Xbox Boss Expresses Desire to 'Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation' After Activision Buyout Is Complete

Well it’s something. For PlayStation it’s a better outcome than the Zenimax one.

Given the constant insistence from microsoft that the competition is apple, google, amazon etc; i do wonder if we see a future where the likes of xbox, playstation and nintendo unite in the face of these competing brands to protect the 'traditional' game market. But perhaps that is pie in the sky thinking

How much more condescending are they going to be?

I understand the gloating, they have made a major move, but this is starting to become some kind of bullying...

“Our desire” yeah, this sounds like if they didn't get to any type of negotiation.

‘Our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation’

Basically we’ve put Game Pass being on PS on the table and if PlayStation say no that’s the end of it.

Can this man just keep his mouth shut for one second? Tired of the Phil Spencer show...

He intends to keep it on PlayStation………with GamePass.

@itsfoz That's exactly how I read it as well.

All this corporate word salad is getting tiresome. I get there are contracts in place and all that but wish they'd be more matter of fact about things. Phil just say yes or no, we're adults we can handle it.

You certainly can't trust Microsoft (or any corporation) and definitely not Phil with all his constant doublespeak.

Wish they'd remove warzone so I could play the game I payed for without a huge install size & constant updates for it

Uncle Phil is the self-appointed King of gaming. He's from the same school of narcissism as the likes of Trump and Boris.

It would be nice to hear from Sony and Nintendo representatives but they don't say anything.

The acquisition is becoming much more politicized than expected. It's entirely within the realm of possibility that Democrats make the acquisition a political issue heading into the midterm elections where they're facing very poor prospects. Warren and Nadler have expresses skepticism at Microsoft and numerous more Democrats, including Biden, are presenting anti-trust as a political issue.

I think Phil Spencer is pre-empting this political backlash. But I genuinely think this acquisition is about to get a lot bigger than videogames.

They should make deals. Give Xbox say Final Fantasy games, like 7 Remake and 16 and PS5 keeps CoD.

PlayStation has the BEST first party games (sorry Nintendo) so I’m not worried. But make NO mistake this acquisition is anti-consumer in the sense that Sony’s and Nintendo’s consoles could be frozen out from all franchises Micro$oft aka microshaft now owns.

@TheCollector316 and Jim Ryan is a saint ...

Heres some advice Microsoft, instead of making yearly call of duty releases why don't you put the normal modes into warzone

@UltimateOtaku91 Why? MSFT should use this for say Final Fantasy games exchange for CoD.

So call of duty will remain on PS then? I am assuming it’s Warzone he is talking about but we will see.

What I think is that Xbox version will get exclusive stuff. But PS won’t.

I could be wrong though

Yeah, well we don't want it on playstation.

@Rob_230 Microsoft absolutely has its eyes on Amazon / Google / Apple rather than PlayStation, and the buyout of a massive company like Activision (which has such a wide portfolio) is definitely a result of that.

I think you're onto something in the sense that when these massive tech companies do properly enter the gaming space with money to burn, it could shake things up dramatically for traditional video game companies like PlayStation and Nintendo.

People forget that Xbox was ultimately just a way for Microsoft to drive a wedge into the console market, and now it's providing an avenue for... Whatever it is that Microsoft is trying to build through Game Pass.

I've said for years that MS entering the gaming industry was always going to be the death of it and this is the real start.

I wonder if xbox used call of duty as a black mail?
Told sony you if you don't buy square enix/capcom or partner with Google, Apple etc then you can keep call of duty

@Rob_230 I can't ever see Sony and Nintendo working together. They're mortal enemies after Nintendo screwed Sony over, and then Sony tried and almost killed them with the PSOne

@UltimateOtaku91 you bring up a fascinating point. It’s weird to see Apple TV show trailers on the PlayStation YouTube page. I think Sony and Apple may have something up there sleeve either way. Who knows!

@Jarobusa

No. Why would you think that?

@Jarobusa for that to be worthwhile, they'd have to also give PS TES 6 and Starfield.

Micro$oft aka microshaft gloating doesn’t surprise me. They had too make an industry shaking move after all every console generation they’ve been apart of, their consoles have finished last in sales and are poised to do so again this generation. I’m not a Sony fan boy, I own 3 PS5’s and 3 XBSX. I just want to play Activision/Blizzard and Bethesda games on my preferred system of choice which is PlayStation for a myriad of reasons. Long live King Sony and the global PlayStation empire.

Thinking about it, it could of been one of the conditions that Activision set Microsoft for them to be bought, told them of you want to buy us then call of duty has to stay multi platform. And then Phil is using that to make xbox seem nice and that they care about sony

@Col_McCafferty

In terms of sales and revenue Call of Duty takes a dump on all of those games, including Final Fantasy.

