ArcaneNLSC
Member
People also forget that Street Fighter V had crossplay between PS4 and PC well before all the bullshit that people tried to say Sony wouldn't allow crossplay
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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)
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Ar¢tos
Member
The delusion of people here is mind-blowing.
Kadokawa, the owners of From Software, are worth around 3bn.
You want MS to spend 3bn for one studio (+ a few small studios) and do what with manga magazine business and real estate businesses that comes attached to it?
And how exactly is MS going to bypass the japanese laws that make foreign takeovers very difficult?
And this applies to any attempt of buying any Japanese studio or publisher.
Hold on. What history are you talking about? Have they launched a single new entry in a game franchise with a large community, that was not made exclusive?
Gobjuduck
Banned
What publishers/studios asked for cross play?
Cross play didn’t become a big deal until destiny and fortnite, and Sony strongly opposed those, until they came up with a fee.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Because Microsoft didn't have any widespread reliability issues during the 360 era.You mean when Sony had security issues. Im shocked Microsoft would not want a insecure service to attach to theirs.
2011 PlayStation Network outage - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
And for the first 3…erm…10 years it will be multiplat
All bets are off after that, since that’s all MS is willing to guarantee
MS will just wait it out and do the bare minimum to get the deal to pass, but waiting ten years is the blink of an eye compared to their long term plans
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Minecraft. They said they'd treat Call of Duty like Minecraft.
demigod
Member
Stop acting like Sony are the only ones with security issues.
I asked for a new entry in a franchise. Minecraft launched years before they owned it.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
10 years is the longest guarantee in the history of video games. If Gamepass subs got to something insane like 150 million, maybe they'd consider it. But it wont. I think it's reasonable to not commit to something 10 years in the future when no one knows what the market conditions will be. You sign updated contracts for everything. No one gets lifetime guarantees.
The 10 years is to give competitors time to prepare. Sony already is making multiple FPS games. I personally don't think it would ever be exclusive, and I didn't think the 10 year guarantee is unreasonable at all. Obviously not everyone agrees me with me on that.
Gobjuduck
Banned
Not nearly as bad.
That’s like saying a dozen 2 magnitude earthquakes in Xbox land is the same as an 8 magnitude earthquake in PlayStation land.
Poltz
Member
To be fair, Kadokawa own near 70%, Tencent 16% and Sony 14% of Fom Software. It’s not happening.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
There's a new Minecraft game coming out on PS+ even. All I said is Minecraft. There are multiple Minecraft games and they're all multiplatform.
They ported other games like Cuphead and Ori, but that's a different thing really.
GHG
Gold Member
The reason it's not on gamepass or any other sub service (activision could create one of their own, much like how EA and Ubisoft have) is because it doesn't need to be.
They rake in billion's of dollars every single year from selling the game at near full price and that has allowed them to sustain the studios and technology necessary in order to keep on creating new iterations every year. Take away those sales (or a large proportion of them) and they can no longer do that.
Beyond that, for people who don't want to pay full price for the game there's a version that is free to play and allows them to play socially. For people without access to consoles there's a native mobile version.
To put it simply, this acquisition doesn't solve a problem because there isn't one. The general market hasn't signalled in any way that this franchise needs to be on subscription services or that it's business model needs to change. The limited benefit that there would be should the deal go through is for Microsoft and Microsoft alone.
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Ar¢tos
Member
How quick we forget how MS was against crossplay for a whole gen.
Ezekiel_
Banned
We don't know the circumstances pertaining to Minecraft.
Is it multiplatform because that was part of the acquisition agreement with Mojang?
Is Minecraft also on a 10 year deal, so by 2024, no more Minecraft on other devices?
Regulators can ask for all this info and decide if it's relevant to ABK acquisition.
James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
It’s reasonable not to commit beyond 10 years when you have every incentive and reason not do so
It has nothing to do with market conditions. The goal is for CoD to be the exclusive ace up their sleeve
Varteras
Gold Member
It truly never ceases to amaze. Game journalists are collectively considered a joke, rightfully so, because of repeatedly displaying their bias, incompetence, and disconnection. But watch them step in like some kind of authority on something and make a claim someone wants to hear, and miraculously their credibility is restored. We see it play out in reviews all the time. "Gaming journalists are morons". Some game gets a 90+ on their preferred platform. "Yeah? Well journalists think the game is amazing so fuck you!"
Seems like they really have no history of launching highly desired games on competitor platforms then. Whatever these spin offs are, my kids haven't asked to buy any of them. And they play Minecraft all the time.
Mr Moose
Member
You mean when Sony had security issues. Im shocked Microsoft would not want a insecure service to attach to theirs.
2011 PlayStation Network outage - Wikipedia
Final Fantasy XI - Wikipedia
Yes, they could see into the future, 9 years after this cross-play game released.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
I would argue just as bad in a different area. The 360 had a failure rate of close to 25% for the first 2 or so years.
