Pretty typical, I posted in the ABK / MSFT sticky thread a screen of one user getting banned for saying the unionization talk was just being used as cover to get the deal through and would be forgotten about as soon as it got past regulators.
They silence a lot of people that make valid and quite often obviously true points.
That's why it's almost impossible to have real discussions on places like Reset when it comes to gaming: not only are there certain users seemingly allowed to say things towards a specific console brand (Sony) that aren't tolerated for certain other console brands (Microsoft, Nintendo), but they have moderators and administrative staff who openly pop in and guide the flow of a given narrative in the ongoing conversation. It's a control tactic, effectively, and they're pretty clever about it.
Unfortunately there are some genuinely good posters there, some of whom also post here and/or at GAF & InstallBase, who probably either walk on eggshells at times or just don't jump into specific topics/tangents when it comes to the acquisition or business practices & strategies with platform holders. But there are also obvious fanboys & fangirls, particularly when it comes to the acquisition, who are just latching onto
ANYTHING at this point to want the deal to go through.
I'm not even personally against the deal, actually, but I'm not going to pretend that it wouldn't cause ramifications in the industry if Microsoft were allowed to get it with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Whatever gets done here, IF the deal is passed, is going to influence future concessions with acquisitions in general, gaming or not. That's a part why this deal is undergoing so much scrutiny, and I'm GLAD it is, everyone should be. But the warriors, especially some in the ResetERA threads for the acquisition, they're just outright insulting regulators for "daring" to oppose Microsoft, calling them stupid and ignorant, fearmongering with "But Tencent & Embracer!", making up FUD about Sony's strategy and history of getting into gaming, blaming Sony for Sega's mistakes, blaming Sony for doing things that are being taken way out of context, insinuating Sony can afford to bleed money on PlayStation the same way a company valuated at almost $2 trillion and makes in net profits annually 3/5ths of Sony's
ENTIRE market valuation can for a division that ultimately means little to their bottom line...
Really I am just over the disingenuous arguments a lot of those people are making and the fact mods & admin on the forum enable it, even protect it. I'm surprised they're even letting more critical takes on the acquisition happen in the first place, but it took multiple regulators outright confronting the deal, a string of coincidentally bad events pertaining to Xbox (including the recent quarterly results), AND some rather big names being more openly critical on the deal to even have that much happen in terms of open discussion about the acquisition without risking catching an immediate warning or ban.
Honestly, it's their moderation & administrator teams that should feel embarrassed.
Phil's issue was his career is all Management and enterprise. He was management to Microsoft Studios but never was a developer. You look at top Studio management over at Sony/Nintendo all of them have worked in the trenches.
Herman Hulst and Yoshida both have been on studio floors. Legend of dragoon Yoshida was a Producer on. Herman oversaw multiple titles ship so he knows budgets, deadlines ect.
Phil literally came into Microsoft as a intern and worked on enterprise software, then because there was no one to take the position moved to Microsoft studio Publishing, then to primary manager, then to overseer of xbox division, no CEO.
Guy has made nothing. So even though he loves games, loving games and making them are 2 separate things and unrelated to each other.
Phil is nice, but honestly he sucks.
Exactly, and it'd be nice if the people who worship him like the second coming came to this obvious realization. Phil being a gamer is not a qualification for being a leader of a gaming division. Jim Ryan doesn't even play games but makes up for it with clear-as-day business smarts and letting the people who DO have experience making games, handle the management of the studios from an upper management level.
Microsoft used to have people like that in the OG Xbox and early half of the 360 generation, but then they either let them go off to other places (to never come back) or fired them. And it shows.
i mean it's just been so log since xbox has had anything remotely decent that has even made me take a second look. the last decade for them is a wash in terms of game creation, and there's really no coming back from that. You don't get to just spend a decade in the gutter as a brand, and then all of a sudden start knocking it out of the park.
Xbox has an irrefutable and irredeemable stink to it, and gamers all know. There is no saving Xbox, barring some miracle.
Personally I don't think it's because Xbox doesn't have good games. They may be to your tastes but HiFi Rush, Forza Horizon 5, Flight Simulator, Age of Empires, Pentiment...those are at least decent games and quite good games for a good amount of people.
Xbox's problem is they really don't have anything with mass market appeal that also happens to be a solid game. Sony have TLOU, GOW, Spiderman, Gran Turismo...Nintendo have Pokemon, Zelda, Mario, Splatoon...and in both cases they built up those IP over years/decades to become what they are today in terms of mass market appeal. Microsoft's longest-running IP are Halo, Gears, Forza & Flight Sim. Flight Sim, as-is, is just too niche. Halo has fallen so far it's a mockery of what it used to be. Gears has effectively stagnated and seen virtually no growth since the 360 days, in fact it's declined in selling power. Forza has never done anything to step out from Gran Turismo's shadow, and some fans feel that Horizon 5 was a step back from the previous game.
Most of Microsoft's other IP are either heavily PC-centric so they play to a limited audience (Age of Empires), or too new to have built up a lot of mass-market appeal considering they may be decent, but don't do anything extraordinary (Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo etc.). And ultimately this is all a management problem in terms of not having strong long-term brand IP retention, and not successfully doing so between generations. Now they're seeing the consequences of resting on their laurels and if they thought just buying big mass-market IP through 3P publishers was going to be smooth and fix the problem, welp, they may have to reconsider relying on that strategy any further.
