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[lucius]

I hope EA is next even if it’s a year or more from now, Dragon Age and Mass Effect would be better off. I rather have Microsoft controlling those ips than what might happen.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Microsoft buying Sony for 200B

 

[Dick Jones]

I stopped buying Activision over Bobby Kotick so today makes no difference to me. I never bought Crash 4 due to their shit. Hopefully they sack that fat cunt. If I see Bobby has a job after merger I'll be disappointed in Phil.

 

[Stuart360]

I wonder if this will force Sony's hand in allowing Gamepass onto Playstation. It wont be a good look having your rivals service on Playstation but its going to get to the point where they may just have to.

 

[mckmas8808]

Yup....this is an absolute power move that will shake up the industry for decades. BUT more than that...this is not a move against Sony. Its a move against Apple. Microsoft made this investment as to further take over the living room and the office/PC.

This is 100% a move AGAINST Sony. Don't lie to yourself and others here on GAF. Just stop it!

 

[Kenpachii]

I would not be shocked if microsoft is going to buy out as much publishers as they can now they are still relative cheap for them.

I can see EA / take who/ square enix / ubisoft / capcom all being bought up.

 

[Effigenius]

It's a catch-22 though. If you keep selling Call of Duty on PlayStation, then it will enable PlayStation to continue outselling you in the hardware department. You're also giving your competition 30% of your digital sales on their platform, even for DLC and microtransactions purchases.

It's a lot of money to leave on the table, but my guess is that this year's Call of Duty will arrive as expected on PS5 but that next year (after the ink dries on the sale) it'll be Xbox exclusive. That gives people almost two years to be prepared as well.

These are good points, but I think MS needs to be careful not to devalue the IP. Halo used to be the king of the FPS genre but it got overtaken by call of duty. The ability to play CoD on any system is a big reason for this. If you take CoD off of PS5, some users will move to XBox but a ton more will simply move over to Battlefield or Fortnite or whatever the next thing is. All they will do is make the other ip stronger and weaken the one they just spent $74 billion on.

 

[zcaa0g]

lol ok. Like the Bethesda deal, changes nothing for me.

They don't care about the minority such as you.

 

[CamHostage]

The best, as always...

 

[Durask]

what the hell does the gaming landscape look like in 5 years is anyones guess right now. everything will be exclusive somewhere and there will be no more multiplatform. want to play some of your favourite japanese ip? you need a playstation. want to play the biggest western RPG's and FPS? you need an xbox.

At this point majority of Japanese games eventually will show up on PC, except for the really niche titles for which you will probably need a Switch.

 

[Kacho]

And the bolded is why I HATE this move. I don't want gaming to go in that direction, personally.

Yep. This is why based Nintendo will be my gaming daddy since they are about 20 years behind.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

OK MS, now get the Activision studios to do remastered World at War and MW2 MP modes.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Bobby Kotick has a contract, MS can't just change that lol

And if they do, or try to argue for at cause firing, they won't say that until the deal is gone through.

That "Forbes" employee should do those contacts a favor and explain how basic contract law/mergers work.

 

[Negotiator101]

Holy moly! for want of a better phrase. This an industry shifting acquisition! And that's putting it mildly.

 

[//DEVIL//]

The best, as always...

I laughed lol.

 

[vpance]

They already have such a deep relationship.
Xbox is now the home of First Person Shooters/RPGs.
Sony might as well be the home of JRPGs.

A sad consolation prize lol, when JRPG has been on the downswing for years. But better than home of nothing I guess.

 

[Concern]

I'd like to see them revive Tenchu and maybe get a deal for a Sekiro sequel with From.

Other than that Im not really interested in anything else.

 

[Tams]

Then you're missing out on some awesome games. Blizz alone with Diablo, StarCraft and WoW is amazing. Games & merch. If they get Overwatch back on track.. man the potential is enormous.

I never said I haven't played them, I said I didn't care for them.

