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[FatKingBallman]

Yeah, how about Xbox/PC gamers are glad Sony isn't going to swoop in and moneyhat another timed exclusive, or exclusive ingame content. Or have you missed this news: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/repo...ls-offered-more-money-than-microsoft.1560435/

LOL.
Comparing some timed exclusives ( like FFXVI, Deathloop, Tokyo) vs. whole publisher acquisition. You can do better. I guess not

 

[FatKingBallman]

They locked up the first 2 announced next generation zenimax games and Starfield was next if Microsoft did not close the deal.

These games are announced as timed exclusives, even before Microsoft bought Zenimax

 

[IntentionalPun]

Company splits in 2; separating their troubled business (Pachinko) with their highly profitable business (Gaming.)

I don't think that's an indication Sega wants to sell off their gaming division. "What we want to do as a company is only own the struggling half of our business, with an unknown future ahead due to COVID potentially mutating. Also gaming is growing rapidly for the same reason (COVID), so lets ditch that market!"

 

[Werewolfgrandma]

So marketing deals are equivalent to first party exclusives now? Cool.

You are late to the party. Lots of current first party studios were bought. Some like Insomniac after having many many successful games

 

[Banjo64]

Oh, nice, name calling. Reported


Yes, and? I've said in one of previous posts : barely produced a single IP before Sony acquired them.

Same :barely produced a single IP before Sony acquired them.

Actually, they've approached Sony for publishing a Sly Cooper


So, they developed games for PC, later for PS platform





Like i've said, these two already developed games for Sony before Sony bought them. Same as Playground games.



Some developer acqusition is Ok. Won't mind, let's applaud to MS for buying a whole publisher. Yaaaaay



Yes, Insomniac already developed many games for PS platform.

Sonys last year acquisition has nothing to do with Sunset Overdrive sequel. LOL Game was released 7 years ago
You, Xbox community, can blame only yourself because you didn't buy the game in enough copies to secure the sequel. You, Xbox community, fucked up this game badly for your platform. You didnd't supported the game enough



Few timed exclusives ( which already would appear on other platform sooner or latter) vs. Publisher acquisition ( locking bunch of games from other platform for good).

Never said it was anything to do with a sequel to SSO. Just highlighting how factually incorrect this statement was;

Insomniac already developed games exclusively for Sony for a veeery long time before acquisition

 

[hemo memo]

Because some Twitter dude said so?

You clearly don’t know who Brad is.

 

[Flintty]

Poor little MS had to defend itself from those Phony timed exclusivity deals, after spending the last few years buying out studios left and right.

Bless you

Few timed exclusives ( which already would appear on other platform sooner or latter) vs. Publisher acquisition ( locking bunch of games from other platform for good).

Yeah, that’s how escalation works. It’s an arms race, you cant be surprised when it escalates. MS just went nuclear early on.

 

[ikbalCO]

I may be a little selfish since before i had an xbox and gamepass sub, i hated these kinda news but now i am a believer and i say...

Buy'em. Buy'em all. Buy'em to hell.

 

[Jokerevo]

To me, the only one that makes sense is Sony and Nintendo.

Can't beat'em? Buy'em.

BUNGIE. THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE HALO FINITE.

 

[FritzJ92]

I'm old enough to know the history of both Sony and Microsoft. Sony is as greedy, predictable and conservative as ever. MS has never really changed their M.O. much in over 3 decades.

The fact that Sony have a smaller budget makes them less of a threat to consumers than a company that can buy anything.

Also, keep in mind, even with all that money, MS just recently tried to double XBLG. How do you think that kind of policy would work out in a world where they really are "the only shop in town"?

I'm not a MS apologist, they tried a very shitty move and I'm glad gamers united against them to force a policy reversal.

Exactly MS did the same thing in the past to create Outlook, Skype, Word dominance, and it's always their strategy book.
Start something, build it up, then buy your competition or buy your userbase then expand, they are also predictable.

Also, Sony's budget most definitely makes them a threat to consumers, it all depends on what side you play on.
Their budget limits them, but paying for exclusivity for Street Fighter Exclusivity for a whole generation is pretty anticonsumer if you ask me.

 

[Moridianae]

Hot facetious take:

Microsoft be like "We can't really compete, so fuck you, we'll just pull a Bruce Wayne and buy everyone."

