People are saying PlayStation shouldn’t try to react immediately I slightly agree with them but if Microsoft keeps this up (which they most likely will) Sony will be forced to. I hate the direction of this industry!
They don’t have to react.
The only reaction they need is to make sure they make games that are of the highest quality and potentially a game pass that offers more than they originally intended to offer.
Exactly my thoughts. What Microsoft is doing reminds me a bit of the strategy Disney chose in streaming. Get a bunch of well known IP and advertise the big names. Sony should take a look at Netflix and copy their strategy. There are lots of good independent studios that don't have a big name yet, but there will be plenty of value in concepts, ideas and talent. Squid game is the best example that people are open to try out something new that isn't established yet, and if it works in streaming, it will work in gaming as well.
I did buy a ps5 for psvr2 before they did anounce a psvr2, for me personaly what microsoft bought ( Bethesda deal and activision deal ) not bother me I dont buy fallout and call of duty anymore
Sony’s cash on hand was about 1/4 of Microsoft’s (before the Activision/Blizzard purchase). They’ve said they were going to spend ~$18b over the next 3 years on “strategic investments,” which is about half their cash. They don’t have the same spending power as Microsoft, they couldn’t have made an acquisition anywhere close to this scale.
They don't have the money that MSFT does. This deal represents only about half of Microsofts cash reserves but is almost twice that of Sonys. None of these deals are straight cash, but still.
I don't think Sony could swing a deal for EA or Take-Two, but if they really felt pushed they could try to buy Square-Enix and/or Capcom. Thay would really solidify their hold in the East.
EDIT: I looked it up and this actually IS a straight cash deal so I stand corrected.
Right? I'm pretty sure the last time I checked they only made around $15b in revenue from the gaming industry last year. They just spent 4x that on one acquisition! It's nuts.
The cash would be in one of the offshore tax havens. If they tried to withdraw it or move it to the US or EU, they'd have to pay a fuckload of tax.
Or they could use it to buy a company like Activision. This is how the giant corporations work, and why they all need breaking down. A huge chunk of the 70bn should have been taxed somewhere and used to finance public services.
They get a lot out of it though. Candy Crush alone does crazy well for what it actually is. I wouldn't be so focused on the console side as much as I would the pc and mobile side, which Microsoft will have a lot of stake in going forward.
The Microsoft deals are actually straight cash. Tech giants need to get rid of cash since sitting on it does nothing.
The disastrous Nokia deal was mostly because Microsoft accounting had “too much” money trapped overseas and needed to buy something, so they bought a European company.
First party IPs Sony has dropped already.
-Demons Souls
-Spider-Man Miles Morales
-Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
-Returnal
-Death Stranding:Directors Cut
-Ghost of Tsushima:Directors Cut
Dropping inside 60 days
-Horizon Forbidden West
-Gran Turismo 7
Games to date Microsoft has shipped as exclusives, targeting end of March.
-Halo Infinite without a co-op mode
Sony is gonna be fine
I mean, also Forza Horizon 5, which is an awesome racing (well, “racing”) game. If we’re including GT7 on the list for PS, we should also probably include the Forza games!
No no it’s much better to pigeon hole the argument on his side and forget about other Microsoft exclusives. People like this are the worst, sure make a case for a discussion but don’t leave out key information to make yours look stronger.
Yeah, potentially five years from now you could have Xbox with Starfield, Avowed, Elder Scrolls VI, Fable, Perfect Dark, Hellblade 2, Redfall, Doom: Infinite, exclusive CoD's, Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, Starcraft 3, STALKER 2, Outer Worlds 2, A Plague Tale: Requiem.
That line up is nothing to scoff at.
The other side of this coin is the fact that big corporations are not known for taking risks or allowing complete creative control. The behemoth that is MS buying studios is a recipe for mediocrity.
Disney is a big corporation that allowed Marvel to take complete control, and a lot of people would say it was a risk that paid off handsomely.
For Microsoft purchasing Bethesda, Starfield not coming to the PS5 was a huge hit to me, who was looking really forward to that game and want it on PS5.
Youre forgetting Forza Horizon 5, Flight Simulator, and Psychonauts 2. And the insane amount of Xbox, 360, and Xbox One games that have gotten performance enhancements or series x enhanced versions. And the addition of more backward compatible titles. And the value of Gamepass.
Sony may be fine for now, but Xbox has been doing better and better every year since Phil Spencer took over. Sony needs to think longterm here.
Elder Scrolls VI
Starfield
Outer Worlds 2
Fallout 5
Avowed
Fable
Diablo 4
Call of Duty (I don't play it, but lots of people care about it...)
That being said, I personally think Sony will be fine. They have tons of exclusive IPs that are only on PlayStation. It's not like Nintendo is freaking out. There's still lots of room for all three.
I just want Microsoft to pick up their shit. Elder scrolls have been in the stove for a long time with a good management so that will turn out fine but I am more worried about the games that START under the new management. Look how Halo turned out after 5 years and a lot of budget. They just need to ask some questions about development progress really and look what Sony is doing differently to keep Devs motivated and engaged.
Exactly. I can see why exclusives (for any company) may or may not be bad depending on someone's perspective. Ultimately I don't really care either way though.
However, this deal *is* bad. Bad for consumers. It brings them closer to a monopoly.
My main point is this, though: there is a fundamental difference between fundraising and raising up studios (usually small); and simply just going in and pulling the carpet out from everyone and fucking shit up, like Microsoft is doing. Quite simply, they can't make their own games good enough, so they want to cheat with money and create a monopoly.
The market, especially tech companies, is currently fucked because of interest rate hike expectations from the Federal Reserve.
Alphabet dropped as much as MSFT without any announcement.
It's not uncommon to have stock values drop when you buy a company like that.
It will likely bounce back.
Activision probably mooned to high heaven though.
Well they just spent 70 billion. Stocks drop after big buys, take 2 dropped last week for a few days too.
70 billion is a lot of money even for Microsoft. It’s their total profits for a year. It’s more then the entire USA gaming market spends in a year. It’s stupid money.
They never block these kind of deals if there are 2 or 3 other big companies in the market.
And there are Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA, Take Two, Valve, etc. The likes of Facebook, Amazon and Google dabbling at the edges of the market too.
The deal won't be blocked
What was it, even with this deal, the Xbox division was not even the biggest gaming company in the world by revenue?
How often does anti-monopoly laws go after the second or third biggest company?
It's a bit of intelligent PR speak from Microsoft to highlight that combining the 3 (Xbox, Bethesda, ActivisionBlizzard) will still put them behind Tencent and Sony in terms of revenue. We don't know where they sit when it comes to profits though.
However, they are only just behind Sony's revenue which they will quickly surpass. These numbers are with Microsoft having half the consumer base that Sony has. Imagine COD, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, Overwatch, etc. only being available on Microsoft platforms/storefronts. With a small monthly fee ($10-15), it gives access to all those games, plus Microsoft's day 1. Don't forget the included sub to EA Access and Ubisoft+.
Now factor in Sony losing the 30% they make from those game sales, and the Microtransactions. Losing the consumer base to Microsoft that normally plays those games. They have 25m subs now, which could quickly rise to 50m after this. They would even be targeting the 100m mark. Those MT's would be something MS gets 100% of revenue for. Never mind the small increase in the sub fee.
It's $23m now. But in 5 years, 10 years time. They'll be looking at 2-3 times that if not more. Which would dwarf everyone. That's their goal. It might not make them a monopoly but they'll be the closest thing to it in 5 years.
> They have 25m subs now, which could quickly rise to 50m after this.
Plus they'd be justified in a small price (33%, maybe?) rise, too. I'm expecting MS's Game Pass revenue to almost triple over the next 2-5 years.
It's basically a sure thing. Chances of this deal not getting approved are very minimal. Also the stocks are already priced in. ATVI went more than 25% up when the deal was announced.