I think people are failing to realize just how much money COD pulls in year after year. Even on a downward trending slope this year it was still the best selling and highest revenue drawing PS4/PS5 and Xbox title. Not sure where it lands on PC, but it’s got to be near the top. We all dislike modern Call of Duty, but no one can deny the billions of dollars it brings in not only from sales but also from microtransactions.

Microsoft holds the power here. Not Sony. They can sort of do whatever they want to do.

Funny how he mentions Sony directly and not Nintendo as well as focusing on Call of Duty only... Can't his lying !@#

@meistergeister have fun playing Starfield on PS5 then

Also HOW DO YOU HAVE THREE Xbox Series X’s

@TheRedComet yes I know that but in terms of games I'd like to play, I'd rather the Bethesda games stayed on PS than CoD.

And yes, MS do hold the power and they are doing whatever the hell they want. Unless the regulatory bodies grow a pair, they'll continue to do so and there's nothing Sony or Nintendo can do about it.

@UltimateOtaku91

Microsoft Gaming is under no obligation to keep Activision’s supposed “requirements” once the deal closes and they move in and take over. They can do whatever they want at that point.

@Rob_230 people keep going on about amazon, Google and Apple but what have we seen in terms of them entering the console gaming market? A failed Google stadia that's all, no acquisitions or physical consoles

I play COD on PC and the lobbys are dominated with PS players.
Think PS palyers are safe for awhile yet, but sony cant compete with Gamepass ,Activision ,bethseda ,EA now Ubisoft on Gamepass.

@Col_McCafferty

Same here. I think Doom hurts the most.

But ultimately I’m multiplatform. So I’ll just pick up an Xbox of some kind or I’ll just build out another gaming rig in the future.

I’m not sure there’s anything the regulatory boards can do about this, and I don’t think Microsoft has really done anything unethical here.

Activision’s share holder council wanted to sell all assets. They didn’t even go to Microsoft as their first option; it was offered to Meta. Meta, shockingly, turned it down. We won’t find out, but I’m sure Kotick was making calls to a bunch of different people. Apparently EA was involved after Meta dropped out but in the end Microsoft offered the largest bid.

Even with the acquisition, they are still only the third largest publisher in the world.

Now if a year from now we hear that Microsoft is simultaneously purchasing EA and Ubisoft, then we will have an antitrust case on our hands.

Yeah, I still don't trust every word this guy say. We don't really know what exactly happened during that "good call". They have the power to pull the plug if they desire. Sure, they won't be doing it now but the moment Sony does something big, they can just push that big red button and make CoD exclusive to Xbox.

@munstre exactly the first time I've heard them get mentioned in any takeover was this Activision one, and Activision asked them and they said no 😂😂

Does that sound like companies that want to join the gaming industry?

@locoism25

He’s focusing on Call of Duty because that is the primary loss Sony has suffered out of this deal and everyone involved knows it. Nintendo isn’t in this debate; they are insulated from the fall out thanks to being in a completely different market that they control.

Sony pulls in over 10% of their gaming division’s income off of COD royalties alone. Hell it may be more than that these days with how high the series sales (even on a down year) hits.

Those are huge numbers that Sony stands to lose. PlayStation was the COD console this past Gen and they made unbelievable money off of it.

Can't wait for the 'Phil burped and it sounded like the word Sony' article. Can't be long now.

@uptownsoul

Assuming it’s the same as the last one, three years with a two year extension option agreed by both parties.

The new contract was signed sometime in 2020. So assuming an extension has already been signed it would be 2025.

But Microsoft doesn’t have to honor any of it once they move into the home office. They can toss it out the window. Until the deal is closed Activision is independent.

70 billion is a lot of money but when push comes to shove Playstation is a large part of Call of Duty's revenue and no corporation with a mindset like Activision's wants to just throw all that potential cash flow away.

Well, I think Sony doesnt have much to say in this.. just put Gamepass on ps5. The more I think about, the more cool I think this could be..imagine.. ps5 and xbox games in one machine.

@UltimateOtaku91

They do. But Microsoft jumped the gun and fired the first shot. They were probably concerned about Tencent.

I’m honestly shocked Meta didn’t take the offer. Maybe they’re looking more at EA as potential purchase. Or they didn’t want to have to deal with completely restructuring Activision/Blizzard, which Microsoft is about to have to do considering how much of a ***** show Kotick has created over the past ten years there.

@PegasusActual93

COD gamers are New Age Multiplayers. They don’t give two flying dachshunds about console wars. They just care about Call of Duty. There is no platform loyalty for New Age Multiplayers. They’ll move consoles in a heart beat.

