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Sony was Activision Blizzard’s largest customer by revenue in 2020, with Microsoft ranking fourth

Infamy v1

Member
What I am saying is:

Putting candy crush on Xbox wouldn't be the win Xbox needs right now.

People have meme #CryingJim. It's fucking funny. But Jim has to do so. Anything favoring CoD on Xbox will make Jimbo poop his pants of anger and frustration.

I don't think many here realize the potential of Candy Crush in the Xbox ecosystem. Shit, while Jimbo is crying about benevolent CoD deals, Xbox will probably be happy to extend the CoD deal from 3 to 5 if really pushed because nobody is looking or talking about King.

King rakes in billions upon billions from microtransactions. Imagine for a second that Microsoft advertises Game Pass to those hundreds of millions of people that spend money in Candy Crush, saying that you can get those same microtransactions as a monthly perk (this already exists with games like PSO2, ESO, and many more games) for an initial price of $1 for 1-3 months. Everybody and their mothers will jump on that deal, even before seeing the Game Pass catalog, which is incredibly appealing to a casual (just going off CoD, Madden, NBA2K, Fifa, etc. alone).

Either those people stay in the ecosystem for the perks, for the games, spend more money on other games, spread word of mouth to other people in their groups, or just never turn off auto-renewal and get charged $15/mo. King alone is going to be massively bigger for Game Pass than CoD, hence why MS is using CoD as a blinder since day one. Funny thing is, regulators aren't even batting an eyelash at King (even whilst mentioning potential Game Pass dominance with ABK) because no other publishers have a problem with this deal going through except Sony, who is solely hellbent on CoD.
Does Microsoft have a platform other than Xbox I wonder? 🤔 🪟🪟
You don't know what you're talking about. Microsoft doesn't make money for games sold on Windows unless it's in their store and who would buy CoD on the Windows store lmao.
 
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Cyborg

Member
About that

24,87 billion for PlayStation
15,3 billion for Xbox

(calendar year 2021)

Install base
117 + 21 million PS4 + PS5 consoles
vs.
50 + 15 million Xbox One + Series X/S consoles

Still it does not make very much of a sense right? And basically confirms what Activision reports. That average Xbox customer is spending more than PS customer.
Well if you don't know the split (or percentage) between PS4-PS5 (and XboxOne - Series) in sales you can't present your statement as a fact.
 

Neofire

Member
I find it interesting that PS4 outsold Xbox One almost 2,5:1 and yet Activision got 17% of revenue from Sony and 11% of revenue from Microsoft.
So, Activision got way more money from average Xbox customer then from PlayStation customer?
Oh boy, I want to but I'm going to leave this for someone else lol.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
MS over performing again here. Anything greater than 7.5% is not a bad result for them.

It should also put into perspective the idea that MS would need Sony's customers to maintain a profitable business, 85% of that money would still be there. They'd still be in the black by a good amount.
 
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Rykan

Member
Haha gave me a laugh.

You think that Sony are putting out a more diverse variety of games? Where are your proper RPGs, Sims, RTS, Metroidvanias, Arcade racers, etc etc?

Seems to me that Sony focus mainly on 3rd person action adventures with only really GT as a multi entry game that sits outside of that genre. There are one or two others such as Astro, Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars but these are quite few and far between and usually much smaller titles.
It's not that Playstation games have a larger variaty of taste, its that the PS4 appealed to a larger variaty of people than the Xbox one did.

Here's the reasons why people purchased an Xbox One over a PS4:

- You simply switched over from Xbox 360 to the next Xbox. Considering that Xbox 360 was the largest platform for Call of Duty, there's a good chance you're into Call of Duty.
- You're into MS's exclusives games and their largest franchises are Halo, Gears and Forza.

It's not unreasonable to assume that Xbox One audience was mostly made out of dedicated shooter enthusiasts because for everyone else..well, why wouldn't you get a PS4 over an Xbox one?
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Haha gave me a laugh.

You think that Sony are putting out a more diverse variety of games? Where are your proper RPGs, Sims, RTS, Metroidvanias, Arcade racers, etc etc?

Seems to me that Sony focus mainly on 3rd person action adventures with only really GT as a multi entry game that sits outside of that genre. There are one or two others such as Astro, Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars but these are quite few and far between and usually much smaller titles.
Sackboy - Platformer
Guilty Gear Strive - Fighter
Gran Turismo 7 - Racer
Stray - Puzzle?
Horizon Forbidden West - Action RPG
Returnal - Rogue shooter
Ratchet and Clank - Action adventure
DNF Duel - Fighter
Sword and Fairy - JRPG
F.I.S.T - Side scroller
Astro's Playroom - Platformer
Sifu - Beat em up?
 