I didn't enjoy any of those games you listed and have no affinity to any of the worlds they have. And the last CoD I somewhat enjoyed was COD 2 or 3 (I don't remember which one and it was my friend who had it).
Except Overwatch, but that's not great anymore and I tired of it anyway. Valorant is now more interesting.

 

[SteelCurtain 59]

I just don't know what could be bigger than this that's even remotely feasible

 

[Hari Seldon]

Bobby Kotick has a contract, MS can't just change that lol

And if they do, or try to argue for at cause firing, they won't say that until the deal is gone through.

That "Forbes" employee should do those contacts a favor and explain how basic contract law/mergers work.

Bobby Kotick owns something like 25% of Acti shares so he is going to be one of the richest people in the world now.

 

[Von Hugh]

Games I’ve bought from activation in the last 7 years:
0

They make absolutely nothing of interest for me personally, so no issue here

Thanks for telling the games you've bought and your interests

 

[Rentahamster]

They spelled SEGA funny.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I just don't know what could be bigger than this that's even remotely feasible

MS buying T2 and EA.

 

[akaFullmetal]

Man, looks like Microsoft is just going to buy all 3rd party. Not liking this consolidation. Huge get if they buy act/blizzard.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Yeah fuck this I'm just going to upgrade my PC.


This back and forth spiteful purchasing of major exclusives between Sony and Microsoft with no regard to the industry or the playerbases is just getting very old and depressing at this point.



It's like that story from the Bible where the two women are fighting over the baby except in this version both women want to cut the baby into as many pieces as possible because neither of them give a shit about the baby or it's well being.

Not being an ass here, genuine question, just wondering what companies Sony have bought that denies you access to games?
Sony are even releasing on PC too now, so hopefully hasn’t impacted too much.

 

[Synless]

Whoa, this is nuts.

 

[Stuart360]

Well like i said after the Bethesda and Insomniac sales, much better Sony and Microsoft bying up these studios than Amazon and Google etc, and having these long time traditional franchises put soley on streaming services no one wants to use.
And at least with Microsoft buying them, Xbox users and PC users get the games., with mobile users able to stream them going forward.

 

[Jaguar Victory]

I never said I haven't played them, I said I didn't care for them.

I didn't enjoy any of those games you listed and have no affinity to any of the worlds they have. And the last CoD I somewhat enjoyed was COD 2 or 3 (I don't remember which one and it was my friend who had it).
Except Overwatch, but that's not great anymore and I tired of it anyway. Valorant is now more interesting.

I suppose we all have our preferences.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Thanks for telling the games you've bought and your interests

Honestly? quality. I buy quality titles now and only quality.
Quality is severely lacking at most AAA publishers these days, that I’m sure most will agree.

Elden Ring for example will be quality. That I will be buying.

 

[ClosBSAS]

Diablo 4 gamepass day 1 without that stupid launcher? Hell yess

 

[twilo99]

Thank Sony for making exclusive games with its studios that wouldn’t otherwise exist?

That's what I am saying.. exclusive games shouldn't exist but they pushed it really hard, so now we find ourselves in this mess.

 

[Bartski]

 

[TheGodfather07]

They don't need to if MS if going to keep publishing all the same titles everywhere. Seems like they might want to be going in a bigger publishing role. There is no way they just spent 70 billion dollars, meanwhile incurring further MASSIVE recurring studio costs so they can close everything down to Game Pass. They will never ever recoup the cost if that's the case. They would need 70 billion in profit to do so, on a now much more internally expensive venture.

Though I do think it's funny that Phil Spencer felt the need to come out and chastise Activision, full well knowing they were working on buying them. Making it sound like they were going to distance themselves out of some kind of moral code when they were working on a marriage license. I mean, come on, Phil. Just stop talking for awhile.

Aside from that good. Good luck today mods.

it seems like microsoft are throwing billions around without even thinking about profits or making the money back. this is what makes them so dangerous right now. they can totally afford to do it. even if they never make the money back does it matter to them when they can make it back elsewhere? eve if they dont make it back at all, they have so much money, it doesnt even matter! where as sony or nintendo have to be extremely strategic in how they use money.