Xbox 360 was the COD console during the 7th Gen. Once Microsoft completely screwed the pooch with the Xbox One launch and Sony announced its marketing deal for exclusive content the PS4 version became the best version. The COD console crowd moved over to PS4 almost overnight.

@PegasusActual93 umm...Activision will be owned by MS so not really an issue

Phil Spencer - the man has lost all integrity. Shameful. GFY

"our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation" is interesting wording. Could be referring just to Warzone. Could indicate he intends to use his power over it as a bargaining chip. To dissuade Sony from locking further third party games away behind timed exclusivity deals? As a means to get Game Pass onto PS5?

The buck stops with him, so I have to believe that if he fully intended to keep the series multiplatform, he'd just say that.

@TheRedComet
That had more to do with Microsoft screwing the pooch on Xbox One marketing than anything else. Same reason the PS3 lagged behind almost the entire seventh gen. Gaming landscape in general has changed much since those days. The PS4 has sold over 100 million units. The PS5 is slowly but surely selling alot of units too. Despite now being owned by Microsoft (technically still not right now the deal hasnt gone through all the paperwork yet) Activision will still want a piece of that pie and to not piss off a lot of customers who otherwise would have to buy a brand new console in a pandemic world. So no I don't think COD will go Xbox exclusive. At least not for some time.

Phil Spencer wants everything to be exclusive to platforms where Gamepass is available.... He also wants Gamepass on Playstation

Have to say I like uncle Phil, think he comes across pretty well in interviews..

Well if Sony did allow Gamepass on PlayStation, then that would be the end of Xbox as a brand, Gamepass would be the new MS focus. MS would effectively no longer need to create hardware with all the platforms covered between mobile, console, PC, even Smart TV, all with Gamepass on. All on other companies hardware.

People say that Gamepass is the Netflix of games, but from MS point of view, it's more like MS Office - or that's the goal at least. The standard subscription to play from, available on every platform.

@mrtennis1990 I hate to say it, but this week is “The Phil Spencer Show: Staring Phil Spencer and Bobby Kotick”.

@Futureshark i wouldn't say that Thier the netflix of gaming cause netflix didn't own thier own content for a very long time and some may say was thier undoing ,most of their money for paid out to other companies it's not the same for gamepass for most of the the games they own on it

@Rural-Bandit

The try hards use aftermarket performance controllers or Mouse and keyboard.

The community went to PlayStation because for most titles you got the map packs first, then later on exclusive modes, extra xp, etc.

@3MonthBeef that made me proper laugh, amazing comment

@UltimateOtaku91 If you're only paying attention to console market. Of course you haven't heard about Apple, Facebook, Google, or Amazon. Microsoft focuses isn't on consoles any more. It the VR/AR/Metaverse and cloud gaming space that Microsoft is worried about, and these companies are attempting to take hold of it.

Microsoft have also mentioned before that Sony isn't their rivals anymore.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/technology-51400135.amp

@Rural-Bandit

I agree with that. The yearly COD release has taken its toll on the series. It needs a break.

I can see the argument both ways, keeping CoD multiplat or making it exclusive. If I'm running a company that has a console and we just acquired CoD? It's going brand exclusive but I also have an old-school mentality and MS has always seemed to have a different idea of 'exclusive' compared to other companies.

I was actually excited to see COD exiled from Playstation and Sony forced to bring something new and AAA to the table. I would like a AAA alternative shooter since I don't like COD.

Yeesh there is no love for Phil here! I understand being disappointed folks but there's no need to treat him like he is the spawn of Satan. I must give the dude some props I can't imagine it was easy convincing the board at Microsoft to go along with something like this. He must be very good at negotiating which I gotta respect.

And yeah I know the corporate speak is more than a little annoying but I mean we are talking about one of the biggest buyouts in industry history. Corporate speak was always going to be a given its Microsoft aka one of the biggest corporations in the world!

Anyway I will believe it when I see it if we still have COD content not related to Warzone three years from now.

Well, if they make money out of it too, I guess they could. I think the last time I played a CoD game was on the Wii though, so I realise I'm not really the target market.

Phil Spencer has been known to do the exact opposite of what he says a few months down the line, so we'll have to see what the long term ramifications are here.

@Rural-Bandit why are you even on here mate? Is it just to troll?

MS aren't playing 'nice', they're clearly trying to get something from Sony. Maybe GP on PS, maybe a gentleman's agreement to stop paying for timed exclusives or promises not to buy up more third party studios. Maybe they've agreed to keep CoD on PS but only if they get an even bigger slice of the profits, either through game sales or MTXs.

