I don't believe the rumors for the next console having Steam/Epic available on it. I think that's wishful thinking. The main reason why I don't see this happening is due to publishers putting their games on Steam which in turn means that they wouldn't have to port an actual Xbox version of their games to the console which in turn means that Microsoft wouldn't be getting the 30% cut that they currently get. Valve would be getting the cut. Unless Microsoft would be getting 30% or better, I don't see any of this happening plus what's in it for Valve? I don't see Gabe even bothering with any of this shit simply because he doesn't have to. Console is already set for next gen. If they were going to leave consoles behind, why would Microsoft waste money and time releasing the newer models for Series X/S that just released? There's really no point in doing that if you were leaving. I don't believe that Microsoft will eliminate the consoles because their entire direction is Game Pass which is built mostly around the consoles. Eliminate the consoles and they eliminate the vast majority of Game Pass subscribers which they're not going to do. Their next generation console I believe will simply be a more high powered console that retails for $800. I also believe that they will have a portable handheld for $500. I see Sony doing exactly the same at the same prices but in Fall 2028 while Microsoft targets Fall 2026 which is the smarter decision for Microsoft. Learn from Nintendo, stop going head to head and do your own shit instead.
Depends on who you ask and what you favor. For me, XBOX blows away PlayStation and it's not even close. First, I have Game Pass. I'm a subscription guy. I don't care about ownership or collections. I just want to play and complete the game and then move on to my next new game. I don't need to replay a single player game that's one and done because that's what they all are just to justify why I purchased it. The game isn't going to change the second or third time I play it. Getting all of Microsoft's games day one on Game Pass Ultimate is huge for me because it's less money that I have to spend which as a consumer first, that actually benefits me in turn as a gamer.
PlayStation fanboys/extremists are so full of shit when they say they buy games. Really? 60m+ PS5 owners and Astro Bot only sold a few million? What happened to the other 55m+ of you guys? You all forgot to show up. Sad part is that the Xbox guy (me!!) showed up day one and digitally too. No physical discount here. The truth is that unless it's a major top tier Sony game, COD, Hogwarts Legacy, Rockstar/From Software/CDPR, most games don't sell shit because majority of actual normal consumers don't want to buy them or buy the 2-3 games a year which are live service and just stay with them.
Second, I'll get one or two third party games day one on Game Pass Ultimate which saves me even more money which yes, is what I care about. The only thing more important to me than money is health and time. Gaming is an expensive luxury. Not a necessity so if I can save a lot of money, why wouldn't I do that? It's not my job to support any company including Microsoft. Let all their execs figure all that shit out. Third, as of now, Ubisoft+ is only on Xbox console wise. I'm a Ubisoft guy so to be able to play their games for what is basically a $20 monthly rental instead of buying them even when on sale for $30 is another huge benefit to me. Fourth, free cloud saves. This literally has saved me multiple times. I'm not paying Sony $10 a month like a jackass just so I can upload a save file. You gotta be kidding me.
Fifth, and this one is huge for me. I can use the Xbox One controller which is my best controller and favorite controller of all time. Feels great, responsive, good sizing for my hands, no stupid grooves and stubble on the back, analog sticks where they should be, better directional pad and best of all, no stupid lame ass gimmicks that I don't give two shits about and I don't care what company does it. Just give me a regular normal standard controller. That's all I ask for. Sixth, a good refund policy which is 6 games a year. Sometimes, I want to tryout a game but if I don't like it or if it's just broken to where it's enjoyable to play at all, I want to have the ability to refund because why should I get stuck with the game after 15 minutes? Makes no sense.
Seventh and this applies to why Microsoft is the best publisher in the industry. Live service games. I'm not a live service guy and while Sony will continue to chase that shit because they want another cash cow to go with Destiny, Microsoft is already set in this regard. Doesn't matter if it's their own games like Halo Infinite, Forza games, Sea of Thieves or from ABK/Bethesda, they are set with gaining massive recurring revenue on a monthly basis and unless every single one of them dies out which isn't going to happen, this will not only keep their consoles alive and well but also, allow them to do what all of you guys want Sony to do - concentrate on single player games. Microsoft has a 20 game roadmap. 12 of them are purely single player. No co-op/multi-player while 5 more have a single player campaign attached to it (Gears E-Day, COD, etc.).