 

[Roman Empire]

Next Acquisition from Microsoft: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

You heard from me first.

 

[SportsFan581]

I also firmly believe there is a cut off point, but in the short term everything will go to Playstation that's been expected to in order to collect all the money they can get from it. Would be crazy to pass on the initial, but folks, as I said, this isn't the same Xbox and the same Microsoft from before. We are in a new gaming landscape, and Microsoft is serious about Xbox competing.

I dread what this means for when Microsoft is ready to promote a brand new console launch... the fucking advantages they will have from being able to just pull out the exclusivity trap card for maximum damage...

Yeah, they'll probably work on making Xbox the official console of CoD first. And once they've pulled most of those users over, boom.

But then, they could surprise us and just cut everything new off the day the deal closes.

From a pure console warring perspective, I kinda love how ambiguous they are with these big acquisitions. Makes for more drama when it gets time to actually formally announce each new title.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

What is this even supposed to be suggesting?

Only thing bigger than this IMO would be Sega announcing the Dreamcast 2.

And the bolded is why I HATE this move. I don't want gaming to go in that direction, personally.

Well I still would like arcades (real arcades) to be a major part of the market today but things change. Just gotta go with the flow. There are definitely gaming possibilities that model can bring which will be novel and innovative, but if there's enough demand for something more traditional, you'll have companies around to provide that as well.

 

[HoofHearted]

i bet they did this just to cockblock Sony lol

Possibly but doubtful that's the primary reason - MS is going to do with it's hoards of cash what MS wants to do here.. obviously, they've taken a keen interest in expanding into Gaming...

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

If they also buy TakeTwo and EA they pretty much have a monopole.

 

[OverHeat]

NVM

 

[dolabla]

This is just crazy. Can't believe this actually happened.

 

[Sygma]

Beyond fucking amazing

 

[DigitalScrap]

As expected, looks like old Bobby will be out as soon as this deal is done.

 

[Killer8]

You don't pay $70 billion to release those games on another platform.

 

[T-Cake]

So out of all the big publishers, why have they gone for Activision-Blizzard? Is it mainly for Call of Duty? I would have thought EA made more sense. But I guess it's what the shareholders for A-B would want? They probably feel they want out because of the bad employee management and here's Microsoft with a fat wad of cash?

 

[fallingdove]

Yeah fuck this I'm just going to upgrade my PC.


This back and forth spiteful purchasing of major exclusives between Sony and Microsoft with no regard to the industry or the playerbases is just getting very old and depressing at this point.



It's like that story from the Bible where the two women are fighting over the baby except in this version both women want to cut the baby into as many pieces as possible because neither of them give a shit about the baby or it's well being.

I couldn't agree more.

Fuck consolidation, especially when the intent is to exclude certain customer populations.

 

[chromatic9]

It is pathetic how they just buy up the industry after struggling to even beat Sony's small gaming division. people keep saying bidding war, this is simply MS buying the gaming industry so there's only one box for you to buy. Sony is not bidding for EA, Activision, Zenimax. All Sony can do is secure some tiny companies or individual exclusives to ride the wave a little longer.

 

[Banjo64]

My problem with Sony or Microsoft acquiring japanese studios is that they would try to "westernize" their games.

Monster Hunter but instead of the ‘story‘ focusing on hunting monsters it’s about protecting your great aunt Betty as you make your way across the world and have long and poignant conversations about her dead son Charlie and how she was never the same after her husband Trevor left her for the milk man.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Diablo 4 gamepass day 1 without that stupid launcher? Hell yess

After Diablo 3? Diablo 2 resurrection? Warcraft refunded……

I don’t trust Blizzard to ever release an outstanding title ever again. Blizzard of old are no more

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It’s not a monopoly but it sure as hell ain’t far removed from it given the importance of CoD, etc.

What's your definition of monopoly? How much marketshare does MS need to qualify?

 

[Nezzeroth]

Bullshit. Nothing could be bigger than this other than some major corporation buying Sony/Nintendo or something like that.