CeeJay

Member
It's not that Playstation games have a larger variaty of taste, its that the PS4 appealed to a larger variaty of people than the Xbox one did.

Here's the reasons why people purchased an Xbox One over a PS4:

- You simply switched over from Xbox 360 to the next Xbox. Considering that Xbox 360 was the largest platform for Call of Duty, there's a good chance you're into Call of Duty.
- You're into MS's exclusives games and their largest franchises are Halo, Gears and Forza.

It's not unreasonable to assume that Xbox One audience was mostly made out of dedicated shooter enthusiasts because for everyone else..well, why wouldn't you get a PS4 over an Xbox one?
These are quite different points compared to the post I replied to but seeing as it wasn't you i replied to I won't accuse you of moving the goal posts. To a large extent I do agree with you and so did many other gamers who chose the PS4 hence the huge gulf in sales. Personally I didn't own a 360 but did buy a XB1 and now own a SeriesX. I am not into shooters in any way shape or form and very rarely play them so the reason I bought an Xbox One was that I wanted to play Forza 5 which was a launch game and knew that a Forza Horizon would be coming down the line. Also (and I know i'm in a minority here) I thought the Kinect looked really futuristic and like a unique next gen feature. A console that signs me in by my face alone and I can talk to it, take my money! Back in 2013 that was revolutionary and I wanted to experience that. Other than that I knew the two consoles were similarly matched and would both get all the same 3rd party games.
 

yurinka

Member
Apple and Google leading in percentage for 2021? So COD mobile is making more money than the console versions? 🤯
Activision also has King, who makes very successful games like Candy Crash.

Regarding CoD, a year or so again they said $3B in a year, a new record for the IP. And also mentioned that $1B of that was from CoD mobile.
 

CeeJay

Member
Sackboy - Platformer
Guilty Gear Strive - Fighter
Gran Turismo 7 - Racer
Stray - Puzzle?
Horizon Forbidden West - Action RPG
Returnal - Rogue shooter
Ratchet and Clank - Action adventure
DNF Duel - Fighter
Sword and Fairy - JRPG
F.I.S.T - Side scroller
Astro's Playroom - Platformer
Sifu - Beat em up?
Lots of third party games there with a lot of newer ones that are currently timed exclusive and will come to Xbox. But, this list kinda proves my point, mostly lower budget third party gets and not the most popular games that Playstation is famed for. Anything third party multiplatform is not a differentiator.

Notice how you omitted the big games from your list;

TLOU
Uncharted
God Of War
Spiderman

also Horizon; its pushing it to call it an RPG, 3rd Person Action Adventure with some RPG lite elements at best. That's like calling the Division or Tomb Raider an RPG.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Lots of third party games there with a lot of newer ones that are currently timed exclusive and will come to Xbox. But, this list kinda proves my point, mostly lower budget third party gets and not the most popular games that Playstation is famed for. Anything third party multiplatform is not a differentiator.

Notice how you omitted the big games from your list;

TLOU
Uncharted
God Of War
Spiderman

also Horizon; its pushing it to call it an RPG, 3rd Person Action Adventure with some RPG lite elements at best. That's like calling the Division or Tomb Raider an RPG.
They're exclusive to PlayStation until they're confirmed for other consoles just like Final Fantasy 7

And all of those games are different

God of War is way different from Spider-man which is way different from Uncharted, so on and so forth

Horizon Forbidden West is definitely an action RPG, Guerrilla Games describes it as such on their website
 
While I somewhat agree, the disparity is still very odd bevause your argument applies both ways.

Its a stupid argument. Just cause ps has a bigger audience, it doesn't mean every game is gonna have the same split. Cod is still huge on xbox and still has that association from the 360 days and is actually one of games that has the smallest split between them.
 

NickFire

Member
King rakes in billions upon billions from microtransactions. Imagine for a second that Microsoft advertises Game Pass to those hundreds of millions of people that spend money in Candy Crush, saying that you can get those same microtransactions as a monthly perk (this already exists with games like PSO2, ESO, and many more games) for an initial price of $1 for 1-3 months. Everybody and their mothers will jump on that deal, even before seeing the Game Pass catalog, which is incredibly appealing to a casual (just going off CoD, Madden, NBA2K, Fifa, etc. alone).

