Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

Gediminas

Boy...
Founder
21 Jun 2022
7,577
9,288
They got Obsidian, they got Zenimax and they got ABK.... but they're still miserable.

The truth is that the acquisitions mean nothing, the games they stood to gain mean nothing because they are not gamers. They just want Microsoft to "Win" or maybe more accurately, they want PlayStation to "lose".

With attitudes like that, they will never truly be happy or win in the way they want.
of course they are miserable, they are getting the same games as deal would never have happened. plus, they are not gamers. so who cares.
they are playing acquisition manager, that's it. it's all their life purpose.
 

Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,560
They got Obsidian, they got Zenimax and they got ABK.... but they're still miserable.

The truth is that the acquisitions mean nothing, the games they stood to gain mean nothing because they are not gamers. They just want Microsoft to "Win" or maybe more accurately, they want PlayStation to "lose".

With attitudes like that, they will never truly be happy or win in the way they want.
Most PlayStation fans were not going to buy these games anyway and most Gamepass subscriber won't even play them. It's all for show, just to claim "they won". It's pretty obvious by looking at the first 3 years which console did better and was the smarter purchase.

Sure Starfield would've sold well on PS but that's it. It's going to be on cloud day one, so if you really wanted to play it and don't have an Xbox you can do it by spending $15. Three years of victory laps and waiting because of $15/$30 and that's with me assuming Starfield is some sort of GoTY type game and not just another disapointment.
 

Jim Ryan

Not Lyin
VIP
22 Jun 2022
1,672
3,040
Era is disgustingly salivating because they believe MS is buying square enix

I saw Sullivan of all people suggest Xbox was going 3rd party but he got some aggressive snap backs from other posters.

I really think it would be the best route for Xbox though.
 

Swift_Star

Veteran
2 Jul 2022
4,137
6,038
lol. because ff14 got a port? They don't care about the games, they just don't want Playstation to have them.
yes, they’re disgusting. I hate these people.
I saw Sullivan of all people suggest Xbox was going 3rd party but he got some aggressive snap backs from other posters.

I really think it would be the best route for Xbox though.
It’s the route that makes more sense. MS is a software company, not a hardware one. Xbox is truly the outlier there.
 

Arminius

Well-known member
19 May 2023
252
187
It begins.


Edit: At this point, I hope Microsoft buys the whole industry, including Sony and Nintendo. Sony had their chance. Fuck it! The gaming industry needs to die because it can’t regulate itself!
 
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ksdixon

Dixon Cider Ltd.
22 Jun 2022
1,887
1,211
Are you kidding me SE? So if FF and DQ are committed to multiplatform, TR and others gone to Embracer, SE can get in the bin. Go for Capcom and WB, in support of EVO aspirations/media adaptions.
 
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Cool hand luke

Veteran
14 Feb 2023
2,956
5,252
It begins.


Edit: At this point, I hope Microsoft buys the whole industry, including Sony and Nintendo. Sony had their chance. Fuck it! The gaming industry needs to die because it can’t regulate itself!
homer simpson GIF
 

Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,560
Are you kidding me SE? So if FF and DQ are committed to multiplatform, TR and others gone to Embracer, SE can get in the bin. Go for Capcom and WB, in support of EVO aspirations/media adaptions.
Yea, like Sony wants to deal with Suicide Squad flopping on their hands. Well, since it's Jim Ryan we are talking about maybe he does.

Someone on this very forum predicted SE would eventually backstab Sony. Sony should have made a move yesterday. If MS buys SE, GAME OVER.
Every independent third party is going to backstab Sony once bought by MS one way or the other. That is why it would be so important for Sony to at least secure the most important partners that are exposed like SE, Capcom and FromSoftware.

MS next move is most likely going to be acquiring a Japanese publisher.
 
24 Jun 2022
3,982
6,954
Yea, like Sony wants to deal with Suicide Squad flopping on their hands. Well, since it's Jim Ryan we are talking about maybe he does.


Every independent third party is going to backstab Sony once bought by MS one way or the other. That is why it would be so important for Sony to at least secure the most important partners that are exposed like SE, Capcom and FromSoftware.

MS next move is most likely going to be acquiring a Japanese publisher.

Or two. Or three. Or four.

