Microsoft buying Activision is terrible for the industry.
It's terrible in the sense that Bobby Kotick walks off into the sunset with billions of dollars laughing his back off about how he got away with all of this.
It's also terrible in the sense that Sony might retaliate and buy someone. Or Nintendo. And then Microsoft do it again. Etc. Consolidation breeds stagnation. This sucks.
It's also terrible because it proves once again that Xbox - despite creating little of any worth on their own - are amassing a legendary treasure trove of intellectual property that they frankly don't deserve because they've got a rich daddy to bail them out.
But for me I don't really care. I don't care about Call of Duty so like the Bethesda acquisition I'm not upset about this on a personal level.
But on the Gamepass on PlayStation thing I do think it will happen, I just think it'll be a different version of Gamepass without third party titles.
@johncalmc I think there's an argument that actually, microsoft purchase of Activision blizzard results in some of those smaller ips that Activision acquired (like tony hawk, spyro, geometry wars etc) getting green lit to feed the content machine of gamepass and being handled with more care than Activision ever would! They pretty much ground the Activision side of the business into one COD every year and warzone support. The wider points of how bad for the gaming community this is, we have to wait and see. Gamepass has a whole heap of indy support and I hope that's not dropped. I love sony prestige titles and the mechanical genius of nintendo 1st party. Hopefully there's space for everyone but it's getting harder to see how that all works.
@R1spam Undoubtedly that will happen, I think. Activision runs their business ruthlessly. Microsoft are a little more open. We might even lose annualised Call of Duty titles and those studios might have a chance to work on something else. For the people who work for Activision this will be an improvement.
Basically, unless MS get bored (which is obviously incredibly unlikely) we will all eventually be strong armed into their eco-system, as they will be the only provider with anything to play… and then we’ll see how consumer friendly they are(n’t).
@themcnoisy It seems inevitable - but maybe when Sony has their own 'rival' service they want to put on Xbox.
As someone who has ALWAYS owned both platforms, so a bit more 'objective' than most, Phil is doing exactly what he set out to do. If you want to play R&C or any other 'Sony' exclusive (timed or otherwise), you have to buy a SONY Playstation - no other choice. That limits the 'reach' of R&C to just 10-12m or however many PS5's end up out there. That also has led to some games getting 'extra' content (Marvel Avengers, CoD too had extra game modes and the DLC earlier since they took over) and the 'rest' of the gaming world missing out unless they bought a Playstation
If you want to play ANY of Xbox 'exclusives', you can literally play 'ANYWHERE' that supports Game Pass on Day1 - whether that's PC, Xbox or Mobile/Tablets - the 'choice' is yours. That means that all 300m gamers, as most Sony/Nintendo gamers have at least 1 device that supports Game Pass. At the moment, Sony/Nintendo hardware doesn't support Game Pass but Sony/Nintendo gamers most likely have a mobile and/or PC access. Even if their PC isn't a 'gaming' PC with the necessary CPU/GPU grunt to play locally, they can still play. They may not come 'natively' to Sony/Nintendo hardware, but that's on Sony/Nintendo as they 'could' allow Game Pass to give their users access to that library of games.
A lot of people only focus on the 'console' - these are 'bad/good' for their particular brand but Microsofts mantra has been play ALL the Games, with all the content on the devices you have and whilst it will mean fewer 'releases' native to PS5, the bigger picture is that now 'EVERY' gamer can potentially play these games. OK so you can't play Starfield natively on PS5 but you could on PC or stream to a Mobile, so don't 'need' to buy a Series S/X console to play. This is about providing access to all the games and content on as many devices as they can rather than force gamers to buy a Sony/MS branded platform that only those rich or lucky enough to find one console only gamers. You can even use your Playstation controller on PC/Mobiles too to play Forza, Halo etc
As soon as people realise that this is very much 'pro-consumer' - giving people a LOT more choice of how and where they want to play, the better.