So while majority tout exclusivity and all of this shit from previous generations, Microsoft barely ever had anything for me where as now, they have too much. This generation blows away the previous three combined for me. If people actually were to get their heads out of their ass and actually look at what Microsoft offers with Xbox, they would realize that holy shit, it's pretty good over here.
Back to when I said PlayStation has nothing for me. Let me clarify it. Outside of their first party games and an exclusivity game deal here and there, they have nothing for me. I have no incentive whatsoever to make PlayStation my primary gaming console and moving forward, I probably never will. There's just nothing there and outside of the bulky size of the controller, im not a fan of the dual sense. I prefer the analog stick setup on Xbox, I fucking despise the touch pad which is nothing more than an oversized world map button and I don't care about the adaptive triggers or vibration garbage which Xbox already had last generation albeit to a lesser extent but I turn all of this off at a system menu level.
Just remembered, I also have Backwards Compatibility on Xbox that Sony outside of PS4 doesn't offer. I'm not subscribing to Plus just so I can stream a PS one game like Dino Crisis. Let me buy the damn thing. I played through all the Halo games via BC and Bulletstorm.
In general, what I said is true. If PlayStation is SO MOTHER FUCKING GREAT, why do so many people here constantly talk about XBOX? Like, why? When you need to bash the other side, that just tells me that your preferred platform isn't all that it's cracked up to be because if it was, these same people would actually talk about what they prefer instead of creating topics every fucking day about the company, platform and brand that they don't give a shit about.
When I know my shit is better, I don't need to lower myself to bash the other sides. While Sony's first party games are usually great for me, they don't have anything else of interest for me. There's no real benefit or incentive to play on PlayStation all the time. There just isn't. But do you ever see me shit on Sony or PlayStation? No you don't because I don't need to. For me, Xbox is far superior so why would I waste my time posting topics and tweets and posts about what is the inferior platform in my eyes? Like, what's the point in doing that? It changes nothing. lol
I'm the XBOX guy here and im more happy with the PlayStation 5 and the games that Sony has given me thus far and will continue to give me than probably 95% of people on this forum who are supposed to be PlayStation fans but you sure as hell wouldn't know it by going through the topics and whatnot.
All im going to say in regards to future acquisitions, Microsoft is already a $3T dollar company that will eventually get to $4T and so on. Just a matter of time. Studios won't matter as they go through very quickly. But publisher wise, investors and shareholders want the best deal and by law they have to accept the best deal. They want their money. If Microsoft acquires say Ubisoft since they're having a shit ton of issues and when they do, announce that all the games will be everywhere which in turn means that you're losing nothing as a PlayStation fan and don't say that they're better off being independent because the reality is that they're not because they've already fucked up so many times that it wouldn't matter if a Microsoft acquired them. Plus, no one is losing anything. You still get all the games so what's the issue? Oh, I don't like it because at the end of the day, that's ALL it boils down to. It has nothing to do with anything else. It's "oh, I hate Microsoft, WTF?" They shouldn't have them but IF it was their favorite company, then it's okay?
I see people here bitching about a marketing deal for Metaphor and the way the advertising is setup yet Sony has done this exact same mother fucking thing for decades. No one seems to mind that but the moment it's NOT their FAVORITE doing it, it's somehow bad when the reality is that it's exactly the same fucking shit on both sides.
Once Microsoft got ABK for $70B, a future acquisition of let's say $10B isn't going to raise any flags or anything because it's small in comparison and since regulators already passed a massive deal, they're not going to waste money, time and resources on a small acquisition in comparison plus unless it's a Sony or Nintendo, it's not direct competition so I don't see regulators stopping it.
Even if Microsoft doesn't acquire anything, im still geting a lot of games that they already have coming. On a pure value/money standpoint, I have 15 games out of 20 that I want to play. Let's say those 15 games are $70 each. That's $1050. Why would I spend that for games that will be a one and done for me? Buying the console and subscribing to Game Pass would be far cheaper for me at least. Granted, not everyone is going to be interested in as many games as I am but IF they do eventually acquire more, the value proposition simply becomes too fucking good to pass up. For me, it's already too good to pass up and even if Microsoft ports the games to PlayStation, unless it's day one, I have to wait and I don't want to wait to play games that im super hyped to play through.