Thirty7ven
Banned
The whole COD on gamepass/Xcloud really is fixing a problem that doesn’t exist. In this case it’s nothing but forcing the market to change, at its peak, just so the company that can bleed the most money gains ground.
Activision would simply agree to financial terms with MS on licensing the game for Gamepass if that made so much business sense. Of course that would probably imply MS paying a truckload of money for all the revenue lost from units unsold.
Activision would simply agree to financial terms with MS on licensing the game for Gamepass if that made so much business sense. Of course that would probably imply MS paying a truckload of money for all the revenue lost from units unsold.
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El Pistolero
Banned
5 on Jez...and a couple on Delsin...
Banjo64
cumsessed
Not only is it unlikely in the extreme, but as if Miyazaki is going to want to be a US corpo slave.
Stamper Bros. left Rare. Mikami left Tango. Most world class creatives want ‘independence’.
Buy From and then the brain and heart behind the operation leaves immediately? Why would anyone with a brain champion that? It’d be a toss up if he’d leave if Sony acquired them, and that’s only because they’re culturally aligned so would have a better chance of keeping him.
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Varteras
Gold Member
SneakersSO
Member
Except MS isn't doing the most, not at all. MS had 2 main issues going into the X1, and 3 main issues going into the Xbox Series launch, of which were just carried over from the last launch and just inherited while adding in an entirely new issue.
1) International Brand Management. Since the onset of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has been able to very clearly note that their brand popularity in any region that is neither NA, with USA being the heaviest market there, and the UK specifically. This is where the Xbox brand is most popular and has the most solid successes in terms of sales in a overarching division history. This is their oldest problem, by far. To be quite frank, this is a problem they simply have never really tried to answer, and part of the reason is because it would involve them opening more HQs specifically for Xbox and hiring capable folks from those regions to begin gathering feedback and creating campaigns and launching initiatives that would right the ship in those regions.
I know some folks will use JP and how MS has never really done well there, but there is a truth we're ignoring here - the 360 was far and away the best selling Xbox HW in that market. Everything MS has done in the region since that early portion of the 360 was to largely just ignore it. Are they playing catch up now and trying to harden the SW support from that region? Sure, absolutely, but thats merely 1 region and market, and they have never tried to actually do things or create campaigns to make the Xbox brand itself more popular in the region. Outside of launches and their first 2 years, they basically stop existing in any market that they aren't already dominating in, which completely clears the way for Sony and Nintendo to serve those audiences exclusively. This is why, even with the most optimal sales forecasts we can give Xbox, they will almost always trail PS 2:1 WW.
2) International Platform Support. There are loads of regions where MS' platform just does not serve it well, whether thats on languages, timely/day 1 releases, etc. This is something they themselves have noted several times. Both Sony and Nintendo have steadily transitioned their gaming platforms into international platforms, with every form of support and maximum effort pushed towards ensuring none of these regions get left behind, and its reflected in both the SW sales and the HW sales. Again, something MS has been aware of since the 360 era, almost nothing done to address this.
3) The third pain point is the games themselves. The first thing to acknowledge here is the efforts MS has put towards improving, whether thats buying up publishers, buying up studios, or attempts to strengthen the production studios they already had. I think its quite clear that their efforts here haven't gone smoothly, but from a project management perspective, I think we need to acknowledge how MS simply dropped the ball on the games they did intend to focus on.
From 2009 to current, Sony has increasingly had an interest in cornering the market on big, show piece AAA SP titles. For most of us observing the industry, its quite easy to see how this came to be - several of the attempts Sony has made in the space over time have all been designed to capitalize on where they feel most releases are happening. They identified late into the PS3's lifecycle that 3rd parties were increasingly going to leave AAA SP experiences to the wayside in pursuit of MP suites and their revenue streams. Nintendo, on the flipside, doubled down on both SP experiences, non-traditional MP experiences, and local co-op experiences.
On the flipside, where MS has decided to dump their budget and marketing into primarily has almost always been core MP experiences. Whether that was their early days of wielding CoD, pushing Halo almost entirely as an MP suite, and the same thing with Gears as well, not to mention several other games. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it unfortunately puts their slate in direction competition with every other MP title that releases, all of whom release on multiple platforms, and until MS changed course on this, were not releasing on Steam day 1. The studio expansions they've done have expanded the realms in which they will be offering games into, but its also kinda clear how they don't market certain experiences that aren't the tradition MP Suite, compared to how they market/advertise games which have loads of MP features.
I do think they are going in the right direction on point 3, but it had more to do with them buying teams that were operating in genre spaces they completely ignored. As for the first 2 points I outlined, they have seemingly done nothing about it while now crying to regulators that they are in not in stronger market positions. Buying ABK does nothing to those first 2 points.
bitbydeath
Gold Member
knocksky
Banned
WTF? Why quote me then go and write a fanboy word salad? What do you think that I want to see Microsoft crush Sony and reign supreme? Are you stupid? They would bend us all over and do everything that I said Sony would.
