I already addressed this, allowing two extremely similar projects on the market, that would inevitably compete with each other, is a great way to sour relationships with your partners. Think for two seconds on why we're not getting MvC4 anytime soon, for instance.
MvC4 is something different; that was Capcom screwing everything up with Infinite and Marvel being soured on them as a direct result. The NCSoft Horizon game isn't out yet; we haven't even had an official reveal for it as of this time. So the partnership there is just a backend one ATM as no commercial product is actually out.
Odd to say SIE would be stepping over partners if they had two Horizon games from two 3P companies, when they're sort of doing that anyway given NCSoft's Horizon is only one of two; Guerrilla's got their own Horizon game cooking and just because they're 1P doesn't mean the same overlap situation wouldn't unfold. In fact in that case, it's worst for NCSoft because Guerrilla has 1P resource & support advantages!
All of this is a big reach, this won't necessarily impact their venture on China, why would it? Not only have they fostered many relationships with different Chinese companies, but Tencent doesn't particularly the influence you think they have to suddenly make the entire industry look against SIE.
That's in part because Tencent haven't had a case for putting in real effort to grow as a big presence in the Chinese gaming market yet. But they clearly have the resources, they have people in the industry who know how (including Shawn Layden himself as a consultant), and they have "home court" advantage, as it were.
And Tencent wouldn't need to get the entire industry on lock with them to push against SIE, just the Chinese side of the industry. Which, again, that's the market SIE want to grow in the most, quite eagerly so considering they are prioritizing them over other territories for press events and whatnot these days (i.e going to ChinaJoy but skipping Gamescon). If Tencent wanted to generate a sphere of influence to compete against SIE directly in China, they could, and would probably be successful in stifling SIE and PlayStation's growth in the region.
They'd just need a reason to get motivated, and this lawsuit could be the trigger. We've seen too many times in this industry: partners and companies scorned over business betrayals and falling outs is a recipe to create massive disruption in the market. That's what stirred Sony into pushing the PlayStation, for example.
In what way would Tencent be competitive with SIE? In what way they are NOW? Do you seriously think this lawsuit will result into actual company resentment that Tencent will spend the necessary resources and effort into making a console competitor to PlayStation in China (especially when PS isn't exactly huge over there? Come back to fucking reality.
This reads like a classic underestimation of a sleeping giant, same thing companies like SEGA and Nintendo did to Sony back in the mid-90s prior to the PS1's launch in Japan. And in some ways, Tencent today isn't that much different from Sony way back then, meaning they could, similarly, just have a moment where everything clicks and they're bringing about a major disruption in a stagnated industry.
You ask how they're competitive with SIE today? Well for starters they own shares in
MANY gaming companies, a lot more than SIE, and own more studios than SIE as well. In companies where both Tencent and Sony Corp have shares, the former tends to have a higher amount. As to what this lawsuit could result in...I'm not saying it's anything of a certainty Tencent gets spurred into competing directly with Sony/SIE in China as a result of the suit (whether they win or lose). I'm just saying, it's silly to write off that possibility, and you don't know if there's a Kutaragi or Ohga-type within Tencent who compels the company to go forward with that intent.
Those people could be there, they could not. But it's dangerous to assume they simply aren't there, period. Which means, yes, spurring Tencent on to compete with them directly in the gaming space is something SIE risks by going with the lawsuit. Again, they are completely right to sue on
principle, same as Nintendo was against Palworld's devs. But Pocket Pair's simply a single small-sized 3P dev; in fact the only reason they probably felt confident enough to not buckle completely when the lawsuit came was because a Sony Corp subsidiary partnered with them to expand the IP (ironically enough).
Tencent isn't Pocket Pair; they have real assets, resources and market presence (as a corporation, maybe not so much as a brand), and can afford to take on SIE in court over this. It could get pretty ugly but, considering the ramifications it could have in China, it feels like SIE have more to lose if in fact they lose this case. That's something I want to put out there.