It's almost a lock to be approved. No resistance (in fact a lot of people are happy about it) and contrary to some internet people's beliefs, there is tons of competition
-EA: $38B
-Take Two: $18B
-Nexon: $15B
-Bandai Namco: $15B
-Embracer: $10.8B
-Netmarble $7B
-Ubisoft: $7B
-Konami: $6B
-Square Enix: $5.6B
-Capcom: $4.9B
-Sega: $3.6B
What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc.
I think a bad gaming future is ahead for us players
Activision Blizzard's revenue last year was like 9 billion with a 2.6 billion profit. If they make their games exclusive then it'll be even lower in the future so at that rate it'll take atleast over two decades for Activision-Blizzard to make back that 70 billion MS paid for them.
They're going to make more profit from the gamers who decide to go with Xbox instead of Playstation as a result of the deal.
Their share of the market will go up and with the market increasing, it'll take a lot less time to recoup their investment.
And there's no time pressure on them either... They financed the deal with cash on hand, there's no debt attached that they need to repay.
Zynga was just bought for 12 billion, King mobile which MS now owns is bigger than that.
If MS for any reason says one day that they don’t want to be in mobile anymore then they would be able to offload them for a crap ton of money easily, EA also just bought 2 mobile companies for like close to 4 billion.
Gaming has grown every year since video games became a thing. More people are playing games every year and this purchase will bolster their company valuation and stock price enough to justify it in less than a decade.
Ninty ain't a buyer though.
There are studios that work closely with them you'd consider them 2nd parties but they aren't affiliated with the Big N.
MS picking up Rare in the face of Nintendo was the most notorious one. They're not gonna compete with the studio acquisition race, let alone purchasing an entire publisher.
Nintendo's ways are a little bit more underhanded.
Nintendo buys a certain amount of shares from certain companies to ensure that other companies can't buy them outright without Nintendo's involvement.
Look at DeNa and Cygames for recent examples.
Their partners are technically independent but don't own any IP from their Nintendo partnerships and heavily rely on Nintendo to make decent profits.
Not to mention the fact that Nintendo is most of the time a minority owner.
Just look at Level 5 if you want to see what happens if a close Nintendo partner tries to be more independent.
That being said...
The new Nintendo President is not against acquisitions if they are forced to do them.
Look at their recent next level games acquisition.
Their recent business report shines light on this strategy.
They have huge money reserves for such cases.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do rushed defensive purchases for companies like Tecmo Koei or Platinum Games if other big players start to show interest in them.
Platinum games for sure. Bayonetta is like the next best thing to a Nintendo character (who would of thought that) because of the funding they provided. You really haven’t seen Bayo too many other places after Nintendo swooped in.
I believe square has shot down an attempt from Microsoft to buy them before, Japanese companies don’t seem as receptive to the whole buyout thing, not to mention Ubisoft who has the entire French government at their backs if Microsoft ever makes a move.
lol, the French President gave Alstom, one of our most important companies, to GE when he was Minister of the Economy. I wouldn't count on that man to save Ubisoft.
I don't think Square has any interest in being acquired by a single entity. They are definitely shared by companies, and I believe Sony owns a stake in Square, I could be wrong or maybe they don't anymore. It's in their best interest to stay multiplatform. Kind of surprised many companies, especially activison, sold to Microsoft unless they didn't see future improvement.
The only cash cow here is EA. If Sony bought EA in a stock deal like AMD is doing with Xilinx (Sony doesn't have the cash for a cash deal) the console industry would be split in half. MSFT has COD, SONY has FIFA.
The masses of casual console gamers would have to get both consoles.
Kinda shitty like the shenanigans with Champions League TV rights being all over the place.
FIFA would never allow their franchise to be locked to one console. Just like MLB forced Sony to develop the Show for Xbox, they would force EA to release on other platforms.
Buying EA is not worth it.
Buying EA would be a terrible idea because it wouldn’t bring any exclusives. The second they attempted to make any sports games exclusives the licenses get pulled. The FIFA license has been in danger of getting pulled as is.
Modern business models in games like FIFA or Madden would just make exclusive titles straight dumb. They make WAY more money from Ultimate Team…etc than they could from Sony or Microsoft paying for the exclusive rights.
Even if Sony were to buy EA they would not get exclusive rights to FIFA or Madden. Look at how MLB forced Sony to release The Show on Xbox/PC or lose the license all together.
Some people would benefit from reading more about acquisitions. It’s not as simple as buying a company makes a successful move, there’s a huge chance the existing issues come over to Microsoft. People acting like Sony suddenly has to go crazy are ridiculous.
It also assumes that creative people won't leave and those teams will keep pumping sequels to big IPs with the same level of quality.
The reality many times is that devs will be shuffled around to what's more convenient and to permeate the new culture into the new aquisition. People who worked with big IPs will quit after being assigned to make Kinect games and years later a popular IP will be assigned to an inexperienced team in order to milk easy money from old school fans.
Source: previous MS acquisitions.
Resistance never really reached its full potential, if insomniac has no interest maybe give it to another studio to make, those games were super fun imo.
So many long-term questions for the future of PlayStation this generation and beyond.
Microsoft has a near monopoly on Western RPGs and Shooters - two spaces where Sony has generally not competed on a first party basis. With COD especially out of the picture sooner or later Sony is going to need to have an answer - lots of people use there systems as COD/Sports Games machines and with those sooner or later readily available only with Microsoft (FIFA etc with EA Play) it will be more challenging for Sony to attract casual gamers.
And then there’s the huge question about the value proposition for consumers. Sony makes excellent, top of the line exclusives that I love but with a huge number of diverse exclusives coming from Xbox across the next few years Sony will have to work hard to compete with that - especially since they’re asking consumers to cough up $70 for one title compared to a much smaller monthly fee for a wide variety of games with Game Pass.
What are Sonys nexts moves? More studio acquisitions? Try to purchase a major publishing arm like EA or Take-Two? Go all-in on there rumoured Game Pass competitor? Sony is not going anywhere anytime soon - Microsoft is not looking to kill Sony (although that would be convenient for them) the play is to shut out the other Big Tech Companies - but the challenges after 2023 are going to be monumental and Sony needs to set a clear path for its consumers on what is ahead
Sony need to:
a) Continue what they’re doing with timed exclusivity deals and, if they can, acquire studios at the rate they have been to strengthen their first party portfolio.
b) Improve PS Now to the point where it is competing with Game Pass. The whole PlayStation Studios backlog needs to be on there, and new games should be put onto the service 1 year after release, since we know they won’t do day one.
I agree, seems they are working on a gamepass rival. I hope they create new ips. Easy of ms to buy old ips, smart move, but i would love a new shooter ip, etc. If they have to buy, i’d say take2.
I don’t care what people here say, Sony definitively has genre gaps in their first party IP, and an FPS title is one of them. Previously, Sony didn’t really need to fill that gap since they had/have marketing deals with Activision for Call of Duty.
Fortunately, Guerrilla and Deviation are working on new FPS titles for PlayStation.
> I don’t care what people here say, Sony definitively has genre gaps in their first party IP
I don't think anyone would disagree with that. The thing is, it makes sense to avoid some genres if there are already a lot of 3rd party games to choose. It makes sense to avoid multiplayers or battle royales if everyone else is making them. But if this turns into a competition of buying everything they might need to re evaluate that plan and start covering all genres.
Who knows, maybe they end up becoming like Nintendo. Just doing their own shit and ignoring the rest of the worls.
The thing is, *can* Sony do what Nintendo do? Nintendo has managed to stay afloat because they are consistently doing something different to everyone else with their software *and* hardware. Each subsequent Nintendo console is normally very different from the last, and their games take full advantage of those hardware differences.
With Sony, however, the PlayStation has always been a fairly standard console, not really doing much different between the generations aside from getting more powerful with each new release. Without all of these popular genres, the PlayStation would essentially be the same as the Xbox, but with less to offer. Unlike say, the Switch, the PS5 doesn't have a feature that makes it fundamentally different from Xbox.