"You're just trying to make Sony look bad" fucking lol. Again why are you talking about the PS3 and hardware price? These companies ain't ran by the type of morons that would die for them on a forum. The hardware will always be accessible. It's what comes afterwards.
Like I replied to the kid above, I don't Microsoft to oust Sony or vice versa. And neither should any of the clowns clamouring for Microsofts demise either.
GHG
Gold Member
Has Phil been stress eating?
Not sleeping will do that to you and he's stated this whole thing has been keeping him up at night.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Michael Crichton - Wikipedia
demigod
Member
Gobjuduck
Banned
You know who.
demigod
Member
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Little Chicken
Member
So Sony have said that they wouldn't be able to fund first-party titles without the CoD revenue they currently receive. Perhaps they should diversify.
FUBARx89
Member
It sure did.
I wonder what changed this time round ….
Probs the fact it's one of the largest, if not largest tech deals ever.
Phil Spencer running his mouth?
How they acted after Beth closed immediately making everything exclusive.
2 large purchases of third party publishers in quite a short timeframe.
Imagine comparing it to buying Bungie doe.
Lawyers cautiously optimistic over outcome of Microsoft/Activision Blizzard's EC merger review
After a closed hearing at the European Commission (EC) last week, at which Microsoft fought for approval of its proposed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Brussels-based competition lawyers are divided on whether the software giant’s […]
www.equityreport.co.uk
If someone wants to get a free trial or I will post the Ida summary (to some people's dislike)
Draugoth
Gold Member
WTF?
The only way this would happen is if they had to pay 80 billion dollars if the acquisition failed (Nvidia failed acquisition of ARM had to pay 2 billion dollars of $60), which isnt going to happen either way.
bitbydeath
Gold Member
That’s what the CMA has ordered.
Little Chicken
Member
Sorry, I mean that if Sony were to (supposedly, at their own admission) struggle to maintain their current first-party output if their CoD revenue is diminished, then perhaps they should start making different games and diversify genres a little instead of the usual TPS.
Topher
Gold Member
Lawyers cautiously optimistic over outcome of Microsoft/Activision Blizzard's EC merger review
After a closed hearing at the European Commission (EC) last week, at which Microsoft fought for approval of its proposed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Brussels-based competition lawyers are divided on whether the software giant’s […]
If someone wants to get a free trial or I will post the Ida summary (to some people's dislike)
- One lawyer following the case noted that the EC accepted similar remedies last year in Meta's acquisition of Kustomer. This lawyer also expects way more opposition from the CMA, who left the door "barely open".
- A second Brussels-based lawyer believes that the remedies offered by MS will be enough for the EC, noting that the timeline of the EU investigation is almost in step with the CMA: "The CMA is looking at a theory of harm that the EC has already dismissed so there are some differences on the substance, but I would be surprised if the final decisions are fundamentally inconsistent".
- It looks like the EC is only worried about competition being reduced in the markets for the distribution of console/PC games and PC operating systems (nothing about cloud gaming, then).
- The same second lawyer dismisses the concerns regarding COD because recent acquisitions in the audio-visual sector like the 21st Century Fox didn't focused on single money-spinning franchises.
- The second lawyer also says that MS is offering provisions ensuring that Sony gets the game at a discount of the Microsoft price and any new version of the game at the same time as MS.
- Google raised concerns again about the merger creating a very Windows centric environment and developers having to write for Windows. This lawyer believes that the EC has already decided that this concern doesn't make sense.
- A third lawyer believes that the EC identified several competition concerns and fails to see how opening COD to more partners will solve other issues.
- It looks like MS/ABK will propose (to the EC and likely the CMA) an official package that will compromise the offer of a ten-year license for all ABK games. This remedy will be marked tested (as usual) and they expect the acceptance of the majority of the market with one or two exceptions that shouldn't be enough to block the deal, that would go forward with a conditional clearance.
The CMA is still the final boss, but it's starting to sound that the EC and China are going to approve the deal. It's also interesting that the EC maybe is not worried about cloud gaming.
Mr Moose
Member
bitbydeath
Gold Member
Ah, gotcha, they are going in on MP games now, which should change up their library a bit.
EC being more concerned about PC OS vs cloud streaming still feels weird, will be interesting to see if we get any news by Thursday re the CMA meetings
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
FoxMcChief
Gold Member
Guy, I was kidding.
ToadMan
Member
You’re not wrong…
The point of bungie is that it was small enough to fly under the radar and Sony did the right thing by maintaining Bungie’s independence.
Either of which would have saved MS’s embarrassment now.
Imagine being able to work that out for yourself deer
Little Chicken
Member
Where's the irony?
I don't get it at all, both google and Sony had previously done cloud gaming but never went foward because they did very small efforts even if they could have afforded to do more.
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