 

[Naked Lunch]

Its gotta be some kind of Japanese studio.
Still a major omision in their lineup.

 

[FatKingBallman]

Never said it was anything to do with a sequel to SSO. Just highlighting how factually incorrect this statement was;

Insomniac already developed games exclusively for Sony for a veeery long time before acquisition

Factually is correct, before acquisition, before Sunset Overdrive. They developed games for Sony for a veeeery time. After Sunset, they've developed Ratchet and Spiderman. So, factually is correct no matter how you want to cut it

 

[Wizz-Art]

There's no reason to be upset PS warriors! I heard everyone of you also owns a more then capable PC. You can subscribe to Game Pass on PC or buy the future games outright on the MS store and maybe on steam. Or just get a XSX when they're available.

 

[FatKingBallman]

Its gotta be some kind of Japanese studio.

That would be a problem.

 

[Sneakysnake]

I hear they are going to announce that they acquired Sega on Wednesday.

 

[FatKingBallman]

Their budget limits them, but paying for exclusivity for Street Fighter Exclusivity for a whole generation is pretty anticonsumer if you ask me.

It is. But more than 5 years ago, according to Capcoms statement, they didn't had enough resources to start developing Street Fighter. Then Sony stepped in. Anyway, that's crap compared to whole publisher

 

[Yselacrey00]

Would be cool if they used their money to actually build and enhance their own studios so we get more games. Seems all they are is paying bilions of money to just keep PS owners from games.

As someone who has a PC, this is a waste to me since I’d be getting these games anyway.

Exactly. It would be a lot more exciting if microsoft would develop new franchises instead of just buying them. What's new about buying an studio? Nothing except for the fact that now you'll need to buy an xbox.

 

[driqe]

BUNGIE. THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE HALO FINITE.

shit tier take

 

[Snake29]

Exactly. It would be a lot more exciting if microsoft would develop new franchises instead of just buying them. What's new about buying an studio? Nothing except for the fact that now you'll need to buy an xbox.

Microsoft is creative with spending money. They are not creative developing new games with their existing studios. People really want to see the game industry destroyed by a company that can't even manage their existing studios.

People are cheap these days because they want "free" games and come up with that Gamepass excuse everytime, but that doesn't mean quality games.

 

[ZywyPL]

Size in terms of studios/IPs or funds, that's the question.

 

[Andodalf]

Imagine saying that financing a game and enabling teams to have higher budgets and team sizes is a WORSE thing than paying for games THAT ARE ALREADY MADE to just not come out on a certain platforms for a year. Wow I don't know how you can either be so dim or lie so blatantly.

 

[yurinka]

I'd say Valve. They almost don't develop games, but have some good IPs, would give MS almost the monopoly of the (western) PC game stores and a VR system or the Xbox.

Then there's WB games, they have some important dev studios, IPs and I assume decent pricing.

A 3rd option is CD Project, who still have to prove they can release a game on consoles that isn't basically broken, don't have any IP owned by them, only released a few gmes and their PC store is pretty small. But they sell many copies of their games, have potential to improve if they replace all their management team and their price should be pretty 'cheap' for MS after all this Cyberpunk launch debacle.

Ubisoft?

EA would be a bad purchase. Too tied into licensed IP that has to be multi platform. I think they should buy Ubisoft.

They gotta buy Ubisoft, Game Pass needs more generic filler

Ubisoft is doing great being independent, and they fought hard to not being purchased, so won't sell the company.

In addition to this, one of the keys of Ubisoft success is supporting all gaming platforms and having deals with all platform holders. It would be too rare to see them changing that.

And well, to buy Ubisoft would be way more expensive than to buy Bethesda. They have a big market cap, a ton of big selling and popular IPs and dozens of development studios with over 18000 workers. Too expensive for MS, at least compared to Bethesda.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

It's better than that Chinese company buys all the game developers in the west.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Not even remotely the same thing. All the studios Sony purchased were already making games for PS. They formed a partnership first. That’s the way Sony decides if they want buy a studio. They still do the same thing today and what Jim Ryan means by organic growth. Plus creating their own studios.

MS buys 3rd party multi platform developers instead instead of spending money on building new studios. The only studios they’ve done this with is The Initiative. All the rest are 3rd party.