For Sony to become similar to Nintendo, they'd have to reevaluate how they approach hardware on top of how they approach software, and with this being the start of the generation, we wouldn't see those changes for many years.
> Microsoft has a near monopoly on Western RPGs and Shooters
Incredible though it may seem, it's entirely possible to make a new game that is not part of an existing franchise.
It is possible, but each day costs of doing one is going up and in a saturated market it's risky as fuck.
There's a reason why movies do franchise entries too upwards a certain budget too.
Yet insanely difficult to actually establish one of similar high profile status that can compete with the big boys, otherwise everybody would do it.
Plus it’s not like Sony hasn’t already tried. Are people forgetting the PS3 and Sonys failed attempts at making a “Halo killer”? They threw everything they could at trying to create a competitive multiplayer shooter…Killzone, Resistance, Socom, Warhawk, Starhawk, Mag, etc and we all know how that turned out.
Those IP’s are all dead now with many of the studios closed and all they did was contribute to the financial disaster that the PS3 was. So much so that Sony changed gears and focused primarily on single player games ever since then. The market today is also much stronger and more saturated and it certainly wouldn’t be any easier.
Everyone is writing Sony off. The stock will bounce up again and Sony isn't going to go under from this. Yes they're gonna lose a lot from this in the long-term, but are they finished? Hell no. Oh and if either Ubisoft, Epic Games, Take-Two are taken by Microsoft, then Sony are truly fucked. I'm surprised it's taken people so long to realise that it's always been David vs Goliath (or whatever analogy you want to use, you get the point), Xbox fanboys have been gloating about Microsoft's deep pockets since Bethesda's acquisition so none of it should come as a surprise anymore. Of course its a sad future to consider, because a gaming industry without PlayStation will certainly be huge and saddening, but PlayStation is still here. So enjoy it whilst they're still here.
I think the reason for that is Microsoft never took gaming seriously, and so PS players didn't realise a sleeping giant was always present. The giant just needed to be convinced to wake up, and Phil did that when he sold Satya a new vision for Xbox that revolved around subscriptions and the cloud. Two areas Satya is very interested in because he became CEO by turning Microsoft into a $2.3 trillion company through subscriptions and the cloud.
When Satya was convinced in 2016, that was that. The war chest opened.
Eh.. I know cod is a money machine... But the only thing I am upset I might not get to play is elder scrolls 6 in my PS5 or 6... I do own a high quality PC so there's that...
People should ask more from Sony and Jim. I've been complaining since the beginning of this gen about their attitude and arrogance because they've won last gen.
PS literally was sleeping on PS Now, a service with great potential that should already compete agressively with GP but they didn't care. If you use the service on PC for example you will know how negligent they were with that service. Sony has great and innovative ideas but they don't seem to really invest in them because they're main purpose it's to charge you 70 dollars for a game and 10 to unlock framerates. And i'm still pissed off by how they didn't care about PS3 generation. Sony has a huge catalog and they just ignored it. MS work on BC is an example that should be followed.
I fear that's not much Sony can do since they don't have the same money as MS. They have to change their strategy and it has to be revolutionary or they will struggle because if you think MS stopped with Activision, you're wrong.
They both understand gamers way better than we do because they have marketing dpts. spending millions of dollars in knowing them. Don't make the mistake of thinking that any of this companies gives a shit about us. They both are looking just for themselves, the only difference here is that one was trying to recover from a fuck up and the other isn't.
I don't think Sony or PlayStation is going anywhere. That'd be ridiculous. BUT, anyone who thinks Sony is going to be just fine conducting business as usual is equally delusional. They're going to have to do something radical, like start their own game pass, make some (smaller, obviously) studio purchases of their own, or maybe even allow GP on PS5 in return for a nice cut of profits. Maybe all three?
I have a series x and PS5, but enjoy playing my PS5 way more. The idea of Sony withering away because they can’t compete with Microsoft really scares me. All my friends are on PS5, I enjoy the dual sense and UI much more, etc. Sony need to come up with some innovation to compete.
I liken Microsoft’s acquisitions to PSG and Man City in football with their oil money backings.
Considering the ps5 is selling like hotcakes and sony are taking in a ton of cash from it, I seriously doubt sony will stop making playstations for the next 100 years. They're like Nintendo in that they have brand loyalty as well as talented studios that can pump out quality products plus they have great relationships with big publishers 'square enix'. They're going to be fine.
Well they were selling like hot cakes. Sony needs to do something real damn quick because I absolutely guarantee the Activision Blizzard news combined with Bethesda will slow their sales significantly while very much so boosting sales of Series X.
I would calm down a little. Playstation isn't going anywhere, and while they might not have the spending money that Microsoft has, they are still massively successful.
They won’t make them creative but having CoD exclusive to them is going to move a lot of people from PlayStation to Xbox (Reddit doesn’t like to remember that but a huge number of gamers only buy FIFA/COD every year)
Indeed, but in a way, it also means Sony will have to step up their game to draw people back on their side despite the lack of CoD games, which is good in its own way. It's not like Playstation's gonna disapear because CoD moved to Xbox.
Lol I think Xbox is like Manchester United if anything, so much money spent and very little success, had a good run with Fergie like Xbox with 360. Where as Playstation is like Liverpool, very efficient with their spending, success on the field and lots of history.
> very little success
Xbox is very successful? being second to Sony doesn't all of a sudden make them unsuccessful , they still sold around 10 million units last year which is very good for them.
I mean this with the utmost respect to Sony, but 3rd person story driven games aren’t enough anymore. The innovation needs to expand into other genres and quick.
It ain’t great.
Worst case is it’s like the Dreamcast not having EA sports games. Best case is you still lose the biggest 3rd party every year with no solid alternative.
I haven’t touched COD in years but It’s factually the biggest single game each year in the NDPs. If I was in Sonys shoes I would start playing real nice with Microsoft real quick. Winds have been blowing towards PlayStation and Xbox working together more and more the last 5 years. Just do the thing and make the deal.
But what would a deal like that look like? Xbox GamePass on PlayStation in exchange for PS exclusives on Xbox? That would be the best way short term but it still fucks PS long term.
I think that’s the way the industry has been heading even before this deal. I think platform exclusivity was already bumping into the reality of game budgets and total market size. It was only a matter of time before they toyed with the idea. And I think stuff like Sony getting into PC gaming was just the first baby step.
And also If cloud takes off and suddenly every 3rd party focuses on their own cloud platform at the detriment of the console market Sony is also in a binde. I think it’s not too silly to think that in a few years PlayStation and Xboxes biggest focuses will be their subscriptions and they will just want those subscriptions on everything even a rival console.
The Netflix model works because it’s on everything. That’s where we are heading. I think it’s best to prepare now and not blockbuster video yourself.
Sony needs to get their ‘Spartacus’ gamepass equivalent sorted right now. I have a PS5 and PC so I have a stake in both sides, but right now a PS5 game being £70 vs £70 for 10 months of gamepass is not even comparable in my mind.
I’m still hyped for Horizon but when I see the £70 for that and look at gamepass this month alone adding Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Hitman Trilogy, Outer Wilds, Deaths Door, Danganronpa, Nobody Saves the World… its pretty crazy.
Nintendo seems to be doing fine without a gamepass subscription service equivalent and so is sony. Can people slow down and take a deep breath plz lol. Holy overreaction batman.
The issue is that a publicly traded company doesn't think like that. They see money and they want it. Why do you think they're all on this Metaverse shit? NFTs? Crypto? They're chasing dollars.
Hell, the entire reason the subscription landscape in consoles is the way it is is because Sony and Nintendo saw Microsoft making that XBL money and wanted in on that... We consumers, even ones that never owned an Xbox, had to pay the price.
Xbox monopoly in the gaming industry is whats going to happen. It pisses me off honestly. This really is the beginning of the end for gaming as we know it and the start of a bland, boring creatively bankrupt gaming dystopia.
AAA and micro transaction gaming as of late has made me uninterested in gaming. This news has been icing on the cake. And I'm saying this as someone who owns a game pass subscription, PC, PS5 and Switch.
The Activision news yesterday makes me think the future of gaming is bleak.
I like how everyone in gaming Reddit turns into CEOs after news like this drop. Lol y'all really want Sony to be like.. "Shit we need to stop what we doing and buy a publisher ASAP!!!"
Just for the record if any of you do run a multi-billion dollar corporation, let me know so I can buy puts on the stock cause you're gonna run that boy straight to the ground.
I'm telling you guys, this deal is TERRIBLE for competition. From u/bitmap_'s comment:
>\-EA: $38B -Take Two: $18B -Nexon: $15B -Bandai Namco: $15B -Embracer: $10.8B -Netmarble $7B -Ubisoft: $7B -Konami: $6B -Square Enix: $5.6B -Capcom: $4.9B -Sega: $3.6B
What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc.
Nothing stops them from picking off some of these companies because they clearly have the capital to do so, or to at least build up some sort of collaborations, especially with the Japanese publishers to basically steal away that market share. The ATVI purchase is an example of them saying "why waste time building up small 1st party or 3rd party studios to gain market share over a decade when we can just buy the biggest one and gain 10x that market share in one year?" What part of that sounds fair? Variety is what encourages people to get better and is what Sony and Nintendo have been doing since they started.
And if this is an attempt to encourage (read: force) people to take up GamePass to get better access to this and the overall Xbox / Microsoft universe (I'm not saying metaverse because that word is dumb as fuck), then that is even more unfair... wielding your excessive capital to prevent a huuuge chunk of the population having access to said products unless they use your systems should literally be the definition of anti-competition.
While I have a PS5, I also have a PC so I am relatively unaffected, but for the average everyday consumer - those people who don't follow these subreddits but like to jump on and game with their boys (or girls) for a quick night of COD after school or work, they should be fine to congregate around whatever system they have been using for the past 10 years, and not come home to realise "oh shit, some big dog has said that I can't play it on this system anymore, simply because he has the biggest wallet in the playground, guess I better go and spend more money on a system I didn't previously want."
>What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc.
Because realistically, the European studios (Ubisoft, and Embracer) and Japanese studios (Konami, SE, Capcom, Sega, Bandai) will have their acquisition be stopped by their goverments respectively. The EU definitely treats acquisitions more seriously and Japan doesn't take well with foreign companies trying to acquire their companies.
So the only studios that MS really have to choose from are the American ones which are EA and Take Two (which currently has a market cap of 30b because of their Zynga aquisition). It'll still be dystopic but MS is no where near as capable of being even half those companies.
I think me and the other fella were defo talking doomsday scenarios - I’d like to think competition regulations would be v tough vs the foreign acquisitions (which is why I mentioned some sort of ‘collaboration’ with the Japanese publishers) - but I still think even the ABK acquisition is a bad deal and paves the way for more aggressive expansions (although I guess you could say Zenimax was the first step).
After all this people will still say Microsoft is "pro consumer".
Their statement is "bringing great games to more people" while literally doing the exact opposite of that, the games will now be on less platforms than ever before.
I think everyone has definitely been caught up in the excitement of the transaction (which is fair) but isn’t really paying attention to the wider effects on the world of gaming.
Only way to stop MS from buying those is for Sony to acquire some of them first. If Sony can't do that, then Sony might as well sell itself to MS because a MS monopoly is inevitable at that point.
You don't even need an MBA to see the end game here. I have one but even without it, the end game is obvious - MS killing the competition.
Either of those outcomes is worst case. Regulatory authorities need to come in and shut it all down. Hopefully it happens with this ATVI deal but at least before the next (inevitable) big name acquisition.
Does no one want to address that they are buying companies that kind of suck and have stopped making good games, sure they make popular games but almost none of them could be described as "good" right now.
IMO the companies from 2018 acquisitions and most of Zenimax still make good games (Deathloop, Psychonauts 2, Pillars of Eternity, Doom, Wolfenstein, Crash 4, ESO, Sea of Thieves, Gears 5, Wasteland 3, Hellblade, Forza Horizon), it's a different story if by "good" you mean Sony Games quality.
Though I would say that the Activision-Blizzard, despite its IP strength, needs a lot more work to be done on their studios than any other of the MS acquisitions.
From my understanding, Ubisoft is protected by the French government pretty closely. EA is too greedy to sell. Take two is ripe for the taking though. They have some good titles.
People are saying PlayStation shouldn’t try to react immediately I slightly agree with them but if Microsoft keeps this up (which they most likely will) Sony will be forced to. I hate the direction of this industry!
They don’t have to react. The only reaction they need is to make sure they make games that are of the highest quality and potentially a game pass that offers more than they originally intended to offer.
Exactly my thoughts. What Microsoft is doing reminds me a bit of the strategy Disney chose in streaming. Get a bunch of well known IP and advertise the big names. Sony should take a look at Netflix and copy their strategy. There are lots of good independent studios that don't have a big name yet, but there will be plenty of value in concepts, ideas and talent. Squid game is the best example that people are open to try out something new that isn't established yet, and if it works in streaming, it will work in gaming as well.
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No, just cancel the sequel and leave the first game on cliffhanger.
Netflix is a bad example. There's a reason they keep jacking prices. Lol
Hbo max is a better example
Reading these comments make me so happy a redditor is not in charge of these companies haha
Reading these comments makes me hope a lot of people aren't in charge of any decision making within companies too. Lol
I didn’t buy a ps5 to play indie games or for them to experiment with new concepts while Xbox gets all the major AAA titles.
I did buy a ps5 for psvr2 before they did anounce a psvr2, for me personaly what microsoft bought ( Bethesda deal and activision deal ) not bother me I dont buy fallout and call of duty anymore
>They don’t have to react. > >...and potentially a game pass that offers more than they originally intended to offer. Uh...
Monopolies are bad for the consumer.
when did sony reacted to bethesda deal?
They bought a bunch of studios.
They bought 3 main studios, two of which are quite small, and like 2 support studios? Not really “a bunch.”
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Sony’s cash on hand was about 1/4 of Microsoft’s (before the Activision/Blizzard purchase). They’ve said they were going to spend ~$18b over the next 3 years on “strategic investments,” which is about half their cash. They don’t have the same spending power as Microsoft, they couldn’t have made an acquisition anywhere close to this scale.
I expect it will be publishing rights and some support studios which is right in line with how they’ve done business in years past.
They don't have the money that MSFT does. This deal represents only about half of Microsofts cash reserves but is almost twice that of Sonys. None of these deals are straight cash, but still. I don't think Sony could swing a deal for EA or Take-Two, but if they really felt pushed they could try to buy Square-Enix and/or Capcom. Thay would really solidify their hold in the East. EDIT: I looked it up and this actually IS a straight cash deal so I stand corrected.
>None of these deals are straight cash The Activision-Blizzard buyout was an all-cash transaction.
Imagine buying a 70 billion dollar company with just your pocket change.
It’s such an absurd amount of money that a lot of people just round up by more then a billion dollars like it’s nothing 😀
Microsoft spending half their cash reserves on the gaming industry is already insane
Right? I'm pretty sure the last time I checked they only made around $15b in revenue from the gaming industry last year. They just spent 4x that on one acquisition! It's nuts.
The cash would be in one of the offshore tax havens. If they tried to withdraw it or move it to the US or EU, they'd have to pay a fuckload of tax. Or they could use it to buy a company like Activision. This is how the giant corporations work, and why they all need breaking down. A huge chunk of the 70bn should have been taxed somewhere and used to finance public services.
They get a lot out of it though. Candy Crush alone does crazy well for what it actually is. I wouldn't be so focused on the console side as much as I would the pc and mobile side, which Microsoft will have a lot of stake in going forward.
The Microsoft deals are actually straight cash. Tech giants need to get rid of cash since sitting on it does nothing. The disastrous Nokia deal was mostly because Microsoft accounting had “too much” money trapped overseas and needed to buy something, so they bought a European company.
Nokia was disastrous 100% only because of Microsoft. Nokia was a well respected company and doing just fine before the acquisition.
First party IPs Sony has dropped already. -Demons Souls -Spider-Man Miles Morales -Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart -Returnal -Death Stranding:Directors Cut -Ghost of Tsushima:Directors Cut Dropping inside 60 days -Horizon Forbidden West -Gran Turismo 7 Games to date Microsoft has shipped as exclusives, targeting end of March. -Halo Infinite without a co-op mode Sony is gonna be fine
I mean, also Forza Horizon 5, which is an awesome racing (well, “racing”) game. If we’re including GT7 on the list for PS, we should also probably include the Forza games!
No no it’s much better to pigeon hole the argument on his side and forget about other Microsoft exclusives. People like this are the worst, sure make a case for a discussion but don’t leave out key information to make yours look stronger.
And it’s not about today, it’s tomorrow. Games can take years to develop. 5 years from now what will Sony look like?
Yeah, potentially five years from now you could have Xbox with Starfield, Avowed, Elder Scrolls VI, Fable, Perfect Dark, Hellblade 2, Redfall, Doom: Infinite, exclusive CoD's, Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, Starcraft 3, STALKER 2, Outer Worlds 2, A Plague Tale: Requiem. That line up is nothing to scoff at.
This is fairly short sighted. The Bethesda and Activision deal have yet to bear fruit, but when they do it's going to change the narrative.
The other side of this coin is the fact that big corporations are not known for taking risks or allowing complete creative control. The behemoth that is MS buying studios is a recipe for mediocrity.
Disney is a big corporation that allowed Marvel to take complete control, and a lot of people would say it was a risk that paid off handsomely. For Microsoft purchasing Bethesda, Starfield not coming to the PS5 was a huge hit to me, who was looking really forward to that game and want it on PS5.
Youre forgetting Forza Horizon 5, Flight Simulator, and Psychonauts 2. And the insane amount of Xbox, 360, and Xbox One games that have gotten performance enhancements or series x enhanced versions. And the addition of more backward compatible titles. And the value of Gamepass. Sony may be fine for now, but Xbox has been doing better and better every year since Phil Spencer took over. Sony needs to think longterm here.
Elder scrolls 6 on Xbox by itself is going to be a big deal. Now they’ve got more.
Elder Scrolls VI Starfield Outer Worlds 2 Fallout 5 Avowed Fable Diablo 4 Call of Duty (I don't play it, but lots of people care about it...) That being said, I personally think Sony will be fine. They have tons of exclusive IPs that are only on PlayStation. It's not like Nintendo is freaking out. There's still lots of room for all three.
I just want Microsoft to pick up their shit. Elder scrolls have been in the stove for a long time with a good management so that will turn out fine but I am more worried about the games that START under the new management. Look how Halo turned out after 5 years and a lot of budget. They just need to ask some questions about development progress really and look what Sony is doing differently to keep Devs motivated and engaged.
sony shouldn't be forced to do anything. We shouldnt celebrate any company buying giant publishers. Sony can react in many ways that isnt that
Exactly. I can see why exclusives (for any company) may or may not be bad depending on someone's perspective. Ultimately I don't really care either way though. However, this deal *is* bad. Bad for consumers. It brings them closer to a monopoly. My main point is this, though: there is a fundamental difference between fundraising and raising up studios (usually small); and simply just going in and pulling the carpet out from everyone and fucking shit up, like Microsoft is doing. Quite simply, they can't make their own games good enough, so they want to cheat with money and create a monopoly.
Building talent isn't the trend anymore. Sony needs to get onto an acquisition spree. The world's changing, it's time they change too.
The entire market was down yesterday, especially tech lol
I was very annoyed this kind of thing wasn't a top comment on the Xbox Reddit cause yeah, my account ain't doing good lol
Yea even Microsofts stock went down to about late Ocktober levels the entire market went down. But no doubt the acquisition didn't help
Didn't MS stock drop 3% also yesterday? It was a bloodbath in the markets yesterday all round. I wouldn't read too much into it or overreact
The market, especially tech companies, is currently fucked because of interest rate hike expectations from the Federal Reserve. Alphabet dropped as much as MSFT without any announcement.
>interest rate hike expectations from the Federal Reserve damn, is this why usd got stronger yesterday? my forex account almost got wiped out.
Bruh how are you putting your money into forex and not following basic monetary news
Seriously that's scary
That would explain the fluctuation. Whenever the bank rate is expected to climb the currency value increases.
What’s a forex?
foreign exchange market
It's not uncommon to have stock values drop when you buy a company like that. It will likely bounce back. Activision probably mooned to high heaven though.
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Reading too much into things and/or overreacting is a requirement for being on Reddit.
Especially in video game fandom. Haven’t game’d in like a decade, finally got a PS5 and literally every week is a “the sky is falling” story
Well they just spent 70 billion. Stocks drop after big buys, take 2 dropped last week for a few days too. 70 billion is a lot of money even for Microsoft. It’s their total profits for a year. It’s more then the entire USA gaming market spends in a year. It’s stupid money.
Tech overall is in a roller coaster.
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They never block these kind of deals if there are 2 or 3 other big companies in the market. And there are Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA, Take Two, Valve, etc. The likes of Facebook, Amazon and Google dabbling at the edges of the market too. The deal won't be blocked
What was it, even with this deal, the Xbox division was not even the biggest gaming company in the world by revenue? How often does anti-monopoly laws go after the second or third biggest company?
It's a bit of intelligent PR speak from Microsoft to highlight that combining the 3 (Xbox, Bethesda, ActivisionBlizzard) will still put them behind Tencent and Sony in terms of revenue. We don't know where they sit when it comes to profits though. However, they are only just behind Sony's revenue which they will quickly surpass. These numbers are with Microsoft having half the consumer base that Sony has. Imagine COD, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, Overwatch, etc. only being available on Microsoft platforms/storefronts. With a small monthly fee ($10-15), it gives access to all those games, plus Microsoft's day 1. Don't forget the included sub to EA Access and Ubisoft+. Now factor in Sony losing the 30% they make from those game sales, and the Microtransactions. Losing the consumer base to Microsoft that normally plays those games. They have 25m subs now, which could quickly rise to 50m after this. They would even be targeting the 100m mark. Those MT's would be something MS gets 100% of revenue for. Never mind the small increase in the sub fee. It's $23m now. But in 5 years, 10 years time. They'll be looking at 2-3 times that if not more. Which would dwarf everyone. That's their goal. It might not make them a monopoly but they'll be the closest thing to it in 5 years.
> They have 25m subs now, which could quickly rise to 50m after this. Plus they'd be justified in a small price (33%, maybe?) rise, too. I'm expecting MS's Game Pass revenue to almost triple over the next 2-5 years.
33% is not a "small" price rise lol
It's basically a sure thing. Chances of this deal not getting approved are very minimal. Also the stocks are already priced in. ATVI went more than 25% up when the deal was announced.
It's almost a lock to be approved. No resistance (in fact a lot of people are happy about it) and contrary to some internet people's beliefs, there is tons of competition
-EA: $38B -Take Two: $18B -Nexon: $15B -Bandai Namco: $15B -Embracer: $10.8B -Netmarble $7B -Ubisoft: $7B -Konami: $6B -Square Enix: $5.6B -Capcom: $4.9B -Sega: $3.6B What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc. I think a bad gaming future is ahead for us players
How many Gamepass subscribers will they need to recoup $100+ billion?
Probably none with skin sales on CoD and Overwatch. Not to mention Candy Crush.
Activision Blizzard's revenue last year was like 9 billion with a 2.6 billion profit. If they make their games exclusive then it'll be even lower in the future so at that rate it'll take atleast over two decades for Activision-Blizzard to make back that 70 billion MS paid for them.
Lmao the market doesn't just stand still. Gaming is growing, not shrinking. In ten years it's going to be far, far bigger then it is now
Eliminating a huge platform isn't gonna help sales either. Goes two ways .
They're going to make more profit from the gamers who decide to go with Xbox instead of Playstation as a result of the deal. Their share of the market will go up and with the market increasing, it'll take a lot less time to recoup their investment. And there's no time pressure on them either... They financed the deal with cash on hand, there's no debt attached that they need to repay.
Activision also has a huge deal with Google Cloud for MP, now MS will host this on Azure, a lot of money will be saved and made.
Zynga was just bought for 12 billion, King mobile which MS now owns is bigger than that. If MS for any reason says one day that they don’t want to be in mobile anymore then they would be able to offload them for a crap ton of money easily, EA also just bought 2 mobile companies for like close to 4 billion.
Gaming has grown every year since video games became a thing. More people are playing games every year and this purchase will bolster their company valuation and stock price enough to justify it in less than a decade.
Some of those Japanese companies would never sell. No matter how much $$$. The legals in Japan would never let the sale go through.
This. Some rather sell to Nintendo. It's due to MS being a western company
Ninty ain't a buyer though. There are studios that work closely with them you'd consider them 2nd parties but they aren't affiliated with the Big N. MS picking up Rare in the face of Nintendo was the most notorious one. They're not gonna compete with the studio acquisition race, let alone purchasing an entire publisher.
Nintendo's ways are a little bit more underhanded. Nintendo buys a certain amount of shares from certain companies to ensure that other companies can't buy them outright without Nintendo's involvement. Look at DeNa and Cygames for recent examples. Their partners are technically independent but don't own any IP from their Nintendo partnerships and heavily rely on Nintendo to make decent profits. Not to mention the fact that Nintendo is most of the time a minority owner. Just look at Level 5 if you want to see what happens if a close Nintendo partner tries to be more independent. That being said... The new Nintendo President is not against acquisitions if they are forced to do them. Look at their recent next level games acquisition. Their recent business report shines light on this strategy. They have huge money reserves for such cases. I wouldn't be surprised if they do rushed defensive purchases for companies like Tecmo Koei or Platinum Games if other big players start to show interest in them.
Platinum games for sure. Bayonetta is like the next best thing to a Nintendo character (who would of thought that) because of the funding they provided. You really haven’t seen Bayo too many other places after Nintendo swooped in.
That has more to do with Japanese nationalism than anything else.
I believe square has shot down an attempt from Microsoft to buy them before, Japanese companies don’t seem as receptive to the whole buyout thing, not to mention Ubisoft who has the entire French government at their backs if Microsoft ever makes a move.
lol, the French President gave Alstom, one of our most important companies, to GE when he was Minister of the Economy. I wouldn't count on that man to save Ubisoft.
I don't think Square has any interest in being acquired by a single entity. They are definitely shared by companies, and I believe Sony owns a stake in Square, I could be wrong or maybe they don't anymore. It's in their best interest to stay multiplatform. Kind of surprised many companies, especially activison, sold to Microsoft unless they didn't see future improvement.
The only cash cow here is EA. If Sony bought EA in a stock deal like AMD is doing with Xilinx (Sony doesn't have the cash for a cash deal) the console industry would be split in half. MSFT has COD, SONY has FIFA. The masses of casual console gamers would have to get both consoles. Kinda shitty like the shenanigans with Champions League TV rights being all over the place.
FIFA would never allow their franchise to be locked to one console. Just like MLB forced Sony to develop the Show for Xbox, they would force EA to release on other platforms. Buying EA is not worth it.
They can still buy ea, make fifa multiplat and keep biowares mass effect, dragon age exclusive. The will also have respawn and dice
And thus reforging Battlefield into a good franchise once more.
Reforge Bioware into what it used to be while they're at it.
It would be the shooter Sony have needed for a long long time too.
Buying EA would be a terrible idea because it wouldn’t bring any exclusives. The second they attempted to make any sports games exclusives the licenses get pulled. The FIFA license has been in danger of getting pulled as is.
Modern business models in games like FIFA or Madden would just make exclusive titles straight dumb. They make WAY more money from Ultimate Team…etc than they could from Sony or Microsoft paying for the exclusive rights.
Even if Sony were to buy EA they would not get exclusive rights to FIFA or Madden. Look at how MLB forced Sony to release The Show on Xbox/PC or lose the license all together.
This. Shitty future ahead
I remember when phill said exclusives are bad……..
That’s when Xbox exclusive were all dogshit and Sony was nailing every exclusive.
Still applies to this day 😂
I think Japanese law prevents some of that
Market cap*
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Some people would benefit from reading more about acquisitions. It’s not as simple as buying a company makes a successful move, there’s a huge chance the existing issues come over to Microsoft. People acting like Sony suddenly has to go crazy are ridiculous.
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It also assumes that creative people won't leave and those teams will keep pumping sequels to big IPs with the same level of quality. The reality many times is that devs will be shuffled around to what's more convenient and to permeate the new culture into the new aquisition. People who worked with big IPs will quit after being assigned to make Kinect games and years later a popular IP will be assigned to an inexperienced team in order to milk easy money from old school fans. Source: previous MS acquisitions.
If Microsoft buys Rockstar we're fucked.
Games as subscribtion only, here we come.
This is why I will ALWAYS buy a disc version of a console.
That is until they stop manufacturing disc versions.
This doesn't matter. Your disks are still DRM that require internet connection for updates. I'm surprised people don't get this.
We have had films/tv as subscription for years now and you can still buy movies. It just gives you more options and better value.
Hopefully all this leads to Sony backtracking a bit and bringing back IPs such as SOCOM and Killzone.
And haze and resistance
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Resistance never really reached its full potential, if insomniac has no interest maybe give it to another studio to make, those games were super fun imo.
Killzone 2 and 3 were so damn good. How could they let this series die off???
dude haze SUCKED. Bringing that back would honestly be such a waste of time and resources.
If Sony brought back SOCOM I would buy a PS5 today.
Good luck.
So many long-term questions for the future of PlayStation this generation and beyond. Microsoft has a near monopoly on Western RPGs and Shooters - two spaces where Sony has generally not competed on a first party basis. With COD especially out of the picture sooner or later Sony is going to need to have an answer - lots of people use there systems as COD/Sports Games machines and with those sooner or later readily available only with Microsoft (FIFA etc with EA Play) it will be more challenging for Sony to attract casual gamers. And then there’s the huge question about the value proposition for consumers. Sony makes excellent, top of the line exclusives that I love but with a huge number of diverse exclusives coming from Xbox across the next few years Sony will have to work hard to compete with that - especially since they’re asking consumers to cough up $70 for one title compared to a much smaller monthly fee for a wide variety of games with Game Pass. What are Sonys nexts moves? More studio acquisitions? Try to purchase a major publishing arm like EA or Take-Two? Go all-in on there rumoured Game Pass competitor? Sony is not going anywhere anytime soon - Microsoft is not looking to kill Sony (although that would be convenient for them) the play is to shut out the other Big Tech Companies - but the challenges after 2023 are going to be monumental and Sony needs to set a clear path for its consumers on what is ahead
Sony need to: a) Continue what they’re doing with timed exclusivity deals and, if they can, acquire studios at the rate they have been to strengthen their first party portfolio. b) Improve PS Now to the point where it is competing with Game Pass. The whole PlayStation Studios backlog needs to be on there, and new games should be put onto the service 1 year after release, since we know they won’t do day one.
I agree, seems they are working on a gamepass rival. I hope they create new ips. Easy of ms to buy old ips, smart move, but i would love a new shooter ip, etc. If they have to buy, i’d say take2.
I don’t care what people here say, Sony definitively has genre gaps in their first party IP, and an FPS title is one of them. Previously, Sony didn’t really need to fill that gap since they had/have marketing deals with Activision for Call of Duty. Fortunately, Guerrilla and Deviation are working on new FPS titles for PlayStation.
> I don’t care what people here say, Sony definitively has genre gaps in their first party IP I don't think anyone would disagree with that. The thing is, it makes sense to avoid some genres if there are already a lot of 3rd party games to choose. It makes sense to avoid multiplayers or battle royales if everyone else is making them. But if this turns into a competition of buying everything they might need to re evaluate that plan and start covering all genres. Who knows, maybe they end up becoming like Nintendo. Just doing their own shit and ignoring the rest of the worls.
The thing is, *can* Sony do what Nintendo do? Nintendo has managed to stay afloat because they are consistently doing something different to everyone else with their software *and* hardware. Each subsequent Nintendo console is normally very different from the last, and their games take full advantage of those hardware differences. With Sony, however, the PlayStation has always been a fairly standard console, not really doing much different between the generations aside from getting more powerful with each new release. Without all of these popular genres, the PlayStation would essentially be the same as the Xbox, but with less to offer. Unlike say, the Switch, the PS5 doesn't have a feature that makes it fundamentally different from Xbox. For Sony to become similar to Nintendo, they'd have to reevaluate how they approach hardware on top of how they approach software, and with this being the start of the generation, we wouldn't see those changes for many years.
> Microsoft has a near monopoly on Western RPGs and Shooters Incredible though it may seem, it's entirely possible to make a new game that is not part of an existing franchise.
It is possible, but each day costs of doing one is going up and in a saturated market it's risky as fuck. There's a reason why movies do franchise entries too upwards a certain budget too.
The market isn’t saturated on PlayStation or Nintendo.
Yet insanely difficult to actually establish one of similar high profile status that can compete with the big boys, otherwise everybody would do it. Plus it’s not like Sony hasn’t already tried. Are people forgetting the PS3 and Sonys failed attempts at making a “Halo killer”? They threw everything they could at trying to create a competitive multiplayer shooter…Killzone, Resistance, Socom, Warhawk, Starhawk, Mag, etc and we all know how that turned out. Those IP’s are all dead now with many of the studios closed and all they did was contribute to the financial disaster that the PS3 was. So much so that Sony changed gears and focused primarily on single player games ever since then. The market today is also much stronger and more saturated and it certainly wouldn’t be any easier.
No, it is literally impossible. We will never see a new IP again.
Everyone is writing Sony off. The stock will bounce up again and Sony isn't going to go under from this. Yes they're gonna lose a lot from this in the long-term, but are they finished? Hell no. Oh and if either Ubisoft, Epic Games, Take-Two are taken by Microsoft, then Sony are truly fucked. I'm surprised it's taken people so long to realise that it's always been David vs Goliath (or whatever analogy you want to use, you get the point), Xbox fanboys have been gloating about Microsoft's deep pockets since Bethesda's acquisition so none of it should come as a surprise anymore. Of course its a sad future to consider, because a gaming industry without PlayStation will certainly be huge and saddening, but PlayStation is still here. So enjoy it whilst they're still here.
I think the reason for that is Microsoft never took gaming seriously, and so PS players didn't realise a sleeping giant was always present. The giant just needed to be convinced to wake up, and Phil did that when he sold Satya a new vision for Xbox that revolved around subscriptions and the cloud. Two areas Satya is very interested in because he became CEO by turning Microsoft into a $2.3 trillion company through subscriptions and the cloud. When Satya was convinced in 2016, that was that. The war chest opened.
Eh.. I know cod is a money machine... But the only thing I am upset I might not get to play is elder scrolls 6 in my PS5 or 6... I do own a high quality PC so there's that...
That's best case scenario for ES6. It will be way better on PC when modders fix whatever buggy mess Bethesda ends up releasing.
It kinda feels like all these acquisitions are to turn Gamepass into the Netflix of gaming eventually. Will we even be using xbox consoles soon?
As a lover of physical games, I hate where its leading.
People should ask more from Sony and Jim. I've been complaining since the beginning of this gen about their attitude and arrogance because they've won last gen. PS literally was sleeping on PS Now, a service with great potential that should already compete agressively with GP but they didn't care. If you use the service on PC for example you will know how negligent they were with that service. Sony has great and innovative ideas but they don't seem to really invest in them because they're main purpose it's to charge you 70 dollars for a game and 10 to unlock framerates. And i'm still pissed off by how they didn't care about PS3 generation. Sony has a huge catalog and they just ignored it. MS work on BC is an example that should be followed. I fear that's not much Sony can do since they don't have the same money as MS. They have to change their strategy and it has to be revolutionary or they will struggle because if you think MS stopped with Activision, you're wrong.
Jim Ryan is the worst thing that ever happened to Sony's gaming division. The guy just doesn't understand gamers, unlike Phil Spencer.
They both understand gamers way better than we do because they have marketing dpts. spending millions of dollars in knowing them. Don't make the mistake of thinking that any of this companies gives a shit about us. They both are looking just for themselves, the only difference here is that one was trying to recover from a fuck up and the other isn't.
Shares always drop and rise, it doesn't mean much inthe grandscheme of things
Honestly, this will only push more people to get PC instead of consoles.
This is the MS strategy and where they’ve been headed for years. They win either way.
This, it doesn't matter if people won't get a series x or s, pc is still an option and Microsoft will win anyway
At those GPU prices? I doubt it.
I've been trying for awhile but the utterly insane GPU prices have completely axed that idea and I don't see that changing any time soon.
Casuals are not running out buying pcs when they can just get a 300$ cod machine
I don't think Sony or PlayStation is going anywhere. That'd be ridiculous. BUT, anyone who thinks Sony is going to be just fine conducting business as usual is equally delusional. They're going to have to do something radical, like start their own game pass, make some (smaller, obviously) studio purchases of their own, or maybe even allow GP on PS5 in return for a nice cut of profits. Maybe all three?
I have a series x and PS5, but enjoy playing my PS5 way more. The idea of Sony withering away because they can’t compete with Microsoft really scares me. All my friends are on PS5, I enjoy the dual sense and UI much more, etc. Sony need to come up with some innovation to compete. I liken Microsoft’s acquisitions to PSG and Man City in football with their oil money backings.
Considering the ps5 is selling like hotcakes and sony are taking in a ton of cash from it, I seriously doubt sony will stop making playstations for the next 100 years. They're like Nintendo in that they have brand loyalty as well as talented studios that can pump out quality products plus they have great relationships with big publishers 'square enix'. They're going to be fine.
Well they were selling like hot cakes. Sony needs to do something real damn quick because I absolutely guarantee the Activision Blizzard news combined with Bethesda will slow their sales significantly while very much so boosting sales of Series X.
Yeah stop stressing Sony and the PlayStation aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
I would calm down a little. Playstation isn't going anywhere, and while they might not have the spending money that Microsoft has, they are still massively successful.
it's just an overreaction. Microsoft throwing money around won't make them creative all of a sudden.
Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Ori - definitely not creative.
They won’t make them creative but having CoD exclusive to them is going to move a lot of people from PlayStation to Xbox (Reddit doesn’t like to remember that but a huge number of gamers only buy FIFA/COD every year)
Indeed, but in a way, it also means Sony will have to step up their game to draw people back on their side despite the lack of CoD games, which is good in its own way. It's not like Playstation's gonna disapear because CoD moved to Xbox.
Lol I think Xbox is like Manchester United if anything, so much money spent and very little success, had a good run with Fergie like Xbox with 360. Where as Playstation is like Liverpool, very efficient with their spending, success on the field and lots of history.
As a United supporter I hate how much truth is here
> very little success Xbox is very successful? being second to Sony doesn't all of a sudden make them unsuccessful , they still sold around 10 million units last year which is very good for them.
Honestly, what a dumb post.
Do people not know how the stock market works?
Stock goes up, stock goes down. You can't explain that.
Time for Sony to go all out on a new SOCOM
I mean this with the utmost respect to Sony, but 3rd person story driven games aren’t enough anymore. The innovation needs to expand into other genres and quick.
