This actually isn't true.
Let the live service games begin.
www.theverge.com
"Though it’s now under the Sony umbrella, Bungie will “continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games,” Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said in a blog post from the original announcement of the acquisition. And future games in development won’t be PlayStation exclusives, Bungie’s Joe Blackburn and Justin Truman said."
The looming threat to Bungie is that Sony will at some point in time (this is happening now in real time) will become displeased with Bungie after the honeymoon period is over, and begin to assert creative and financial control over them, which they didn't/ don't want.
What I said it's 100% true. SIE fully acquired the 100% of the Bungie shares, which means Bungie is a fully owned and controlled subsidiary.
Which is perfectly compatible with allowing Bungie to “continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games”. Which basically means having creative freedom like all the other SIE dev studios from PS Studios, but with Bungie to continue using their Bungie label to continue publishing in rival consoles. Instead of using the PS Studios or SIE Publishing label as publisher.
And also means that Bungie is not a subsidiary of PS Studios, but instead a direct SIE subsidiary. In the same way MS Gaming division has the Xbox Game Studios, Zenimax and Activision Blizzard King publishers, Sony now has PS Studios and Bungie.
And this is the ONE TIME, the ONE TIME............Sony tried to follow Microsoft's lead and copy their strategy and look what it got them. And yet people want them to adopt every PS5 game to be day 1 on PC and put some of their titles on PS+ for free like GamePass. SMH.
The strategies of both companies are very different. As a result Sony is more successful than ever and MS is abandoning their console.
MS's copy of PS Now had an interesting that Sony copied: to have a download only cheaper tier. Everthing else, like expanding to MP, GaaS, mobile or PC is something all AAA publishers have been doing because the budgets every new generation skyrocket, so at some point they need to find new revenue sources and expand to new markets because the AAA budgets become too huge and risky.
MS wasn't leading anything, they always have been the losers of the race. And in any case, even with PC Sony has been since forever in computers: with their MSX in the 80s, later via CSG/Sony Imagesoft and Psygnosis in the 90s, with SOE, with different Sony Music or Sony Pictures companies (like in recent years with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality) or the same SIE directly with no subsidiaries since 2015 or so with Helldivers and others. They just pushed harder now.
Same goes with GaaS, SIE is pushing harder now to grow in the MP area, but before they already had several GaaS like LBP, PS Home, GT Sports and so on.
MS failed over two decades with their consoles, are mainly a software company and have Windows and Azure as main products, so makes sense for them to leave their console, go full multiplatform with Windows as their new main platform and try (and fail) to win Sony and Nintendo in the game subs area since they couldn't compete selling consoles and exclusive games.
Sony instead has been always the market leader of consoles, so they will continue having them as their main gaming business focus. Even if they also expand to PC and mobile, they will remain as a secondary business to generate extra revenue and profit to use that money on their console. So even if they may have GaaS day one everywhere, they'll keep their new non-GaaS titles exclusive at least some time in their console to be bought. They won't put all their games day one on PC -at least until Sony has there their own store- and won't put their games day one on PS+ because their main business is to sell games, not to rent them.
For Sony, game subs or Windows aren't their last hope. For them, game subs and PC are a nice way to get extra revenue and profit with old games that no longer sell anymore so aren't generating anything anymore. And it's better to get some extra millions from them than nothing.
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