As I said, I expect CoD MP to go Free to Play for ALL platforms. That way EVERYONE will get the same content at the same time - maybe Game Pass subscribers get a 'Premium' upgrade, Battle Pass or something as they do with F2P games but you won't get PS OR XB gamers getting Maps 'earlier' or extra game modes anymore.
The free to play model, with a long history of great maps, could be fantastic for 'CoD' and would free up all those studio's from being forced into crunching CoD out to hit their Annual release date and enable them to make the games they really want to make. Sledgehammer, Treyarch, High Moon, Beenox, Raven etc were all making their own games before being dragged into CoD. If Infinity Ward wants to make a Single Player/co-op military First Person Shooter that would benefit from the CoD name, then of course they'll make it and it'll be available on 'EVERY' Platform Game Pass exists.
Also, with Game Pass, a lot only focus on the brand new AAA releases coming to GP day 1 - especially exclusives as the others are still coming to PS. MLB21, Outriders, B4B etc still released on PS so its not as if they miss out. I see most focus on 1st Party day 1 - the likes of Forza, Halo, Flight Sim and think its 'not' worth the 'tiny' monthly cost for 3-4 games a year forgetting that ALL those games are a 'small' part of Game Pass. This 'bad' month for 'new' releases is still offering R6:Extraction day 1 ($40), Mass Effect: Legendary, a host of Indies etc + access to a huge back catalogue of games from over 20yrs of gaming you can play on 'Any' game pass supported device.
When GoW, H:ZD etc came to PC, you have to buy them to play - no progress or saves carried over. With Starfield, you can play anywhere (game pass exists), anytime and keep your saves. Another thing that keeps coming up is 'ownership' but you 'never' own your 'games'. What you 'own' is a licence to access those games. Game Pass gives you a 'conditional' licence (the Condition that you maintain your subscription and the game remains in Game Pass) that you can then purchase with an extra 20% discount to 'own' like any other 'digital' game. Sony/MS have 'conditional' licences too for Games with Gold/PS+. Physical media comes with a 'general' licence on the physical media that 'must' be in the hardware -the game itself is not owned by you and doesn't 'need' to be on Disc either as the disc is not always the 'best' method of distributing the Software - You can buy games with just the General Licence on disc that also allows you to download and install software. Basically, the Software is owned by the publisher and you purchase a Licence key to use it. At any point, you can buy Game Pass games to 'keep' access without 'conditions' (like maintaining a Subscription or remaining in Game Pass).
I can understand why Sony 'only' gamers are 'upset' but at the end of the day, they can still play all these games without being 'forced' to buy a MS Xbox to play on Day 1. This is more about giving more people the choice of how and where they want to play which can be as cheap as £1 a month on their Mobile/PC, even use their DS4/5's if they want, instead of having to spend £350+ on Hardware, £60+ on the game etc. Not keeping games/content 'purely' for the 'select' few with the money and means to purchase their 'hardware'.
Game Pass is available on a wide range of devices, many of which are NOT MS owned. They may have the OS of choice on PC, but you can buy whatever hardware from a variety of brands to build your own. Android/iOS powered mobiles/tablets also have Game Pass so apart from MS Xbox Consoles or their MS Surface PC's the vast majority of hardware is NOT owned by MS. That makes this much more Consumer Friendly - even if its not available on Playstation. With 12m PS5's, the most their games can reach is 12m people, with Xbox, they can reach 'everyone' because those Playstation gamers have a Phone/PC.
I can see MS bringing out a Dongle with Blutooth support to connect a Controller/KB&M to enable Game Pass on any display with a HDMI or maybe USB-C port so don't need a 'console' at all.
Point is, Game Pass is ensuring that EVERYONE can access these games on ANY Game Pass supported platform, not just the 'few' (relatively speaking) who can afford and get an expensive console and pay the 'expensive' charge to buy the game. The reason Sony can charge £70 for a game is because they have the monopoly on that game. You paid £350+ to buy a PS5, and if you want to play this game, then you'll pay £70. On Xbox, you can play for 'free' with a 'small' subscription, but also on PC or Mobile...