Yeah cause ms and Bethesda hadn't been partnered for like every Bethesda game. Just because they didn't money hat exclusive doesn't mean they were not partnered. You are making shit up so one is bad and the other is good when actually both pretty equal.

So marketing deals are equivalent to first party exclusives now? Cool.

You are late to the party. Lots of current first party studios were bought. Some like Insomniac after having many many successful games

I don't understand what your comment has to do with the rest of this conversation? On Demand rightly pointed out that Sony typically only buys studios with whom it has an extensive history, and usually after said developer had made several exclusives for them, whereas MS in the last few years has mostly bought developers who developed multi-platform titles. (Not that I think there is a problem with this because as I stated earlier, most of these devs like Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Double Fine and inXile needed the cash injection). You then intimated that they had been "partnered" for "like every Bethesda game", which only encompasses marketing deals and I don't even think is true for "every Bethesda game" given that includes stuff like Doom, Prey, Dishonored, Wolfenstein and Rage which I don't even think had first-party co-marketing.

You then said "lots of current first party studios were bought". Thank you for the information although I was already aware of that, however I don't see how that is relevant to the discussion. I think most reasonable people don't have an issue with most of the new studios MS bought a few years ago, for reasons pointed out above. However, buying a massive multi-billion dollar publisher who releases everything on all major platforms is a very different thing to buying a small AA or indie studio who was stuggling financially.

 

[BabyfaceRe]

well that's worrisome :-/

edit: and before we get Xbox fanboys in here cheering about it because of Game Pass, the problem is this is the start

you're happy now but what about when Sony responds? or worse when Google & Amazon start buying up publishers because they don't want to risk Microsoft getting everything

now you have a future where you have to have Amazon Luna to play Ubisoft games & Google Stadia for Activision Blizzard while Microsoft owns Bethesda & EA with Sony having snatched up Square-Enix

it's bad for the industry & gamers

Sony literally cant respond. Sony's entire net worth is 45 billion, they are not in a position(and never will be) where they can drop 7.5 billion on buying a publisher . Microsoft is literally in a league of thier own ,all Sony and Nintendo can do is sit back and watch.
That's why phil said a long time ago thier real competitor's are amazing and google because they are the only ones who can compete on this monetary level.
The game pass bubble will inevitably burst but they've easily got enough steam to keep growing over this gen.

 

[Interfectum]

well that's worrisome :-/

edit: and before we get Xbox fanboys in here cheering about it because of Game Pass, the problem is this is the start

you're happy now but what about when Sony responds? or worse when Google & Amazon start buying up publishers because they don't want to risk Microsoft getting everything

now you have a future where you have to have Amazon Luna to play Ubisoft games & Google Stadia for Activision Blizzard while Microsoft owns Bethesda & EA with Sony having snatched up Square-Enix

it's bad for the industry & gamers

Whether MS buys up publishers or not it's going to happen anyway. You think Amazon, Apple, Tencent, etc will hold off if MS isn't buying? lol?

I'd much rather have MS buy publishers than Amazon or Google as, at the very least, MS has been serious about gaming for years. Apple, Amazon and Google could get bored after a year and destroy the publisher they bought.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Imagine saying that financing a game and enabling teams to have higher budgets and team sizes is a WORSE thing than paying for games THAT ARE ALREADY MADE to just not come out on a certain platforms for a year. Wow I don't know how you can either be so dim or lie so blatantly.

Yes, poor tiny multi-billion corporation Zenimax Media obviously needed the cash boost. Those low-budget crappy games with no marketing budget like Doom, Fallout and Dishonored clearly need the support of a bigger publisher.

 

[Adam_802]

love the salt in here haha

 

[Andodalf]

If anyone thinks MS and Beth didn't have an incredibly close partnership, you are either new to things or didn't pay attention.

Spoiler: Todd Howard's Letter when the Acquisition was announced

I have had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.
I have been incredibly blessed to spend my entire career at, and help build, one of the best places to make games in the world - Bethesda.
And I’ve had the joy of doing it with some of the most talented, humble, and passionate people there are. They are part of my family, and my good friends. I have also had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.