I don't want Xbox or Nintendo to exit the gaming landscape, people who prefer those platforms can play on them and I'll stick with PS as ultimately all I care about are quality SP games.

If it wasn't for all these acquisitions I wouldn't care one jot what MS were doing with their Xbox division, none of their IPs appeal to me in the slightest.

Don't believe it for a second unless he means getting game pass on it.

"existing" is the keyword

@meistergeister
I mean I know this is a subjective statement but I'm sure this is objectively incorrect.
If Sony hardware was as powerful as the Switch/Wii U/Wii they'd have been dead long ago.
Their IPs in no way compare

@Rural-Bandit
You really are a sad case. Get a life and quit trolling

Since the Bethesda acquisition I've been calling him Vague Spencer.

Wait... what? Spending $70b and having arguably the most lucrative series still multiplatform? I'm skeptical at best but this allows my slim glimmer of hope of the Bethesda developed Indiana Jones game coming to PS5 eventually... remain... for now.

Still not going to hold my breath though.

I honestly don't see MS allowing COD on PlayStation unless Sony allow GamePass and I'm not sure that would be a good move in the long run.

MS have given up trying to compete fairly & creatively with Sony and decided on the brute force approach of just hoovering up already established ip's by throwing money around.

I sincerely hope PlayStation continues to thrive because I think the epic single player games we see on the platform will disappear in a MS dominated gaming world.

Worrying times for anyone who truly loves games & I just hope MS don't buy EA as with FIFA & Madden alongside COD they would have the casual gaming market totally sewn up.

@Captain_crash199 I think the best days of single player gaming are behind us already. It's a potential sad reality that I'm trying to cope with. I hope I'm wrong, but what I'm looking forward too for the next two years and the last year... well, it's not looking bright.

@Rural-Bandit keep me in check? Haha.

How are we all going to win? I was happy with how things were, Sony were going to continue to make big AAA SP games irrespective of what MS chose to do. As I've said before, that's all I really care about.

Subscriptions, Metaverse, whatever - all I'm interested in are the next games from Naughty Dog and Guerrilla and Santa Monica plus having the option to play titles from third party developers like Square Enix, Rockstar and CD PR.

@Uncharted2007
I hope you're wrong but you're probably not 👍

@Rural-Bandit Starfield may be great, it might not be. We haven't seen a single second of gameplay as of yet and I'm entirely sceptical that it will be released this year.

You've been watching me huh? That doesn't creepy at all!

I find this site hilarious sometimes, the comments, acting like Phil spencer is a new age Hitler.
I love my ps5 I love my series X too, Stop acting tribal like Sony are your family, and just buy a series X and enjoy gamepass what the hell is wrong with you guys lmao
COD etc on gamepass is amazing what value for money!
Can't believe Fanboys complaining about gamepass - it's literally the best deal in gaming history, since i purchased my series x I have never bought 1 game!!!!!

@meistergeister It doesn't. Sony's first party games have been bought. Nintendo's best franchises were created from the ground up by in-house Nintendo teams.

@Rural-Bandit making fun?! I just prefer PS, if others like Xbox or Nintendo more than bully for them.

Also, Xbox fans need PS to exist. Without it your GP subscription will go up and up. Should be thanking us for preferring a different platform.

😉

Whatever happens it’s all in mine and you all RED circle. Meaning there is nothing you can do about it, whatever way it goes or happens.
Just enjoy the games and buy the device the games are on you want to play and the way you want to purchase, be it subscriptions or buying a disc.

One final point. People who own both but just own a PS5 for their console exclusives, you are only able to do this because for millions of us the PS is our preferred platform for third party games as well. Without us, the PS wouldn't exist and you wouldn't even get to play the occasional God of War or Uncharted.

😛

It amazes me when PlayStation diehards say that Microsoft is destroying the industry and childishly calls them Microshaft or M$. Grow up.

The games industry is a better place with Xbox in it. Just as it's a better place with Sony and Nintendo in it.

There are so many people on here just whining because they think PlayStation might not be the top of the tree anymore. Again, grow up. The industry changes all the time (just as it did when Sony took control in 1994).

Nintendo clawed their way back from the brink of death a couple of times by innovating and creating a space for themselves in the market. Sony will just have to do the same. If it doesn't, PlayStation will fall by the wayside in the same way Atari and Sega did.

*and all Sony have to do is allow Gamepass on their system.
(Which would completely destroy their gaming segment of course, but many won’t understand that).

A reply to that tweet said (has a lot of likes)

"You can kill Sony by just making COD xbox exclusive, just DO IT so you won't have any more competitor"

Laughed my butt off.