Either those people stay in the ecosystem for the perks, for the games, spend more money on other games, spread word of mouth to other people in their groups, or just never turn off auto-renewal and get charged $15/mo. King alone is going to be massively bigger for Game Pass than CoD, hence why MS is using CoD as a blinder since day one. Funny thing is, regulators aren't even batting an eyelash at King (even whilst mentioning potential Game Pass dominance with ABK) because no other publishers have a problem with this deal going through except Sony, who is solely hellbent on CoD.
I could see mobile gamers getting sucked into a sweet deal and forgetting auto-renew. That is essentially the business model for tons of mobile games my kids have been suckered into downloading before I added a parental approval restriction for even "free apps." But the chances that people get suckered into it while playing candy crush, and then decide to buy a high end pc / console and play the good stuff? Not so good.

As an aside, its not that surprising that regulators are less concerned by King. They are HUGE but not about to block other people from thinking up other fidget spinner type of games like Candy Crush. Now maybe if MS was creating a new cell phone and banning King from Iphones and other droids there would be a deeper look. But even that seems unlikely as the chances people say no more Iphone since floppy bird isn't there are less than 1%. In other words, there is far less risk that consumers get burned by competitors getting locked out of the marketplace.

Finally, I'm not predicting the deal fails based on what I have read. But I don't see how this particular news supports approving the deal at all. I would think regulators have lots of questions about why someone claims they want to expand access to gamers by intentionally cutting out the biggest market for the biggest non-mobile game. The complete lack of consistency between claim and intended conduct is highly relevant when trying to determine if an approval makes the risk of a monopoly increase. It is what it is.
 

Godot25

Banned
Or PS customer has more options to spent his money e.g. more games to play means less people spend all they time in one or two games. In 2020 When the TLoU2, GoT, DS etc came people that had Playstation could buy a new games while the Xbox owners were scratching theirs balls until they bled or made bullshit claims like yours.
What? That comparison is entire revenue of PS vs. XBOX in comparison of userbase. Since Sony has more first party games, more games in general and more choice I would expect that revenue will be at least double of that Xbox
 

SLB1904

Banned
Sackboy - Platformer
Guilty Gear Strive - Fighter
Gran Turismo 7 - Racer
Stray - Puzzle?
Horizon Forbidden West - Action RPG
Returnal - Rogue shooter
Ratchet and Clank - Action adventure
DNF Duel - Fighter
Sword and Fairy - JRPG
F.I.S.T - Side scroller
Astro's Playroom - Platformer
Sifu - Beat em up?
F.I.S.T is so good. Very underrated
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Sackboy - Platformer
Guilty Gear Strive - Fighter
Gran Turismo 7 - Racer
Stray - Puzzle?
Horizon Forbidden West - Action RPG
Returnal - Rogue shooter
Ratchet and Clank - Action adventure
DNF Duel - Fighter
Sword and Fairy - JRPG
F.I.S.T - Side scroller
Astro's Playroom - Platformer
Sifu - Beat em up?
On paper Sony has so different genres and titles, but for some reason they just don't interest me.

Personal opinion and all.

I believe, as someone who played playstation 1 and 2, I'm just farigued from these franchises, with some just not interesting me like horizon.

It's not just a Sony thing though.

I'm also burned out on gears of War, halo, and Forza (which is because I'm fatigued by car games in general).

The more I think about it, the more I'm in general fatigued by gaming.

I try some gwg games, game pass, atm playing destiny 2,and I don't give a f about upcoming or current titles.

What a boring ass I am.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Most of the shoot bang crowd owns an xbox while the Playstation crowd plays more variety of games with a diverse taste.

Worth pointing out that people used to say this in the 360 generation when MS had the COD marketing and outsold PS3 by significant amounts in North America.

These days, with PlayStation holding COD marketing, sales leadership in North America and Xbox Gamepass being a thing since 2018, I’m not sure how valid this statement is 😀
 

Fbh

Member
As a mostly playstation gamer I actually love the Activision acquisition from MS. I hope it goes through and they make COD exclusive soon.
It puts pressure on Sony to be less shitty while not taking away any games I care about.
 

Rykan

Member
These are quite different points compared to the post I replied to but seeing as it wasn't you i replied to I won't accuse you of moving the goal posts. To a large extent I do agree with you and so did many other gamers who chose the PS4 hence the huge gulf in sales. Personally I didn't own a 360 but did buy a XB1 and now own a SeriesX. I am not into shooters in any way shape or form and very rarely play them so the reason I bought an Xbox One was that I wanted to play Forza 5 which was a launch game and knew that a Forza Horizon would be coming down the line. Also (and I know i'm in a minority here) I thought the Kinect looked really futuristic and like a unique next gen feature. A console that signs me in by my face alone and I can talk to it, take my money! Back in 2013 that was revolutionary and I wanted to experience that. Other than that I knew the two consoles were similarly matched and would both get all the same 3rd party games.
I thought the Kinect looked really awesome as well and I still think that it has a lot of potential, for both "casual" and core games alike. Imagine something like say, Ring Fit Adventure but it also makes use of the Kinect in addition to the ring. I wish MS would have subsidized the Kinect so that the Xbox one's launch price would have stayed competitive with that of the PS4's. I think the console landscape would have looked very differently if they had.
 