It wouldn't be perfect and yeah, there would be layoffs but oh well. I'm someone that doesn't give a shit about any of this. Also, Sony has laid off a lot of people too. I don't see anyone bitching about that though. Funny. And Microsoft employs a few hundred thousand people so yeah, their layoffs will be higher but that makes sense because of how many people they have to begin with. Back to what I said about not giving a shit, I don't care. I only care about what benefits me. If you get let go from your job tomorrow, is anyone here helping you? Is anyone who lost their job helping you? Is Sony helping you? The answer to all of that is NO. I worry about myself and what's best for me. Not people that I don't know, have never met, never will and obviously have enough talent and skills that they should easily be able to land on their feet very quickly unless they're just a straight out fucking bitch/asshole or have some kind of agenda that companies will stay away from.
Microsoft leads the way more times than not. Xbox live, hard drive, ethernet port, xbox live arcade, achievements, games with gold, all digital, always online, etc. Everything they've done, Sony copies. And the only thing I would say that Sony has done better is trophies which are better than achievements. But everything else, they've copied. The latest one. Porting their games to PC a few years after Microsoft started it. Just a matter of time until Sony is day one. People thinking that they will end porting to PC or backtrack are truly those that are delusional because like him or hate him, Jim Ryan told everyone the truth years ago when he said "you 20m aren't enough". He wasn't lying.
You say that Microsoft made a mistake with PC and Sony is doing the same but I disagree because if you subtract PC for Microsoft, their console sales would still be where they are. They fucked up too many times and pivoted too many times to get back to even being close to Xbox 360. It's NOT happening. Subtracting PC, their games would do even worse not that they ever did amazing even on Xbox 360 and they wouldn't have the player counts that they want. Expanding to PC was the right move because ignoring an audience of 132m (as of this past June) potential customers is honestly just fucking stupid. And granted, they're not getting all of them but if you come away with even 5%, that's growth that you're going to get on console.
Same applies to Sony. Their console will sell around 120m if they're lucky. That's NOT growth. That's stagnation. That's retaining what they've had. Going to PC day one will lose some people but thinking that it will be tens of millions isn't going to happen. Those who prefer consoles (like me) aren't going anywhere. Those who jump to PC were probably already considering doing so which means that you were probably going to lose them at some point anyway and those who are currently on PC and will never go to console, you'll never get them regardless of what you do.
For acquisitions, it's makes more sense for Microsoft than Sony. First, they obviously have way more money but second, their business model is subscription based which doesn't apply to Sony and when you have a subscription, you need games and content on a consistent basis to feed that subscription service.
Sony going to PC let's be honest only hurts the extremists assholes (same applies to Xbox psychos) that want bragging rights and that's it. It's not going to hurt or change regular normal people who own a PlayStation and prefer to play games on it because it's streamlined, way easier and simpler. So while they might lose some people, they'll gain much more because they'll be growing the IP's which long term is exactly what you want to do. Every console fucking dies at some point. But the IP's don't. You can build up the IP's so three consoles later, that IP is still thriving and perhaps still growing. Staying behind a walled garden that basically has an expiration date makes no logical sense because unless Sony supports it forever, you have to move on and keeping the IP's strong and valuable is what matters.
Also, people should think of this - these companies are trillion and hundred billion dollar companies. We're on a forum or twitter or whatever jerking ourselves off thinking we know it all yet don't know shit because if we did, we would be the ones running the companies. The companies fuck up from time to time just like everyone does but for the most part, they all know what they're doing in order to maximize their revenue and more importantly their profits. It's why they're as successful as they are. Not only that but all the companies including Microsoft with Xbox and Sony with PlayStation are going to do what they want to do. You can either stay for the ride no matter what (like I do) or you can jump out and take your chances elsewhere.
For me, gaming is a hobby and form of entertainment. I don't take any of this seriously because these companies aren't listening to us and honestly, why would they? It's like driving and you have that beat seat driver telling you how to drive and it's like, well, if you knew better you would be in my seat but you're not. All I care about is getting great or better games from both Microsoft and Sony (as well as third party companies) and to be perfectly honest, outside of a mediocre Redfall and disappointing Hellblade 2, Microsoft has done better for me this generation than the last three generations combined. Sony has also given me great games and haven't really missed at all for me thus far and are way better now on PS5 than what I personally had in the first four years of PS4.
I'll leave it at that as it's time for me to get back to COD MW II so I can wrap up the campaign and be ready for Black Ops 6 this coming Friday.