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@Kidfried you might be right but for me, it's because increased frequency of some smaller titles fits with the cadence of releases that support gamepass subscriptions rather than the Activision "sell cod at Christmas" model. Amen about Bobby Kotick, that this man walks away from all his bs with extra millions on top of his existing billionaire plunder into the sunset is disgusting!!
Since they won't be selling as many copies of CoD anymore (assuming it's all going to be on Game Pass, because pretty sure that's what they're saying), they'll probably focus on Warzone monetization even more. That's where Activision money is right now. I'm not sure "more smaller titles" is what would bring more people to Game Pass and that's what MS cares about.
@Voltan Microsoft wants to bring everyone to Game Pass, and that includes people who like smaller titles. I mean, just look at their indie output on Game Pass. Yesterday Nobody Saves The World (made by the Guacamelee developer) came out and tomorrow they're adding Death's Door. They absolutely want more smaller titles on the service in order to appeal to that audience but also because it's easier to make smaller titles than bigger ones and therefore they can release them more often throughout the year. Quantity and variety are important factors for Microsoft in order to keep people subscribed to Game Pass, so I do think they will be expecting all kinds of titles from Activision Blizzard once the deal is finalised.
I agree with what @johncalmc mentions about there being a more curated list of games if a version of gamepass shows up on PlayStation. At the same time I can see Sony being a bit stubborn. And hopefully laugh Microsoft away just like Nintendo did when MS tried to buy them.
It will be interesting to see if this changes anything about project Spartacus. I have a gut feeling that it is gonna be a bit underwhelming. But we shall see.
Hopefully they will be able sort out some sort of backwards compatibility for pre ps4 games. Not something I would personally use, but would be a good PR move. And backtrack on the 10 quid upgrade fee, that has never sat right with me.
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I could actually see this move forcing Sony’s hand in regards to Spartacus. It would not surprise me at all if Sony made a last minute change to include their First Party exclusives day and date now. It had to have been a ‘discussion’ when planning Spartacus anyway… but something like this could definitely be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Even if they did though, I couldn’t see myself subscribing… I just couldn’t be happier with the current status quo, shame that this perspective currently seems to most people like me choosing a penny-farthing as my bicycle of choice.
@Kidfried Just a side note: Destiny 2 is no longer an Activision game, Bungie is doing it independently now. But yeah, I imagine these games might actually bring more money than Game Pass itself.
One of my biggest problems with the way that MS is currently going about this is they are acting like they are everyones best mate, the saviour of gaming, and even humanity as we know it. It's statements like "Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device" that just makes me cringe. Everyone just keeps banging on about the value proposition not realising that they are just being sold the line now in order to be milked for lots more money in the future.
I feel like it won't be long before we've all been assimilated by game pass as these days reading the comments on most articles on this site will turn up at least one person (if not more) raving on about GP and how it's so amazing and how everyone needs to experience it's goodness. In years to come my kids will be asking me what we did for entertainment before we had game pass and I'll have to recount stories about the horror of having to pay for games and only playing one game at a time 😂
@render I won't lie, as a subscriber for the past year, its pretty good!! Having said that, even I'm worried it destabilise the entire industry. I mean look at how much Netflix subscriptions have crept up over the last few years
@render on that day, I'll issue a full mea culpa and tell you that getting to play the forgotten City by cloud streaming on a crap laptop wasn't worth burning it all down 🙈
@colonelkilgore I don't see this making Sony offer new games on a service. Of course I have no actual insight into their finances but I'm not sure they can afford it while making the games they make - and these events won't make it any easier.
And of course, I'd rather still have to pay for their games than have their quality compromised.
@Voltan yeah I feel the same way (about making purchases to ensure quality etc) but I’d imagine that absolutely no suggestion is off the table at Sony HQ right now.
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