He's referring to warzone and the next 2 or 3 games. Xbox and Playstation guys are calling him a saint. He's smart and charismatic enough to fool a lot of people lol.

@itsfoz yup, they want game pass on ps simple as that and have done for a while ,don't personally see the problem to be honest as long as Sony has full control of what happens to there first party titles ,could be that ms will request at least 1 1st party per year day one.

@Futureshark ms hasn't given a ***** about consoles for years ,I agree if game pass does come to ps expect ms to stop xbox production a few years down the line.

@vapidwolf1 Interesting take. Your belief is that Microsoft will eventually become a service like Netflix or Hulu but for gaming and simply become a streaming app on whatever hardware is available?

@RevGaming playstation 4 has sold around 114 million consoles, call of duty has around 15-16 million players on playstation 4, so even after losing cod there's at least 90 million playstation users who will still game on playstation and that's if all those cod players move to xbox.

Losing Cod wont hurt sony in the long run especially due to low sales numbers for the new gen consoles, I'd wager the next couple of call of duty games will be on last gen consoles as well just to get those current playstation 4 players invested in the game

@mrtennis1990 right? It's like a certain politician we all knew for four years. Talk talk talk

Ha ha ha ha!

Oh wait, you’re serious. Let me laugh even harder!

Ha ha ha 😂

Yesterday we were all agreeing about dangerous monopolies but now that Phil Spencer said "chill", a bunch of you are calling a bunch of us names for reacting the way we did.

Do you realize how you're being manipulated by the corporations? I bet you're under the spell of Elon and Bezos and Tim too

Wake up and stop infighting. Its not Xbox vs Playstation, it's greed vs balance. It'd be nice to be Ninty PS & MS against the tech giants, but let's face it, if either Sony or MS can step on each others face and push them down to come out alive, they'll take it.

The future is shaky on all fronts for gaming. Stop assuming everyone wanted to make fun of Xbox. Stop assuming we think Phil is Hitler. Stop assuming and be cautiously optimistic instead of mocking.

What this means is CoD will go live service Free to Play and be supported indefinitely to keep ALL the CoD online fans happy. MS will 'never' release a new CoD MP game that splits the online community.

Maybe Raven will be given CoD (like 343 with Halo) and create a CoD Online 'Hub' for ALL online CoD gamers - Warzone and MP.

Treyarch will support all CoD:Zombies from all those Activision CoD games, but maybe will make a New Standalone Zombies game that's not tied into CoD so creatively free - that will be on Game Pass only. Infinity Ward may want to try a third person action adventure to break out of that CoD rut, maybe High Moon will revisit their Darkwatch IP, maybe sledgehammer want to make their own IP, Beenox could make a Kart racer/smash bros game with characters from Crash, banjo, conker, psychonauts, spyro, doom, wolfenstein, halo, CoD, Hexen, Quake, perfect dark, gears, fable, skyrim, fallout, hellblade etc - ALL EXCLUSIVE to Game Pass

@__jamiie That is true. But to clarify which companies had existing IP that Sony eventually bought?

Are Insomiac and Santa Monica some?

@nessisonett it’s actually the same thing that was said when the Bethesda deal went down. They allowed games that were already in development for PlayStation to come out on PlayStation. They also kept ESO and Fallout 76 on PlayStation. The new games are releasing exclusively on Xbox and PC. I’m willing to bet this is exactly how this Activision deal goes down. I have no idea why so many people are in denial. Microsoft didn’t spend $70 billion to allow Activision games on their biggest competitor.

@meistergeister "PlayStation has the BEST 1st Party games"? Sorry but they really don't imo.

Is it better than Microsoft's 1st Party exclusives, I would say yes but not better than Nintendo's though.

Playstation has BOUGHT existing IPs such as Ratchet and Clank and God Of War I think and made it exclusive. Nintendo's 1st party games on the other hand have been created from Nintendo's OWN in-house development teams. They didn't buy existing IPs but created their own. Monolith has been bought by Nintendo in 2007 iirc, but they created XC which is new iirc.

What has PS created by themselves? Grand Turismo and what else. Also God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn are NO WHERE NEAR the level as famous or iconic as Mario or Legend of Zelda

@UltimateOtaku91 That's not how it works.
Those that move to xbox and play cod, will start playing madden, fifa etc. and their friends will move to play with them.

@anoyonmus Insomniac certainly has IP's now owned by Sony - including the Xbox Published exclusive Sunset Overdrive that they haven't done anything with. Insomniac has made a few games on other platforms - Fuse (flopped) as an example. I can't think of any others but most studio's either had made games (inc Naughty Dog) on other platforms before making games that Sony published exclusively on Playstation before eventually buying their studio. Its a bit like the Undead Labs and Playground Games acquisitions by MS - they'd only made games for MS before joining MS.

