Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)
- Status
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Never.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
So you're okay with industry consolidation simply because you're selfish, want to pay as little as possible for content in a hobby you love, and seem to require a platform holder to consolidate 3P content to make it "affordable" when 3P options for cheaper content availability have been around for ages?
OK then.
Topher
Identifies as young
RoboFu
One of the green rats
oh no marketing deals for one game wont be there anymore!! The industry is doooooommmmeeeddd!!!
MS will make way more off merchandising Activision Ips than from COD game sales.
Last edited:
SEGAvangelist
Member
Yeah. All of that. Plus Sony pretty much destroyed SEGA back in the day, and it's time they get what's been coming for decades!
I think they might consider going this routeDisney is not Sony.
Sony has multiple business with multiple competition. Spending that much money on PS business would have some consequences on their business.
They can risk it, but that will mean losing grounds to other competitors.
This is Sony business.
Cash it out (50-60B$+), letting the other big fish handle the headache while having $$ to buy Bandai Namco and making it Sony's official venture into gaming
Last edited:
Yoboman
Member
Exactly why Sony will play ball, PlayStation is their bread and butter and they need to be at the table for acquisitions. ABK being bought and now passing is a big blow to them, something Take2 going the same way would be a knock out
Rac3r
Member
Yeah. All of that. Plus Sony pretty much destroyed SEGA back in the day, and it's time they get what's been coming for decades!
Yoboman
Member
Sega destroyed SegaYeah. All of that. Plus Sony pretty much destroyed SEGA back in the day, and it's time they get what's been coming for decades!
clarky
Gold Member
I think this is the likely outcome.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Hope the fuck not. One of the first reasons everyone latched onto the acquisition was that Kotick was going to leave afterward.
feynoob
Banned
Sony won't sell itself to Amazon or even offer them a part of their business. It won't happen.I think they might consider going this route
Cash it out (50-60B$+), letting the other big fish handle the headache while having $$ to buy Bandai Namco and making it Sony's official venture into gaming
They can buy square and other smaller publishers. But publishers like take 2 is impossible.
I would be surprised if they manage to pull that off. That would be the heist of the century.
Last edited:
SEGAvangelist
Member
19-year-old me did not believe this at the time. I'm holding on to those feelings.
clarky
Gold Member
Me too but you cant argue with the money he makes and as we know MS loves money.
lets face it all CEO's are basically Logan Roy so you might as well go with the best money maker.
Last edited:
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
I really just want to play diablo 4 on my steam deck. If a 70bn acquisition that changes the landscape of consoles has to go down for that happen, then so be it.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
That's some hyperbole to me. What is this based on?
Either way Sony isn't throwing $25 at one purchase right now most likely; not that they CANT but it's so anti-their strategy I just don't see them doing it.
Nor do I think Take 2 is even worth it.
clarky
Gold Member
Agreed ive had to go back to bnet for this one but hopefully not for long.
SportsFan581
Member
Sure, Americans used to perceive "Made in America" as a sign of quality craftsmanship, I assume Japanese buyers did the same with "Made in Japan". Whether or not there was any reality to it is another question.
I've never argued for or against nationalistic buying practices, I just found it ridiculous to think that nationalism had anything to do with a product released after 2000 in the US (Xbox), while also acting as if the US was the only nation to ever show nationalistic consumer tendencies. If you've got some hard data regarding the percentage of Xbox users that purchased their systems because they were from an American company, let me know. LOL
Maybe you and GHG need to entertain the idea that Xbox simply earned its place in the US by being the first to offer a robust online experience. And that ecosystem has ingrained the brand into US gaming. It's a lot more realistic than gamers out there supporting "Merica".
At least you grasp the nonsensical nature of it in regards to the modern video game market, which is good.
Last edited:
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
The only reason take 2 isnt in the same league as activision is because rockstar makes 1 game a generation now. If Kotick was in charge over there they would be cranking out a new GTA every 2 years with a 10 hour campaign and battle passes out the ass. NBA2k is also massive.
M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
In that case it should be, because they should get any sale they could get honestly, MS should drop the exclusivity. And I feel strongly about this particular case, keep it on GP, just sell it everywhere as something like a Wo long.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Yeah. All of that. Plus Sony pretty much destroyed SEGA back in the day, and it's time they get what's been coming for decades!
GTFOH with that FUD. Sony didn't "destroy" SEGA; SEGA killed themselves. SEGA were the ones stupid enough to sell a $299 Sega CD in the West with nothing but mediocre FMV games. SEGA were the ones stupid enough to feel they needed a "response" to the Jaguar in the 32X, a $150 add-on that was dead six months after it came out, instead of investing in the SVP chip for more graphically-intensive software on stock Genesis to compete with DKC, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger and other late SNES releases.