Sackboy - Platformer
Guilty Gear Strive - Fighter
Gran Turismo 7 - Racer
Stray - Puzzle?
Horizon Forbidden West - Action RPG
Returnal - Rogue shooter
Ratchet and Clank - Action adventure
DNF Duel - Fighter
Sword and Fairy - JRPG
F.I.S.T - Side scroller
Astro's Playroom - Platformer
Sifu - Beat em up?
maxi pad GIF by AwesomenessTV
 

MilkyJoe

Member
Who gives a damn about this obscure metric? Like so what? Most of the shoot bang crowd owns an xbox while the Playstation crowd plays more variety of games with a diverse taste.

All that matters are the total revenue at the end of the day and the Playstation is king. Unit sales matter and this is the reason why it matters.
Exactly they gave a huge variety of 3rd person shooters!
 
I find it interesting that PS4 outsold Xbox One almost 2,5:1 and yet Activision got 17% of revenue from Sony and 11% of revenue from Microsoft.
So, Activision got way more money from average Xbox customer then from PlayStation customer?
Yeah, how did they only get 6% more than Microsoft with 2.5x the install base? Looks bad for Sony in comparison here.

If you two aren't already in the PR business... you guys should. This is the exactly way I would spin this news. Always, and I mean always see the positive and never let them see you bleed.
 
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Considering Playstation outsold Xbox by more than 2 to 1 worldwide, isn't a difference of only $890 million compared to $1.37 billion PRETTY damn impressive for Xbox considering the deficit? Almost like the attach rate for COD on Xbox could be higher. That said, have no idea what it is in the years where Xbox accounted for less than 10%.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
What I am saying is:

Putting candy crush on Xbox wouldn't be the win Xbox needs right now.
That's because people keep looking at this in terms of the company that sells the most plastic boxes wins. But that's playground thinking. The goal here is to maximize revenue and that's what King does for Microsoft. No company reaches the point where they're making enough money that new revenue doesn't matter. Sony snd Microsoft don't care about morons on message boards fighting about the number of consoles sold. That's not what makes someone the winner any more.
 
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Sounds like, when Microsoft buys Activision, that Sony will be Microsoft’s biggest customer. You know, like when they sell Minecraft to PlayStation users.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
On paper Sony has so different genres and titles, but for some reason they just don't interest me.

Personal opinion and all.

I believe, as someone who played playstation 1 and 2, I'm just farigued from these franchises, with some just not interesting me like horizon.

It's not just a Sony thing though.

I'm also burned out on gears of War, halo, and Forza (which is because I'm fatigued by car games in general).

The more I think about it, the more I'm in general fatigued by gaming.

I try some gwg games, game pass, atm playing destiny 2,and I don't give a f about upcoming or current titles.

What a boring ass I am.
That sucks bro. Sometimes I try games I'm not that interested in and actually end up liking them way more than I imagined
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
That's because people keep looking at this in terms of the company that sells the most plastic boxes wins. But that's playground thinking. The goal here is to maximize revenue and that's what King does for Microsoft. No company reaches the point where they're making enough money that new revenue doesn't matter. Sony snd Microsoft don't care about morons on message boards fighting about the number of consoles sold. That's not what makes someone the winner any more.
We'll still be on here determining a winner from who sold the most consoles though, it's tradition
 
MS over performing again here. Anything greater than 7.5% is not a bad result for them.

It should also put into perspective the idea that MS would need Sony's customers to maintain a profitable business, 85% of that money would still be there. They'd still be in the black by a good amount.
And that 85% would be the bare minimum. Warzone, for example, will stay on PS indefinitely, I guarantee it.
 

Infamy v1

Member
If you two aren't already in the PR business... you guys should. This is the exactly way I would spin this news. Always, and I mean always see the positive and never let them see you bleed.

Explain how a console that got outsold almost 2.5 to 1 making just 6% less revenue is them "bleeding."

I'll wait.

Goes to show that digital sales account for way more than certain folk wish to believe and is foreshadowing the subscription era (whether we like it or not) upon us.
 
Explain how a console that got outsold almost 2.5 to 1 making just 6% less revenue is them "bleeding."

I'll wait.

Goes to show that digital sales account for way more than certain folk wish to believe and is foreshadowing the subscription era (whether we like it or not) upon us.
:messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Yo... homie. I gave you a compliment. Count to 10, breath... and relax. Go get a beer. Some of y'all take this shit way too seriously.
 
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