Sucker Punch made an N64 game before making Sly and Infamous games exclusively only joining in 2013 before 2nd Son released in 2014. The reason Naughty Dog stopped making Crash was because when Sony acquired them, they never owned the IP so had to create 'new' IP's. That Crash IP was 'never' owned by Sony so it eventually ended up in Activision's possession and will be owned by MS

@anoyonmus I feel if I answer, you will continue moving the goal post.

Let me bite

Last gen...
Death Stranding, God of War, Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us 2 were the most awarded games in their respective years. Horizon and Ghost were second. Spidey third. Check game awards tracker sites.

2 of those won at the actual game awards.

Nintendo only won with zelda, and mario odyssey was third behind horizon with most awards.

That's it in terms of top most awarded games reps by sony vs nintendo.

I wouldn't say they're better, but they def are not worse than nintendo.

IGN did a contest on which gaming character is the most iconic. Kratos was on top 4 if I remember correctly, along with Masterchief, Zelda and Mario, but it's true. Nintendo sell 10m over sony games and everyone knows Pikachu.

What has sony created?

Common dude. There's a huge list.

@anoyonmus Have fun playing god of war Ragnarok on Xbox 😝

@BAMozzy funny how Crash started on PS now to only end up as an Xbox exclusive. I am gonna be honest here but I think Xbox needs some family friendly stuff. Nintendo and Sony already have some but Xbox doesn't.

@Col_McCafferty And Starfield may also be plagued with bugs. Microsoft realeased halo infinite in a relatively unfinished state. Why would they wait till Starfield is perfect?

@anoyonmus

Sony and their games: They are as good as nintendo or better. You ignore what I said with the awards lol. Ok.

See. Now you just moved the goal post to who made new ips. Eh. Nintendo was creative back then. Now they just recycle ips. I sony is the one that it's being more fresh ( don't worry, after ghost 2 is announced, everything the big 5 make will be new ips). Sony made plenty of new ips so. Horizon, Bloodborne, They gave a new twist to Gow, Spidey is new to them, Returnal and Ghost. Nintendo made pokken, splatoon and I think that's it. Last gen I mean.

Ok. I agree with that last part. Lets leave it there.

@anoyonmus

That’s not exactly fair. Sony didn’t enter the industry with any self created franchises either.

Nintendo and Sega started their video game careers as arcade manufacturers. So right off the bat they were creating games and IP. So they had stuff to transition to consoles with.

Sony and Microsoft both entered the industry as console manufacturers. They both depended heavily on third party franchises for their debut consoles. Their internal efforts were built by purchasing second party developers that they had relationships with.

@anoyonmus You keep ignoring what I said about the awards. I just mentioned more new ips from sony over nintendo this last gen (7 years).

What's your... Nvm

@TheRedComet true I guess. Do you find it sad that Crash is now Xbox exclusive now btw?

Lol this guy wants to stab people's feelings.

So phil got relationship with sony 🤔ok.hopefully next crash and spyro comes to PlayStation also.word up son

@UltimateOtaku91 Actually from what I heard, Call of Duty excs will apparently shift away from annual releases.

@anoyonmus. Gtfoh splatoon is 🗑 trash.i take sony over kidtendo all the time.playstation is the g.o.a.t. 🐐 👑.word up son

I don't care about their games or if they come to Playstation in the future.

The real issue is having just a handful of huge companies owning everything, and dictating everything relating to gaming.

@Jay429 And you don't see Gamepass at current prices is unsustainable? Microsoft are playing the long game and with Sony out of the way they can charge what they like for Gamepass.

Well if Call of Duty still releases on PlayStation then almost all of the drama yesterday about Sony going under seems quite overblown.

Also seems like 70 bil is too much money to pay for Activision.

@TheRedComet
"But Microsoft doesn’t have to honor any of it once they move into the home office."

This is simply not true. Contracts have to be honored - that's the whole point of having them. When one company acquires another they buy everything - assets, debts, existing tax audits, existing contracts, existing lawsuits, etc. All of this will still exist after Microsoft completes the purchase.

All this means...

Phil "Hey Sony, you gonna let us put Gamepass on your platform now?"
Sony "No....it eats into our profits too much"
Phil "We tried to keep COD on Playstation guys, but they wouldn't negotiate"

"We're spending as much money as a medium-sized African country's GDP in a brazen power play to buy out one of the world's most prolific, yet least reputable, gaming companies just so that we can keep their biggest IP's multiplatform instead of shoring up our own console's longstanding lack of compelling exclusives. Trust us, guys!"