SEGA were the ones that rushed the Saturn to NA in May with no marketing and barely any software, simply to try getting a leg-up on PS1. SEGA were the ones that pissed off retailers like KB Toys, who refused to stock Saturns because of that rushed May release leaving them out of the loop. SEGA are the ones that pronounced the Saturn publicly dead at E3 1997.
You don't even know a fraction of what really happened, and somehow think Microsoft acquiring ABK is "revenge" for a company that didn't need any help neutering themselves as a platform holder in the industry thanks to some of the dumbest self-inflicted business decisions ever made. But go ahead, keep blaming all of SEGA's shortcomings during that era on Sony; never mind it was Nintendo who ate up a huge portion of Sega's Western audience with the N64 but I don't see the same vitriol towards them. Wonder why
Yoboman
Member
Its in the best interest for Sony and gaming as a whole for them to essentially have a cold war style mutually assured destruction button if they need it
MS pulls COD? Then we pull GTA
And vice versa
Also not like Take2 don't make back the money invested
splattered
Member
Wanting everything to stay the same forever just to suit your own idea of how things should exist is also selfish.
I say bring on the shakeup!
Such a weird thing to say. This would hardly be the first time a multiplatform game came to GP day one. MLB The Show has been on GP day one for the past few years, for example. Do you consider folks who buy it 'idiotic paypigs' for not getting it for 'free' on Gamepass?
splattered
Member
Bungie? You mean the exclusive guns and strikes that Playstation had in Destiny? Not Xbox?
I mean really come to think of it... i'm not really sure how many console exclusive DLC's Microsoft had in place for major franchises, especially within the last 5-10 years? I'm sure there are some though, i'd have to google it i guess.
What makes you think that ?, people forget that not even a decade ago Sony sold off 2 of their divisions (Sony Online Entertainment & Vaio business), and im willing to bet they're about do to the same with SIE, especially while the Iron's still hot (PS5 momentum)
Thirty7ven
Banned
It's simple really. MS has bought itself the western market, and if you think they are not going to keep signing timed exclusives for Gamepass you got a surprise coming. They will bleed out Sony. So unless Sony in all their wisdom has aces in the hole with their huge push for live service games - and multiple people have said that people will be surprised and dismayed by how many studios they have working on live service games - that will mean years of financial bombs and a much less competitive PlayStation in comparison to their main rivals who are going to be rocking the biggest live service games on their subscription service that they offer for cheap because they can bleed the competition out.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Where did I say I want things to stay the same forever? I have no problem with a company like Sony getting knocked down from #1. But I only consider it valid when that's the result of actual competition. I.e Sony not answering the needs of the customer and developer market, and a competitor like Microsoft building software offerings from the ground-up to appeal to more users, providing a hardware & ecosystem solution that naturally attracts more developer support, etc.
They kind of actually got this right with the 360 (although lots of money-hats were involved there), which is why they gained a lot of market share. That was more actual competition than what they're looking to do buying their way to the top through large publisher acquisitions. There is nothing respectable in that, especially when all of the money for it is coming from every other division but Xbox.
Was Sony San Diego acquired by Microsoft?
I don't see how you missed the part where I implicated people buying those games having full knowledge of transfer of ownership, and knowing their purchase is helping subsidize and enable the same games being in a competitor subscription service Day 1.
splattered
Member
Why do people refuse to see that Sony "building games from the ground up" still came from studios they acquired along the way? Where are all the mega successful studios that originated from a bunch of random ass hires being thrown into a blender throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks? Sony bought their way to their current position just like anyone else.
Yoboman
Member
PlayStation is Sony. They fade into irrelevance as a consumer business without it. What you're suggesting is like saying Disney should sell Mickey Mouse
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Again, we have actual proof that if it happened enough, even among people in the West, then there was likely truth to it. What American tech company had anything on the level of Walkman during its heyday? AFAIK there weren't any American TVs that could beat the image quality of a Trinitron, etc.
That' isn't to say there weren't high-quality American offerings (Philips for example made some quality stuff), but it was either never on the same level as equivalent offerings from Japanese companies or didn't go above-and-beyond enough to change forming perceptions.
I thought your argument was partially on the basis that Xbox wasn't purchased by Japanese gamers due to nationalistic tendencies to buy Japanese products? I'm not arguing that most or even a significant portion of Americans who bought an Xbox did so because it was an "American" console. But it seemed like you were insinuating Japanese gamers avoided the Xbox simply because it wasn't Japanese.