It's part of the reason I've already accepted one will likely be Sega/Atlus. If they acquire Square-Enix too, though? Yeah, that's dire for PlayStation. If by some twisted devil's luck also snagged Capcom as well? PlayStation might as well just exit the market as a platform holder.

What's the point in still maybe getting those games (many will be removed from the platform, of course) when your direct competitor, who wants you out of the business, controls the supply and distribution, can set the terms, and won't let you do a damn thing with that content unless they get parity on all of it (and can still undercut you with Day 1 Game Pass, cheaper pricing, 100% control of marketing & promotion, and extra content exclusive to their own ecosystem)?

It's not Western 3P publishers who are going to serve Sony's transmedia games/movies/TV/anime/manga expansion aspirations, that's for damn sure.
 

Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,560
Or two. Or three. Or four.

It's part of the reason I've already accepted one will likely be Sega/Atlus. If they acquire Square-Enix too, though? Yeah, that's dire for PlayStation. If by some twisted devil's luck also snagged Capcom as well? PlayStation might as well just exit the market as a platform holder.

What's the point in still maybe getting those games (many will be removed from the platform, of course) when your direct competitor, who wants you out of the business, controls the supply and distribution, can set the terms, and won't let you do a damn thing with that content unless they get parity on all of it (and can still undercut you with Day 1 Game Pass, cheaper pricing, 100% control of marketing & promotion, and extra content exclusive to their own ecosystem)?

It's not Western 3P publishers who are going to serve Sony's transmedia games/movies/TV/anime/manga expansion aspirations, that's for damn sure.
All it takes for Sony is to get something like SE + Capcom and there won't be anything reasonable MS would be able to do to damage PS5, not now and not 10 years from now, PlayStation would be simply too strong (Nintendo strong as far as IPs). Right now PlayStation lacks when it comes to legacy IPs like Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. PlayStation just needs a relatively small boost to get rid of Xbox for good and force them into becoming a third party, but for that they need Sony to back them up.

Forcing MS to grow bigger now is not even bad for Sony, as long as Xbox market share doesn't grow with it. Xbox getting Sega and Sony getting Capcom + CDPR would be a net positive for Sony in the long run. The bigger Xbox gets the more unsustainable their operation becomes with an installed base that looks like it won't even hit 50m this gen, meanwhile PS5 can actually grow much bigger before it starts to become unsustainable to maintain their games as exclusives.
 
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24 Jun 2022
3,982
6,954
All it takes for Sony is to get something like SE + Capcom and there won't be anything reasonable MS would be able to do to damage PS5, not now and not 10 years from now, PlayStation would be simply too strong (Nintendo strong as far as IPs). Right now PlayStation lacks when it comes to legacy IPs like Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. PlayStation just needs a relatively small boost to get rid of Xbox for good and force them into becoming a third party, but for that they need Sony to back them up.

Forcing MS to grow bigger now is not even bad for Sony, as long as Xbox market share doesn't grow with it. Xbox getting Sega and Sony getting Capcom + CDPR would be a net positive for Sony in the long run. The bigger Xbox gets the more unsustainable their operation becomes with an installed base that looks like it won't even hit 50m this gen, meanwhile PS5 can actually grow much bigger before it starts to become unsustainable to maintain their games as exclusives.

And to add to that, the creative possibilities of cross-IP pollination between Sony IP and, say, Square-Enix or Capcom IP. Not even just limited to gaming. Stuff like Captain Commando x G.Police (or Colony Wars), or a spiritual successor to Omega Boost with Cyberbots/Tech Romancer characters (such a shame Polyphony never returned to the Omega Boost IP). That's on top of bringing back IP like Parasite Eve, ActRaiser, Onimusha, etc. The merchandising, film, anime/manga etc. potential, and more.

For me it's not even about getting rid of Xbox: I don't necessarily want Xbox to go away, though I wouldn't lose any sleep if it were to happen, either. Over time it's been less of a net positive on industry growth and creative innovations than say from 2001-2008, and I simply dislike the militant toxic culture they've grown and cultivated online. I wouldn't feel like the industry loses much in terms of gaming tech innovation or cool, innovative software the way it did when Sega stopped being a platform holder, for example.

But in terms of Sony securing PlayStation's future, you're right, they have to be looking long-term and just getting more 3P exclusivity deals, or doing 3P exclusives with unproven teams for games that are several years out and no IP power of their own, or thinking over-relying on PC ports and live-service/GaaS military FPS sci-fi shooters won't secure that great of a future for the brand. I don't jump up at the sales milestones or the fiscal quarterly results or stuff like that; I can acknowledge they're great milestones to hit but they don't speak to the long-term health of the brand, either.