Uh huh. And this is the same warm & fuzzy games media friendly "Gamer Phil",who hated 3rd party timed exclusives & thought they were anti-gamer after M$ had done it throughout the 360 era....only to progress from buying up 3rd party indies to buying two massive AAA 3rd party publishers & dozens of dev teams & 3rd party IP's & cancelling any planned multiformat releases beyond prior contracted ones!🙄 There's zero likelihood a future Crash,GUN reboot or who knows about Diablo IV. unless there's any deals in play already.

@lolwhatno thats not really fair is it? If xbox owners have a non trolling comment to make they should be welcome..its the gobshite ones that should just return to their mothers basements plus there are a heck of a lot of posters here who have both machines..

I think warzone and this year (and possibly next year) yearly call of duty will still be on playstation, but the next yearly cod will be xbox exclusive.

Just like in xbox 360 days, this will make xbox the console of choice for most usa gamers, nintendo for most (if not all) japanese gamers, and playstation for most international gamers.

@mucc No! "cOmPeTiTioN iS gOoD fOr ThE iNdUsTrY"

@mrtennis1990
Which Phil Spencer show? And I prefer to listen to Phil Spencer instead of Ryan who can't be taken serious.

@UltimateOtaku91 that's not how it works at all.

@Kohaku Good one, dude! Now that's hilarious

Now tell me Overwatch 2 is still coming to Playstation.

Thank you Phil our saviour. What a wonderful man. Phil president ! 💩😅
Just stop talking and then saying the opposite later. Politician.
‘Desire’ my @. It’s contracts.

@Omnistalgic
And then headlines :
‘Sony blocks COD access to gamers in the most anti consumer move since Ramses’

@3MonthBeef 😂😂😂 that pimp comment

I've been reading over on Reddit and it's a cess pit over there right now. The Xbox community are outraged over this and are saying "we demand GoW, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and Final Fantasy" and that's plastered on almost every comment. Among "just let Sony die".

This is one of my biggest gripes with this industry, the fanboys. They think they have the entitlement to have everything while the rest of the industry gets nothing.

I fear for this industry. Yes CoD might still be available, even though I personally don't play it. But if MS keeps gobbling up publishers it's just plain unfair to leave no games for the rest of us.

There has to be regulations set in place to prevent publisher biyout for a gap of three years imo. They've bought 2 major ones in less than two years of over 20 developers, that's unfair business. And now they have double the studio's that Sony does and over on PureXbox they're still demanding more while calling Sony evil, WHAT?!

I'm afraid of the future. This is not competition anymore, it's a takeover. One publisher at a time. I just prey they don't get Sega.

@Rural-Bandit There would be no PlayStation though, that's the frigging point.

I don't want to have to buy an Xbox (no, not interested in PC gaming before anyone mentions it), I'd want it to be an actual choice. Something to compliment my PS5 not as a replacement.

Yeah, maybe Xbox games will be good in a few years time but we'll see. As of now I'm not seeing anything that's a must play, Starfield might be junk and Indiana Jones is several years away.

I think Microsoft will be forced to keep CoD on PlayStation because of trading regulations. The first few days I was also angry about Microsoft’s move and I guess I still am. But PlayStation just needs to do what it always did and maybe they are not the top dog anymore in the long run, but that doesn’t mean they are done. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are all obsessed with the Metaverse and they will one buy one buy up all the big triple A studios. It’s all for their big plan to built a virtual world like in the movie Ready Player One. I think it’s good that PlayStation is investing more in VR. And who knows maybe they come up with a great feature or idea like Apple did. Sony will be in the same situation as Apple was versus Microsoft. And now Apple is even bigger then Microsoft. If Sony can keep making triple A games and maybe they can built a strong innovative position in VR they will be fine. There will always be independent smaller studios and Sony should give them a place and use their creativity to their advantage. And I think Sony movies and games combined can be a strong team. Get The Last of Us and Uncharted known to a larger audience and they might be interested in the games. Keep feeding PC gamers and some might buy a PlayStation console as well. Create really immersive VR open world games and they might get a spot in the metaverse. Maybe even a big one. All the big player I mentioned before are already being investigated by trade regulators. The EU parliament is motivated to force Facebook to sell WhatsApp and Instagram. Apple is under investigation. Google the same etc.

Microsoft says they see big tech companies as the real competition in the gaming space. But didn't Amazon and Google's recent game initiatives crash and burn spectacularly?

Polling the room: what sense is there that Google or Amazon are any threat in the traditional game development space? And I'm emphasizing traditional gaming, not mobile garbage or wonky 'metaverse' plans. I mean the games we play, not Casual Boop Boop Online Shooter Battle Royale 7 designed by a marketing algorithm and a focus test of 10 eight-year olds.

