I already stated that Microsoft tried and failed during two separate eras trying to acquire studios and shuttering them. Did you miss that part?
They are down but they are not dead. If they plan on continuing on, then continuing to compete is maybe better than the alternative.
The alternative is Sony exists in the AAA console space alone, with nintendo making it's brand of games.
Nothing gets better this way. Sony would have no pressure to improve themselves. That means they keep resting on their laurels like they have been.
Miss me with this disingenuous line. Sony "needs" Xbox as much as Nintendo needs PSP or Vita; they don't need them. And as far as them resting on their laurels, Sony's the one out of them & Microsoft, who have actually been consistently delivering big 1P AAA games for the past several years, including so far this generation. Not Microsoft, who literally thought they could coast by 2022 with no big Game Pass or 1P releases and not see the drops they ended up seeing.
So tell me who's the one actually resting on their laurels here?
They felt justified coming out first with $70 games.
Complete lie. Publishers like EA and ABK were the first to push for $70 games, not Sony. Go review the books.
They felt comfortable not having to give us a real showcase for 3 whole years.
What? They had a Showcase in September 2021. That is barely two years ago. Yes the May Showcase was underwhelming but don't try rewriting history just to attempt proving a point.
When they do come back with something it's a glorified State of Play that most people were not happy with.
Okay, and it was their first real miss in terms of a Showcase since they switched to the new format in 2020. They do need to do better for the next one, but how does any of this equate to "MS buying big publishers like ABK will force Sony to better compete"? It doesn't.
Like let's not pretend that Sony has been given a pass on a lot of shyt.
Such as? And who's giving them the pass? Definitely not the games media. You've got idiots like Bloomberg Takashi out there crying about FF XVI being an exclusive and trying to act like 3+ million in two weeks is a failure, and that PSVR2 was a failure when it is actually outselling the original launch-aligned.
And there are plenty of people in the media like him, pushing similar FUD about almost everything PS-related. Forums like ResetERA that have mods & admin engineering FUD campaigns against PS and PS exclusives, even getting other sites like Eurogamer to join (and fail) in on the fun.
So who are those in these prominent positions giving Sony a pass? And passes for what?
Now they can feel some pressure.
I'm sure trying to please shareholders wanting constant increases in revenues and profits is enough pressure as-is.
They won't become 2nd or 3rd place because of this deal. However, they will feel some heat. Which means they will need to step things up for the consumers.
And yet I somehow bet you're the type who feels Sony responding with acquisitions of their own is "a step too far". "No, they don't have to do that, just keep focusing on their 1P and that alone, everything will stay as-is".
Microsoft are showing what it seemingly means to "compete", now, so unless you're at least okay with the idea of others responding in kind, then you don't actually want the things you seem to be saying you want.
It's the silver lining in this deal going Microsoft's way.
You haven't illustrated a single substantive thing that's an actual silver lining. Just made false claims with disingenuous takes, misunderstandings and half-truths. You can point to a silver lining when you're accurate about the state of things at PlayStation.