-Two/Epic out of sensible $$$ range.
Konami IP acquistion now that it's garbage bin level. Castlevania for a W/JRPG hybrid. Metal Gear Solid for a TPS continuation. Contra as sleeper IP for a potential FPS/TPS.
FromSoftware - W/JRPG hybrid machine.
That should be the main targets. Bungie is already out the way.
Last edited by a moderator: