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Sony appreciates "the CMA’s focus on protecting gamers" as it welcomes the announcement to further investigate the Activision acquisition

Sony really should stfu and make their own CoD clone instead of whining. They need to trim the fat at the top, so they can afford to contribute.

What happened to the Sony that dropped Mag, Socom, warhawk, etc in one generation?
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
I can do it, but he's bigger so....no FAIR! Waaaah. ^^^
Buying a whole company and taking a franchise off of its biggest platform is not the same thing as timed exclusives, not even remotely close.
Miraculously those increases are not happening in USA.
Yes they are and they started with 2K and Activision.
In the same breath MS could have gone and made those exclusivity deals at the same time.

Yet if they both walked into the dealership Sony would have paid 30k for the car and MS would have paid 90k for the same car.

No wonder MS thought, I have enough money I might as well buy the dealership instead.
MS did have exclusivity deals... they just bet on the wrong horse every time, well except when they did it to Sony 1st with COD(360 circa)
Jim Ryan really got that Sony dick down your throat.
Woa its not that serious.

He was making a joke..
That's a bit much.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Sony really should stfu and make their own CoD clone instead of whining. They need to trim the fat at the top, so they can afford to contribute.

What happened to the Sony that dropped Mag, Socom, warhawk, etc in one generation?
You answered your own question. 😅

They dropped them. Need crazy Kaz back who's willing to staple his balls to the walls and try new things for better or worse.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
This fancy deal is bogged.

car-stuck.gif
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
This argument again. If Sony had the cash, they would do the same thing and you'd be on the other side of the argument. Fact. But keep it up lol
You don't know this and if they would or wouldn't it doesn't change the fact that it's completely different.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
How can I provide proof for something that I theorize could happen in the future?

It’s just speculating. I am not claiming it has happened yet. But in the drive to pump up subscription numbers the amount of content seems more important than the quality. Just look at Netflix for instance.

What incentive is there to invest a few hundred million into a 20 hour single player game if it’s day 1 on GamePass?

Nobody apart from the likes of Rockstar is investing a few hundred million in a single player game. And even Rockstar games heavily lean on multiplayer.

The fears of loss of quality are unfounded, since MS is already investing in improving funding to games on the service and first parties that will contribute to the service. There’s also quite a decent amount of single player games from studios with good track records that’s already been announced. Fable, Hellblade, Starfield, Indiana Jones, Avowed among others.

Getting subscribers is one thing. Retaining subscribers is another. And compromising on quality is a very quick way to lose subs. Why would anyone at MS want that?

Xbox games are sold at retail and on Steam too. That won’t change, so I don’t see where the fears of “games will be tailored solely for gamepass” is coming from.
 

Madjaba

Member
Yeah they're already planning on going 3rd party. :rolleyes:
Obviously not, but their focus on this acquisition and the way they're trying to rally the "gamerzzz" to their cause (which is purely based on financial reason that must be said...) is a clear signal that what might happen will be a great blow to them.

Their IPs , even if they are great, can't shoulder the weight of losing the amount of money coming from COD for example.

I'm not rooting for anyone in this (I'm a lucky owner of the 3 main systems) I'm just telling that Sony got it bad but they are being played at their own game (exclusivity deal - big money to prevent players from other systems to play big games like FF7R - FFXVI - Spiderman - Exclusive quests and what not for BIG games).

It's just that business is business even in this industry but you can't play the victim when you've been the aggressor prior to this whole story... :messenger_halo:
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Nobody apart from the likes of Rockstar is investing a few hundred million in a single player game. And even Rockstar games heavily lean on multiplayer.

The fears of loss of quality are unfounded, since MS is already investing in improving funding to games on the service and first parties that will contribute to the service. There’s also quite a decent amount of single player games from studios with good track records that’s already been announced. Fable, Hellblade, Starfield, Indiana Jones, Avowed among others.

Getting subscribers is one thing. Retaining subscribers is another. And compromising on quality is a very quick way to lose subs. Why would anyone at MS want that?

Xbox games are sold at retail and on Steam too. That won’t change, so I don’t see where the fears of “games will be tailored solely for gamepass” is coming from.
Games are going to be devalued and the cost of gamepass is going to go up has been the mantra for 5 years.

Eventually one day the cost might go up, but they will have wasted years crying about it instead of taking advantage of it.
 
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Mohonky

Member
Since when is competition not good for the consumers/gamers?

Every gen there was the argument (at least on message boards) that Xbox isn't doing enough and Sony lacks tough competition. Now they have. Gotta deal with that.
That's the funny part; the hypocrisy. They buy developers and exclusives, but because MS bought a big studio with a lot of IPs, now it's an issue
 

DavidGzz

Member
You don't know this and if they would or wouldn't it doesn't change the fact that it's completely different.


It's different but buying years of exclusivity is even more annoying than a company being absorbed. When Insomniac makes a game, I know it's a Sony product now. When Square reveals a game, it may or may not come to Xbox so Xbox-only gamers are hopeful until exclusivity is revealed. It's more annoying that way in my opinion. At least now, when Diablo 5 is announced, most will know it's a MS product and is most likely not coming to PS5 instead of MS paying for 2 years of exclusivity. You're just on the blue side so you see it differently. I own both so it doesn't matter as much. It still matters since I sub to Game Pass but I'd fork over the money for D5 the same way I am buying GoW Ragnarok and the next Naughty Dog game. You can keep complaining but companies buy companies. A lot of people want Spiderman on Xbox but no one is going back and forth about how it isn't fair that Sony owns Insomniac. We don't even know if this deal is going through for sure.
 
I think a vast majority will. We already know Elder Scrolls VI for example will be on Xbox only. Starfield was also in development for PlayStation before Microsoft bought out Bethesda.

Even if not all the games are exclusive, they'll absolutely be on Gamepass day one. All those IPs on Ganepass is a huge deal and gives Microsoft a huge advantage.

It will sure as hell be exciting for all Xbox fans, but I don't buy that it gives Microsoft some huge advantage. Does it make Game Pass an even more incredible deal than it already is? Yes, but that's not a taboo thing for regulators. That is Microsoft's chosen business model to bring more games, especially traditional console titles, to a wider set of people and devices, including mobile. There are so many other big games out there that demonstrate all the time they can compete with Call of Duty for gamer's attention, and then actually go ahead and do big numbers sales wise. What stops any of those other games from cutting a deal with a Game Pass competitor the same way Microsoft cuts deals for content or the way Epic cuts deals for content? Sony is literally doing precisely that already with PS Plus. Would PS Plus exist like it does currently if not for Game Pass? I genuinely have doubts about that.

EA Play's total number of subscribers doubled in just 3 months from being associated with Game Pass, and that wasn't because Microsoft had somehow taken away some value from the base Game Pass tier. This fact alone is proof that competition can co-exist alongside and even experience major in a Game Pass world.

https://www.vg247.com/ea-play-13-million-xbox-game-pass-ultimate

That's according to Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, who told investors that as of the end of December 2020, the service boasted almost 13 million users.

As of September 2020, EA Play boasted 6.5 million users, meaning that the userbase has roughly doubled in just three months. That's a sharp increase in growth; it previously took 18 months for subscribers to EA's services to increase from 3.5 million to 6.5 million.

This recent surge has been partly driven by Electronic Arts partnering with Microsoft to include EA Play with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for consoles from November 2020. The service was also meant to be integrated with the PC version of Xbox Game Pass in December, but this was delayed until 2021.

EA Play also came to Steam in August 2020, which will have no doubt provided more than a few new subscribers, too.

"We're also expanding our lead in subscriptions," Wilson told investors.

"The groundbreaking integration of our EA Play service with Microsoft Game Pass has accelerated our subscription business, with nearly 13 million players now active in our service across four platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, Steam and our EA client. With more players valuing the subscription model and with our scale across platforms and content, we are building a strong growing business with recurrent revenue. We also have new streaming players joining our network through Xbox cloud gaming, with Game Pass Ultimate and other partners. And we are committed to advancing cloud as a meaningful part of the future of the gaming ecosystem."

Rest assured that if Ubisoft ever gets their service onto Xbox platforms proper they'll likely see an equally as impressive boost in subscriber counts.
 

Kagey K

Banned
That's the funny part; the hypocrisy. They buy developers and exclusives, but because MS bought a big studio with a lot of IPs, now it's an issue
It's always different (which is code for I get the game now and fuck you)

Now that they are getting told to eat shit they dont like it much.
 
That's the funny part; the hypocrisy. They buy developers and exclusives, but because MS bought a big studio with a lot of IPs, now it's an issue

I honestly can't disagree. It's quite literally the same damn thing. Just because Bungie and Destiny are now separated from Activision Blizzard it still doesn't change how big a purchase that is. I don't think it competes with Activision Blizzard in terms of impact and size, but collectively in the context of all the other moves they've made on exclusives, timed deals and more development studios? Even grabbing Nixxes and Bluepoint is nothing at all to scoff at. Then there is Valkyrie Entertainment. So Sony isn't buying quite as many famous IP, but that's not because they're somehow opposed to it; they're likely just not able to spend that kind of money, but Sony does in fact spend for guarantees. Simply because they aren't as flashy as what Microsoft is doing doesn't change the ultimate outcome.
 

Kagey K

Banned
I honestly can't disagree. It's quite literally the same damn thing. Just because Bungie and Destiny are now separated from Activision Blizzard it still doesn't change how big a purchase that is. I don't think it competes with Activision Blizzard in terms of impact and size, but collectively in the context of all the other moves they've made on exclusives, timed deals and more development studios? Even grabbing Nixxes and Bluepoint is nothing at all to scoff at. Then there is Valkyrie Entertainment. So Sony isn't buying quite as many famous IP, but that's not because they're somehow opposed to it; they're likely just not able to spend that kind of money, but Sony does in fact spend for guarantees. Simply because they aren't as flashy as what Microsoft is doing doesn't change the ultimate outcome.
They have been doing the death by 1000 cuts model forever. Some cut deeper than others but they don't stop slashing

MS just retaliated with a vein wound in response
 

Three

Member
Hey nothing stopped Sega from locking those games down themselves. Maybe if they didn't earmark $1 billion to Joypolis, some of that money could've gone towards a Tomb Raider exclusivity contract.

But Sega didn't care much about Western partnerships that generation anyway, otherwise they'd of done a lot of things different. And I say that having lots of love for Saturn (Japanese Saturn specifically but still).
Sega secured 6 weeks timed exclusivity for Tomb Raider 1 on Saturn in Europe. Didn't see anyone talking about taste of your own medicine back then when Tomb Raider 2 got cancelled for Sega. That was mainly because sega saturn barely sold anything too.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Sega secured 6 weeks timed exclusivity for Tomb Raider 1 on Saturn in Europe. Didn't see anyone talking about taste of your own medicine back then when Tomb Raider 2 got cancelled for Sega. That was mainly because sega saturn barely sold anything too.
Is 6 weeks really a thing?

Literally nobody now would give a shit, but 1 year or until end of life are different.

Obviously you know this. And so does Sony
 

Markio128

Member
Moving Season 5 GIF by Friends


I've already explained multiple times I am personally invested in this going through for my own personal financial gain. Activision stock is a no brainer as you will make 20.00 (18.17 with today's close) per share when the deal closes.

I bought in at 74 and keep adding when I get paid.
Fuck me. I can’t believe I tried to have a discussion with someone financially invested in the acquisition 😂
Ace Ventura All Righty Then GIF
 

Three

Member
Is 6 weeks really a thing?

Literally nobody now would give a shit, but 1 year or until end of life are different.

Obviously you know this. And so does Sony
Yes it's a thing because 1 month+ is huge in terms of game sales. So does MS who got GTA Stories: 1 yr exclusive, Dead Rising 3 permanent, Dead Rising 4: 1yr timed, PUBG 1yr timed. Point being pretending it's some anti-consumer stranglehold on the industry by the xbox brigade is nonsense to deflect from a major publisher being bought and the possibility of franchises no longer being multiplatform. Trying to turn an obvious bad thing into some righteous retribution.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Fuck me. I can’t believe I tried to have a discussion with someone financially invested in the acquisition 😂
Ace Ventura All Righty Then GIF
Before you knew that you tried to claim that Sony never used money outside of PlayStation to keep it a float and as I proved you wrong again and again you kept deflecting until you made it a personal attack.

Just admit the mistake and move along.

It's OK to be wrong, and learn something from it

I provided more than enough receipts.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Yes it's a thing because 1 month+ is huge in terms of game sales. So does MS who got GTA Stories: 1 yr exclusive, Dead Rising 3 permanent, Dead Rising 4: 1yr timed, PUBG 1yr timed. Point being pretending it's some anti-consumer stranglehold on the industry by the xbox brigade is nonsense to deflect from a major publisher being bought and the possibility of franchises no longer being multiplatform. Trying to turn an obvious bad thing into some righteous retribution.
Again Sony and MS walk into a dealership. The same car costs Sony 30K and MS 90K

MS decides its not worth the price and buys the dealership so they can decide the price.

Sony can try to compete to buy the dealership if they want
 

Markio128

Member
Before you knew that you tried to claim that Sony never used money outside of PlayStation to keep it a float and as I proved you wrong again and again you kept deflecting until you made it a personal attack.

Just admit the mistake and move along.

It's OK to be wrong, and learn something from it

I provided more than enough receipts.
I asked you how much profit PS1 and PS2 made and you directed me to a piece that confirmed MS had made more losses than Sony. Great work kiddo.
 

Kagey K

Banned
I asked you how much profit PS1 and PS2 made and you directed me to a piece that confirmed MS had made more losses than Sony. Great work kiddo.
Not quite how it worked, but great to see I wasted my time kiddo.

I would have hoped you would have actually learned something.



Can lead a horse to water but you can't make them smart.
 
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RespawnX

Member
Jim Rayn's reaction at least reveals that Sony sees its platform at risk to quite a significant degree. Which suggests that the strategy for the current console generation may be as lacking as it appears to be last year(s). That may also owe a lot to Covid and the labor market situation, which messed up production schedules everywhere. Still I agree with him that such a large acquisition is a problem from consumer perspective.

Microsoft should extend the warranty on Call of Duty to 5 years. That would give Sony enough time to look for their own alternative. I suspect the 3-year deal is exactly what Microsoft is counting on. A transition period in which PlayStation users go completely blank and turn to Xbox. You can't build a whole new development Team and a new IP in 3 years.

Sony seems so obsessed with outdoing Xbox that they seem to be losing sight of their own priorities. It''s not a good sign when your product strategy is no longer focused on the customer but on the competition. Ironically, they never needed that, since PS4 they had left the reactionary role.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Jim Rayn's reaction at least reveals that Sony sees its platform at risk to quite a significant degree. Which suggests that the strategy for the current console generation may be as lacking as it appears to be last year(s). That may also owe a lot to Covid and the labor market situation, which messed up production schedules everywhere. Still I agree with him that such a large acquisition is a problem from consumer perspective.

Microsoft should extend the warranty on Call of Duty to 5 years. That would give Sony enough time to look for their own alternative. I suspect the 3-year deal is exactly what Microsoft is counting on. A transition period in which PlayStation users go completely blank and turn to Xbox.

Sony seems so obsessed with outdoing Xbox that they seem to be losing sight of their own priorities. It''s not a good sign when your product strategy is no longer focused on the customer but on the competition. Ironically, they never needed that, since PS4 they had left the reactionary role.
It was 3 years plus the current agreement.

The current agreement runs to 24 if they keep doing annual 25 if they skip a year as rumored so it would have been 27 or 28 after the MS offer.

Nowhere else in the industry offer a deal that far out, and would have given them plenty of time to do as you suggested.
 
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SLB1904

Banned
because with revenue its not looking at operating costs so it isn't like they have all that money as cash on hand to spend
Operating costs is exactly where the companies decides to spend to money on. Also cash in hand doesn't mean anything. When comes to acquisition. Cash in hand devaluation is pretty much a thing, the the exchange rate fluctuating yiu could have a billion in one day and 700mil on the next day.
Basically forget about cash in hand. Is not important at all.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
I was referring to your now edited proverb, not the supposed receipts you provided.
Bullshit.

So now I'm going to ask, does having a stake in it make my opinom more or less valid than yours?

I actually put some skin in the game, which will bias me, but you have none and think your opinion is equal.

I proved you wrong all day why it's OK MS is investing in Xbox and Sony did the same, but you keep deflecting. Instead of addressing the real crux of your initial argument.
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
Operating costs is exactly where the companies decides to spend to money on. Also cash in hand doesn't mean anything. When comes to acquisition. Cash in hand devaluation is pretty much a thing, the the exchange rate fluctuating yiu could have a billion in one day and 700mil on the next day.
Basically forget about cash in hand. Is not important at all.


so they can decide to pay the staff or not? they can decide to pay the suppliers of components or not ? lol there are fixed costs and that's why profits are announced
 

RespawnX

Member
It was 3 years plus the current agreement.

The current agreement runs to 24 if they keep doing annual 25 if they skip a year as rumored so it would have been 27 or 28 after the MS offer.

Nowhere else in the industry offer a deal that far out, and would have given them plenty of time to do as you suggested.

Thanks for the clarification I wasn't aware about the time frame of the existing agreement. In that case I would say: let's start hiring :).

Joking aside, of course it's not that easy. But sounds like a feasible goal. However, it's clear that Sony had given up on the first party FPS market after the last titles and especially mutliplayer didn't deliver the promised success. They have to adjust their strategy now.

Sounds like CoD will become exclusive with the launch of the next console generation.
 

SoraNoKuni

Member
It's not only about Sony, getting so many publishers and such big ips in gaming space is an act of gatekeeping other competitors, and don't even start about the disney argument.
Films and series are not the same, the are no gambling aspects in those platforms and once you've consumed your content in a really short period of time you move on, COD and gaas can keep you occupied for months or even years.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Thanks for the clarification I wasn't aware about the time frame of the existing agreement. In that case I would say: let's start hiring :).

Joking aside, of course it's not that easy. But sounds like a feasible goal. However, it's clear that Sony had given up on the first party FPS market after the last titles and especially mutliplayer didn't deliver the promised success. They have to adjust their strategy now.

Sounds like CoD will become exclusive with the launch of the next console generation.
For sure it would have gave Sony plenty of time to cone out with a competitor.

Now after Jim says it was inadequate, who knows? Maybe MS cuts it off when the current deal expires.

He looked a gift horse in the mouth and said fuck that. While flaunting he's riding around on it for now.
 
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Markio128

Member
Bullshit.

So now I'm going to ask, does having a stake in it make my opion more or less valid than yours?

I actually put some skin in the game, which will bias me, but you have none and think your opinion is equal.

I proved you wrong all day why it's OK MS is investing in Xbox and Sony did the same, but you keep deflecting. Instead of addressing the real crux of your initial argument.
I have not once said that I am right, but only pointed out that your receipts are not satisfying my curiosity. There wouldn’t have even been a PS3 (of which I was well aware of the disaster it was financially) if it hadn’t have been for the PS1 and PS2 success. MS could have made a loss of 100 million dollars on the 360 and still continued to release the xbox1, which is sort of the point I was humbly trying to make.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
I have not once said that I am right, but only pointed out that your receipts are not satisfying my curiosity. There wouldn’t have even been a PS3 (of which I was well aware of the disaster it was financially) if it hadn’t have been for the PS1 and PS2 success. MS could have made a loss of 100 million dollars on the 360 and still continued to release the xbox1, which is sort of the point I was humbly trying to make.
Except the PS3 lost something like 10b when all was said and done

You said that PS was never subsidized by Sony the way Xbox was from MS.

Ps1 and PS2 profits were eaten in the first 2 years and Sony continued to subsidize it well past that. They had to sell real estate and almost all thier assets during 08 and 09 to keep the company open.

People were talking about Japan government subsidizing them just because the insurance division couldn't fail.

Either way it makes little difference, but let's not pretend PlayStation was standing on its big boy feet pulling all the weight.

Claiming it's unfair for MS to subsidize Xbox, while Sony subsidized PS is plain hipocraxy.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Again Sony and MS walk into a dealership. The same car costs Sony 30K and MS 90K

MS decides its not worth the price and buys the dealership so they can decide the price.

Sony can try to compete to buy the dealership if they want

In the car realm I'd see it more like PlayStation being Toyota and Xbox being Saturn. But instead GM shuttering Saturn when they failed to compete, they go out and acquire Ford and Mazda. The analogy has flaws for obvious reasons but it does a decent job of Microsoft money whipping their way to a robust catalog of desirable IP after their Xbox division struggled to do so more "organically".

I don't really have a horse in this race as I don't much care for the vast majority Zenimax, Activision/Blizzard, or Bungie IP, but I do wonder what the next domino to fall is and where the acquisition war ends.

I'd also caution people to temper their excitement of these titles being exclusive or the trepidation of losing those same titles from your platform of choice.

Acquisitions are never cut and dry and every industry is littered with failures that came from huge acquisitions.
 

Kagey K

Banned
In the car realm I'd see it more like PlayStation being Toyota and Xbox being Saturn. But instead GM shuttering Saturn when they failed to compete, they go out and acquire Ford and Mazda. The analogy has flaws for obvious reasons but it does a decent job of Microsoft money whipping their way to a robust catalog of desirable IP after their Xbox division struggled to do so more "organically".

I don't really have a horse in this race as I don't much care for the vast majority Zenimax, Activision/Blizzard, or Bungie IP, but I do wonder what the next domino to fall is and where the acquisition war ends.

I'd also caution people to temper their excitement of these titles being exclusive or the trepidation of losing those same titles from your platform of choice.

Acquisitions are never cut and dry and every industry is littered with failures that came from huge acquisitions.
Organic my ass.

All these new Sony acquisition are organic?

Or because they were around a second or two before Xbox makes it Organic?

How about Morrowind that makes Bethesda organic or Cod2, that makes Activision organic.

Right?

Both compa8nies gave longer histories with Xbox than PS.

Bethesda would be bankrupt without Xbox in Todd's own words.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Organic my ass.

All these new Sony acquisition are organic?

Or because they were around a second or two before Xbox makes it Orgsnic?

How about Morroeind that makes Bethesda organic or Cod2, that makes Activision organic.

Right?

Notice the quotes around organic or in your case orgsnic.
 
Sony really should stfu and make their own CoD clone instead of whining. They need to trim the fat at the top, so they can afford to contribute.

What happened to the Sony that dropped Mag, Socom, warhawk, etc in one generation?
Honestly, any of those 3 games would get me buying a PS5 with a huge smile on my face. I’ll already get one for GoW but this would be the icing on top for me.
 
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