Again, you're accusing me of something I never actually said, or maybe you thought I was saying but was not. If Xbox built a strong presence in NA, it's because they had offerings that appealed to gaming tastes in that market. That market just incidentally happened to be American.
Well the idea American gamers primarily bought Xboxes because they were "American" consoles was always dumb, same as insinuations that Japanese customers only bought Japanese electronics just because they were Japanese
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Not if Tom Holland has anything to say about it.
SportsFan581
Member
LOL. Not the faux moral high ground about the "from the ground-up" Sony approach.
Bungie says hi.
Bungie says hi.
sainraja
Member
They weren't under Sony at the time...you were saying "but I can't imagine a world where Sony doesn't have something like that in place," which Bungie under Sony demonstrates. Bungie might be the one to credit for that, but Sony also accepted that, so...
MS use to do deals like exclusive expansions (this was a year or more) and exclusive map packs a month before PS. They also engaged in timed-exclusivity, something they still do. They used to do many other deals exactly like Sony. So, they are not beyond doing it.
My point is, there is no point in excusing that behavior for any of them. They ALL engage in it, even Nintendo has.
Last edited:
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Why do you refuse to see that almost all of those studios Sony bought, worked with Sony either exclusively or damn-near exclusively for multiple years on multiple games before being acquired? Even Naughty Dog were only acquired after the success of the Crash games was verified. Insomniac? After 22 years of working nigh-exclusively on PlayStation games outside of Sunset Overdrive (which completely bombed).
What extensive history of game software development partnerships did Microsoft have with any of the ABK studios? Oh, that's right: none. I don't even use this on Zenimax because at least Microsoft & Bethesda actually have a history of working together on particular software (Morrowind, Oblivion, MS investing funding into the startup of Zenimax publishing label).
reinking
Gold Member
Last edited:
FriulHado
Member
freefornow
Member
GHG
Gold Member
No, I am not.
SportsFan581
Member
Again, we have actual proof that if it happened enough, even among people in the West, then there was likely truth to it. What American tech company had anything on the level of Walkman during its heyday? AFAIK there weren't any American TVs that could beat the image quality of a Trinitron, etc.
That' isn't to say there weren't high-quality American offerings (Philips for example made some quality stuff), but it was either never on the same level as equivalent offerings from Japanese companies or didn't go above-and-beyond enough to change forming perceptions.
I thought your argument was partially on the basis that Xbox wasn't purchased by Japanese gamers due to nationalistic tendencies to buy Japanese products? I'm not arguing that most or even a significant portion of Americans who bought an Xbox did so because it was an "American" console. But it seemed like you were insinuating Japanese gamers avoided the Xbox simply because it wasn't Japanese.
Again, you're accusing me of something I never actually said, or maybe you thought I was saying but was not. If Xbox built a strong presence in NA, it's because they had offerings that appealed to gaming tastes in that market. That market just incidentally happened to be American.
Well the idea American gamers primarily bought Xboxes because they were "American" consoles was always dumb, same as insinuations that Japanese customers only bought Japanese electronics just because they were Japanese
Japan favored their own products even when the US goods were superior, which for many decades they were (just as demonstrability if not more so). Not saying it's right or wrong, just that it was a thing that happened in the first half of the 20th century.
You jumped into an exchange between me and GHG about Xbox systems being sold because they were American, with some shade thrown in about Americans buying inferior products because they were "American". That was the only discussion I ever entertained regarding this topic.
splattered
Member
Oh sorry yeah i getcha, fair point
Remains to be seen in the long run but that's the same on both sides of the fence here hahaMicrosoft "used to" but Playstation "does" ... that's why i was saying it would be interesting to see Sony just perfectly ok with giving that practice up as they are currently actively pushing it.
Yoboman
Member
The difference is buying a successful studio/puvlisher and buying and making into a success
And the answer to your question is Sony Santa Monica built from ground up within Sony, also Team Asobi, Sony San Diego, London Studio, Polyphony Digital,
sainraja
Member
Oh sorry yeah i getcha, fair point
Microsoft still engages in that to an extent, but less so due to their position in the market changing mostly because of their own blunders with the Xbox One. So, I wouldn't say they don't do it at all; they still do it, especially the timed exclusivity part, maybe at a smaller scale, which could be due to multiple factors and a change in focus to Game Pass, but timed exclusive games are still something they do.
Going forward, they might just buy 'em all! lol
Last edited:
Topher
Identifies as young
GHG
Gold Member
cornonthecrobb
Banned
except when the 10 year deals run out and they go exclusive
- Status