Today we join them, and I wanted to share some personal thoughts on what it means and our shared vision.
The trajectory of Xbox, and the trajectory of Bethesda, in many ways have gone hand in hand.
From our beginning, we had primarily been a PC developer. In 1999, two things happened. One, Bethesda became part of a brand-new startup - ZeniMax Media. And Microsoft started development of their first video game console - The Xbox. I can remember my first trip to Redmond to discuss the new system and bringing our next game, Morrowind, to the Xbox.

I was dubious Xbox Morrowind would be worth the time, somewhat on a technical level, but more so from taking a hardcore RPG and moving it from a PC desktop experience to a controller-and-sofa experience. If we made it work, would people want it?
Microsoft and their new Xbox crew had a view, that I came to share completely. Shouldn’t we allow anyone to have this experience? Why does it matter where the screen is or what the controller is? There are many people without the same access, and we can bring it to them.
Morrowind would go on to become one of the best-selling Xbox games of all time, behind Halo, another PC style game some said wouldn’t work. Its success paved the way for the growth of our company, and proved the point - people wanted this experience, regardless of device.

Microsoft quickly let us in on their next system, the Xbox 360. More than a PC port, our aim with our next game, Oblivion, was to usher in the next generation of gaming. With each game, from Fallout 3 to Skyrim, our studio and company grew, adding brilliant and like-minded studios across the globe. All of us sharing in the belief that expanding the reach of gaming was fundamental, whether it was on a pc, console, your phone, or the cloud.
With each new console cycle, we evolved together. From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S. These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since Oblivion, with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.

Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone - regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one
We can’t think of a better group of people to do that with than those at Xbox. We have friendships that go back to those original days. From Phil to his senior leaders to developer support, they don’t just talk about putting players first, they passionately live it.

At Bethesda, we’ve been lucky enough to create games we love, and have an audience who loves them as much as we do. I have personally been humbled by the many industry honors I have received, as they belong to the entire studio. But one has always stood out to me for a special reason. When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, I joked in my acceptance “I wonder how many achievement points this one is worth?” At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they’d find out. A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account. When ran, it unlocks a single achievement - “Lifetime - 1000pts.” It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time.

It has been a lifetime. But there’s more to come and achievements to unlock together. We hope you join us.
All the best,
Todd
Todd Howard
Bethesda Game Studios

Todd Howard has made it clear many times that he feels Xbox saved Bethesda. He had a great podcast with Major, Pete, and Phil where he talks about what they'd done together. How his and Bethesda's first time on an E3 stage was with MS and it also went badly. How they threw a party after they convinced MS to double the Ram in the 360. A great listen!






You can be partners without making fake "First Party" titles

 

[MonarchJT]

15 years? Absolutely not. Will The Initiative take 15 years before it produces games that will join GamePass?

guys do not open 30+ studios to meet the need for gamepass in 5 years maybe even in 10... just to attract talents, set the correct Mood, integrate and choose a project and start working ... this gen would already be over. let's not talk nonsense

 

[Bryank75]

Sony literally cant respond. Sony's entire net worth is 45 billion, they are not in a position(and never will be) where they can drop 7.5 billion on buying a publisher . Microsoft is literally in a league of thier own ,all Sony and Nintendo can do is sit back and watch.
That's why phil said a long time ago thier real competitor's are amazing and google because they are the only ones who can compete on this monetary level.
The game pass bubble will inevitably burst but they've easily got enough steam to keep growing over this gen.

Sony Net Worth 2006-2020 | SNE

Interactive chart of historical net worth (market cap) for Sony (SNE) over the last 10 years. How much a company is worth is typically represented by its market capitalization, or the current stock price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. Sony net worth as of February 26, 2021 is...

www.macrotrends.net

 

[mitch1971]

Is it wednesday already?

 

[phil_t98]

Why is it whenever Microsoft do something there is uproar on here?

they launch gamepass and the amount of threads is unreal

they inform the shareholders they have 18 million subscribers and here all hell breaks loose with people saying Microsoft are lying

Microsoft buys studios and there is thread after thread about how this is bad

yet we have people praising PSnow because you can play PS4 games on there and what not

Sony buys studios/exclusive rights and it’s seen positively or again used to bash Microsoft.

compition is good and keeps Sony on their toes

 

[fermcr]

Microsoft is going to purchase Tencent.