People have to stop thinking Microsoft are some completely incompetent company; you don't need top-tier competence when you have more money than common sense, and can just lock out your competitors of most of the big content over time. Where they can't provide a genuine option for customers, who are then forced by default to pick your product instead. That's ultimately what Microsoft wants; that's a death siren for the larger health of the industry and potentially even hobby.
 

Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,560
And to add to that, the creative possibilities of cross-IP pollination between Sony IP and, say, Square-Enix or Capcom IP. Not even just limited to gaming. Stuff like Captain Commando x G.Police (or Colony Wars), or a spiritual successor to Omega Boost with Cyberbots/Tech Romancer characters (such a shame Polyphony never returned to the Omega Boost IP). That's on top of bringing back IP like Parasite Eve, ActRaiser, Onimusha, etc. The merchandising, film, anime/manga etc. potential, and more.

For me it's not even about getting rid of Xbox: I don't necessarily want Xbox to go away, though I wouldn't lose any sleep if it were to happen, either. Over time it's been less of a net positive on industry growth and creative innovations than say from 2001-2008, and I simply dislike the militant toxic culture they've grown and cultivated online. I wouldn't feel like the industry loses much in terms of gaming tech innovation or cool, innovative software the way it did when Sega stopped being a platform holder, for example.

But in terms of Sony securing PlayStation's future, you're right, they have to be looking long-term and just getting more 3P exclusivity deals, or doing 3P exclusives with unproven teams for games that are several years out and no IP power of their own, or thinking over-relying on PC ports and live-service/GaaS military FPS sci-fi shooters won't secure that great of a future for the brand. I don't jump up at the sales milestones or the fiscal quarterly results or stuff like that; I can acknowledge they're great milestones to hit but they don't speak to the long-term health of the brand, either.

People have to stop thinking Microsoft are some completely incompetent company; you don't need top-tier competence when you have more money than common sense, and can just lock out your competitors of most of the big content over time. Where they can't provide a genuine option for customers, who are then forced by default to pick your product instead. That's ultimately what Microsoft wants; that's a death siren for the larger health of the industry and potentially even hobby.
Also, people seem to take for granted that IPs like The Last of Us, Uncharted and God of War will just keep popping up without a massive increase in investment so that they can afford to continue to work with the current IPs while also creating new ones.

Right now we got nothing going on with Uncharted, if SSM is really doing a new IP than we are probably looking at a long time without a God of War game, ND is stuck with the multiplayer and we are either getting TLoU Part 3 in the upcoming years or a new IP not both.
 

Ludwig

Well-known member
9 Feb 2023
258
310
Also, people seem to take for granted that IPs like The Last of Us, Uncharted and God of War will just keep popping up without a massive increase in investment so that they can afford to continue to work with the current IPs while also creating new ones.

Right now we got nothing going on with Uncharted, if SSM is really doing a new IP than we are probably looking at a long time without a God of War game, ND is stuck with the multiplayer and we are either getting TLoU Part 3 in the upcoming years or a new IP not both.
You make it seem like we are only getting only 1 game from PS studios. I don't that is the case though. Playstation has expanded into multi team studio where they are working on multiple projects.

SSM likely have two teams. One working Cory ip and other one on GoW.
 
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Nhomnhom

Banned
25 Mar 2023
8,414
11,560
You make it seem like we are only getting only 1 game from PS studios. I don't that is the case though. Playstation has expanded into multi team studio where they are working on multiple projects.

SSM likely have two teams. One working Cory ip and other one on GoW.
Where are those multi team games? As far as I see it's only Insomniac that is properly pulling that off. We are getting less games than ever from their internal studios, in fact ignoring GaaS we only have two Marvel games announced from Insomniac and that's it. This is definitely not the PlayStation output I got used to over the last 10 years.

Sure, there it the possibility that Sony is "hiding the games" but that possibility is becoming less and less likely it just seem like these games are all going to take a long ass time to come out and that many studios just shifted to GaaS development.

ND tried to be a multi team studio in the past and it didn't work out very well they just ended up going back to how they were before. Now all we have is this GaaS game taking years to come out that they can't even show and no news of another new game.