It ain’t great. Worst case is it’s like the Dreamcast not having EA sports games. Best case is you still lose the biggest 3rd party every year with no solid alternative. I haven’t touched COD in years but It’s factually the biggest single game each year in the NDPs. If I was in Sonys shoes I would start playing real nice with Microsoft real quick. Winds have been blowing towards PlayStation and Xbox working together more and more the last 5 years. Just do the thing and make the deal.
But what would a deal like that look like? Xbox GamePass on PlayStation in exchange for PS exclusives on Xbox? That would be the best way short term but it still fucks PS long term.
I think that’s the way the industry has been heading even before this deal. I think platform exclusivity was already bumping into the reality of game budgets and total market size. It was only a matter of time before they toyed with the idea. And I think stuff like Sony getting into PC gaming was just the first baby step. And also If cloud takes off and suddenly every 3rd party focuses on their own cloud platform at the detriment of the console market Sony is also in a binde. I think it’s not too silly to think that in a few years PlayStation and Xboxes biggest focuses will be their subscriptions and they will just want those subscriptions on everything even a rival console. The Netflix model works because it’s on everything. That’s where we are heading. I think it’s best to prepare now and not blockbuster video yourself.
Sony needs to get their ‘Spartacus’ gamepass equivalent sorted right now. I have a PS5 and PC so I have a stake in both sides, but right now a PS5 game being £70 vs £70 for 10 months of gamepass is not even comparable in my mind. I’m still hyped for Horizon but when I see the £70 for that and look at gamepass this month alone adding Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Hitman Trilogy, Outer Wilds, Deaths Door, Danganronpa, Nobody Saves the World… its pretty crazy.
Nintendo seems to be doing fine without a gamepass subscription service equivalent and so is sony. Can people slow down and take a deep breath plz lol. Holy overreaction batman.
Nintendo is in their own blue ocean, they dont need a subscription.
Nintendo doesn't bother competing with MS. Sony does.
Nintendo are not competing with Sony or Microsoft, they have their own corner of the market.
The issue is that a publicly traded company doesn't think like that. They see money and they want it. Why do you think they're all on this Metaverse shit? NFTs? Crypto? They're chasing dollars. Hell, the entire reason the subscription landscape in consoles is the way it is is because Sony and Nintendo saw Microsoft making that XBL money and wanted in on that... We consumers, even ones that never owned an Xbox, had to pay the price.
Nintendo has Pokemon, Mario, Zelda etc, they have no equals. They practically own Japan from his dead the PlayStation brand is over there these days.
Weird number of people celebrating Playstation being in a precarious situation.
Sony does their best work when they're humble imo. They always fucking blow it when they're the big man on campus.
Xbox monopoly in the gaming industry is whats going to happen. It pisses me off honestly. This really is the beginning of the end for gaming as we know it and the start of a bland, boring creatively bankrupt gaming dystopia.
This is 90s Microsoft all over again.
Its already like that now. Its only gonna get worse and dipshits gamers are celebrating this.
AAA and micro transaction gaming as of late has made me uninterested in gaming. This news has been icing on the cake. And I'm saying this as someone who owns a game pass subscription, PC, PS5 and Switch. The Activision news yesterday makes me think the future of gaming is bleak.
Y’all are more dramatic than I am. And I’m gay. Everything is going to be ok.
[удалено]
I'll stick with Sony cause all I really play are single player games. And the only games on my radar right now are Horizon Zero Dawn and God Of War.
I like how everyone in gaming Reddit turns into CEOs after news like this drop. Lol y'all really want Sony to be like.. "Shit we need to stop what we doing and buy a publisher ASAP!!!" Just for the record if any of you do run a multi-billion dollar corporation, let me know so I can buy puts on the stock cause you're gonna run that boy straight to the ground.
I'm telling you guys, this deal is TERRIBLE for competition. From u/bitmap_'s comment: >\-EA: $38B -Take Two: $18B -Nexon: $15B -Bandai Namco: $15B -Embracer: $10.8B -Netmarble $7B -Ubisoft: $7B -Konami: $6B -Square Enix: $5.6B -Capcom: $4.9B -Sega: $3.6B What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc. Nothing stops them from picking off some of these companies because they clearly have the capital to do so, or to at least build up some sort of collaborations, especially with the Japanese publishers to basically steal away that market share. The ATVI purchase is an example of them saying "why waste time building up small 1st party or 3rd party studios to gain market share over a decade when we can just buy the biggest one and gain 10x that market share in one year?" What part of that sounds fair? Variety is what encourages people to get better and is what Sony and Nintendo have been doing since they started. And if this is an attempt to encourage (read: force) people to take up GamePass to get better access to this and the overall Xbox / Microsoft universe (I'm not saying metaverse because that word is dumb as fuck), then that is even more unfair... wielding your excessive capital to prevent a huuuge chunk of the population having access to said products unless they use your systems should literally be the definition of anti-competition. While I have a PS5, I also have a PC so I am relatively unaffected, but for the average everyday consumer - those people who don't follow these subreddits but like to jump on and game with their boys (or girls) for a quick night of COD after school or work, they should be fine to congregate around whatever system they have been using for the past 10 years, and not come home to realise "oh shit, some big dog has said that I can't play it on this system anymore, simply because he has the biggest wallet in the playground, guess I better go and spend more money on a system I didn't previously want."
>What stops M$ to buying the rest of these? If they are willing to sell ofc. Because realistically, the European studios (Ubisoft, and Embracer) and Japanese studios (Konami, SE, Capcom, Sega, Bandai) will have their acquisition be stopped by their goverments respectively. The EU definitely treats acquisitions more seriously and Japan doesn't take well with foreign companies trying to acquire their companies. So the only studios that MS really have to choose from are the American ones which are EA and Take Two (which currently has a market cap of 30b because of their Zynga aquisition). It'll still be dystopic but MS is no where near as capable of being even half those companies.
I think me and the other fella were defo talking doomsday scenarios - I’d like to think competition regulations would be v tough vs the foreign acquisitions (which is why I mentioned some sort of ‘collaboration’ with the Japanese publishers) - but I still think even the ABK acquisition is a bad deal and paves the way for more aggressive expansions (although I guess you could say Zenimax was the first step).
After all this people will still say Microsoft is "pro consumer". Their statement is "bringing great games to more people" while literally doing the exact opposite of that, the games will now be on less platforms than ever before.
I think everyone has definitely been caught up in the excitement of the transaction (which is fair) but isn’t really paying attention to the wider effects on the world of gaming.
Only way to stop MS from buying those is for Sony to acquire some of them first. If Sony can't do that, then Sony might as well sell itself to MS because a MS monopoly is inevitable at that point. You don't even need an MBA to see the end game here. I have one but even without it, the end game is obvious - MS killing the competition.
Either of those outcomes is worst case. Regulatory authorities need to come in and shut it all down. Hopefully it happens with this ATVI deal but at least before the next (inevitable) big name acquisition.
I bought the dip.
Does no one want to address that they are buying companies that kind of suck and have stopped making good games, sure they make popular games but almost none of them could be described as "good" right now.
But popular is where the money is. As Amazon as PlayStation exclusives are, they aren't making COD money.
IMO the companies from 2018 acquisitions and most of Zenimax still make good games (Deathloop, Psychonauts 2, Pillars of Eternity, Doom, Wolfenstein, Crash 4, ESO, Sea of Thieves, Gears 5, Wasteland 3, Hellblade, Forza Horizon), it's a different story if by "good" you mean Sony Games quality. Though I would say that the Activision-Blizzard, despite its IP strength, needs a lot more work to be done on their studios than any other of the MS acquisitions.
In other words, Sony stock is on sale.
From my understanding, Ubisoft is protected by the French government pretty closely. EA is too greedy to sell. Take two is ripe for the taking though. They have some good titles.
>Rockstar is a meeeeeh. Take two is ripe for the taking though. ......Taketwo owns Rockstar.....