 

[martino]

If anyone thinks MS and Beth didn't have an incredibly close partnership, you are either new to things or didn't pay attention.





Todd Howard has made it clear many times that he feels Xbox saved Bethesda. He had a great podcast with Major, Pete, and Phil where he talks about what they'd done together. How his and Bethesda's first time on an E3 stage was with MS and it also went badly. How they threw a party after they convinced MS to double the Ram in the 360. A great listen!






You can be partners without making fake "First Party" titles

Did you expect him to say the company made wrong choices and needed the money ?

 

[FatKingBallman]

Sony buys studios/exclusive rights and it’s seen positively or again used to bash Microsoft

Nice try, Phil. You, Phil also buying exclusive rights per game, but also you boght the whole publisher, Phil. Times exclusive rights from Sony is a peanut compared what you did

 

[Gatox]

So Sega have split in 2 basically, one side is the video gaming division and the other is the Auxiliary works such as Pachinko and arcade etc....how interesting......
https://www.aroged.com/2021/01/29/s...ame-division-detached-from-pachinko-and-more/

 

[phil_t98]

Nice try, Phil. You, Phil also buying exclusive rights per game, but also you boght the whole publisher, Phil. Times exclusive rights from Sony is a peanut compared what you did

Again it’s not like Sony have neve bought studios to keep them exclusive.

you know what am saying. , look at all the gamepass Threads lol

look at the threads when Microsoft paid for 12 month exclusivity of Tomb raider lol the threads were unreal lol

 

[FritzJ92]

It is. But more than 5 years ago, according to Capcoms statement, they didn't had enough resources to start developing Street Fighter. Then Sony stepped in. Anyway, that's crap compared to whole publisher

It's crap, but trying to paint one evil and a nicer evil is a moot point. Both practice equally detrimental business tactics, except MS shockwaves goes further because they have the money and financial backing to play in a different league.

 

[Varteras]

"They'll probably make an announcement a year from now"

 

[phil_t98]

Nice try, Phil. You, Phil also buying exclusive rights per game, but also you boght the whole publisher, Phil. Times exclusive rights from Sony is a peanut compared what you did

as I said

Who should SONY buy?

Sony will either Invest more money into their studios and up their capacity for more new games Invest more money into their studios and up their capacity for more paid remasters Hopefully its a blend of both

www.neogaf.com

respsonses are completely different when Sony are in talks to do it

 

[NullZ3r0]

So will MS pay $10 billion dollars this time for timed exclusives like they're supposedly doing with Bethesda?

Seriously though. You will be paying a subscription to play all the videogames you want.

 

[FatKingBallman]

Again it’s not like Sony have neve bought studios to keep them exclusive

The majority of studios which Sony acquired they've already developed games for Sony exclusively before acquisition, like i've already said to you i one of the previous posts, same as Playground Games was for Microsoft

 

[Andodalf]

Did you expect him to say the company made wrong choices and needed the money ?

Yeah I guess he was playing the long con when he worked with them in 2000, already knowing this acquisition would happen

 

[EverydayBeast]

I don’t see how these deals make M$ any stronger...

 

[Gatox]

The majority of studios which Sony acquired they've already developed games for Sony exclusively before acquisition,

I've seen this written a lot, but why does it matter if they had made games for Sony or MS before, why does that make it more palatable? There`s hundreds (if not thousands) of devs who made a game for one platform, maybe 2 games, possibly even 3 but then went on to make games for lots of other platforms in their future. That opportunity is now lost because Sony/MS or whoever have bought a dev, just because they once made a game for them doesnt suddenly mean it has less impact.

 

[NullZ3r0]

wtf are you doing jim ryan

 

[phil_t98]

The majority of studios which Sony acquired they've already developed games for Sony exclusively before acquisition, like i've already said to you i one of the previous posts, same as Playground Games was for Microsoft

Insomniac had a fair few games on other formats, pc, 360 and Xbox one

it doesn’t matter anyway Microsoft have the money to do what they did but according to a lot of threads on here they didn’t like the games produced by the company’s Microsoft just bought to no loss to PS really

 

[dyergram]

Not a single one of these insiders predicted the Bethesda acquisition yet the all predict another one? Ms basically said there in the market to buy I can’t see them buying anything for that much money for a minute I personally hope they don’t as it will be terrible for the industry on the whole.