For all their money, they can't make a game. Maybe the fear is they will buy an existing publisher? Launch a cloud gaming service that somehow challenges the traditional model? What's the hubbub about? They don't know how to make games, and they don't have the inclination to learn. If they did, they would have stuck to their projects and not canned them at the first sign of trouble last year.

How are they the existential threat here?

@anoyonmus

How DARE you challenge the glory of Sony's first party lineup here on PushSquare (I kid).

Look - you don't like Sony's IP's or you like Nintendo's better - thats completely cool. Nintendo is the OG and started an empire on the strength of its own games.

But don't get it twisted, Sony built its franchises (Ratchet and Clank, and a multitude of others) from the ground up. It didn't "buy" them in the sense you mean. And while I respect both Sony and Nintendo somewhat equally, Sony have done better in recent years at delivering truly new IPs. Nintendo has pimped Mario out so hard the last two decades he should probably get checked out at the clinic.

Both great companies, both with an insane legacy. Both with very, very different strategies. Nintendo is about "fun" over innovation, Sony is about groundbreaking characters and story. Neither is wrong or right.

@UnlimitedSevens Simple - Google buys Sony and several large studios (EA for example) and suddenly M$ can't compete.

Until M$ has a plan (don't think they do at the moment bar spreading GamePass like some plague) we don't know what's going to happen. They COULD do something like they've done with Minecraft and keep it fully multi-platform, probably the same with CoD. Maybe Crash and Spyro could be multi-platform too?

@sanderson72

Could that realistically happen? The SEC is already frothing at the mouth at Google like a rabid dog. Would Sony even sell? Could Google pull off a (risky) hostile takeover with the regulatory spotlight it is in?

All questions for the philosophers I suppose.

@UnlimitedSevens i think if nothing else, we know that Google can get away with whatever!

@sanderson72

Amen to that brother. They seem to get a pass on a lot.

@TeapotBuddha

Seems like it's been pretty respectful outside of a side conversation about Nintendo versus Sony IPs and a general disdain toward Phil Spencer PR speak. Just a lot of neutral, probably pointless, speculation to blow of steam in the comments.

And honestly, this is a game website. I'd be slightly disappointed if there wasn't a Sony vs Nintendo games fanboy debate somewhere in here. Let the kids (and the kids at heart) have their fun!

@mrtennis1990 Steve Jobs admired Sony and based Apple on their business and aesthetic model

@lolwhatno it didnt come across that way and my comment wasnt meant to insinuate it did..

@Uncharted2007 well obviously you'll be able to download but yes,xbox was dead in the water, they couldn't make games to compete with Sony 1st party so theyve just bought them to bolster game pass,in the future it'll be microsofts game pass with it available on every single device,there will be no need for them to compete in the hardware market ,thats Phil dream.

Thank you Uncle Phil for thinking of little old PlayStation and us PlayStation fans. /S He probably means Warzone.

@Pixelated you might care when it impacts Sony's game development due to the loss of revenue.

@InvaderJim its usual M$ behavior.. buy out when they cant win. im sure sony wont fold over night regarding what just happened. i also am not interested in most of sony's 1st party games. too woke, most of'em. im personally not worried right now.... until M$ buys out basically EA and/or Ubisoft. i wont switch to xbox, either. i'll quit gaming. most i know are touting the same. we dont want an orwellian corporate takeover of gaming. but, its happening with comics and movies right now, so..... who knows.

nintendo wasnt affected obviously... why? they dont CARE about microsoft lol. neither should sony.

@Pixelated what meant was if cod were to go exclusive it would mean Sony would lose revenue from the sales of cod through things like the 30% they take for PSN sales etc, then there is the loss from cod only players that will move and no longer sub for PS+ etc. That loss of revenue will have some impact to Sony.

I honestly don't see COD going exclusive especially seeing all these games will be going on GamePass. At the moment Xbox first party games is helping funding 3rd party games deals to put them on GamePass. Highly likely why you are seeing game's like Halo infinite multiplayer go free 2 play, but cost the same for just the campaign. The most important part isn't buying studios etc, it's the up keep & management of these studios. AAA game development isn't cheap, this is the real test for Microsoft which they have history with.

@GADG3Tx87 fanboys are the worse part of this yeah, I really wish MS/Sony worked out a deal, it ruins the online experience of gaming, and I kinda want to be in it because my IRL friends aren't as passionate about gaming as I am. How entitled can you be? MS has bought with Bethesda/Activision like what 20-30 IP? Let's just say that's 3 AAA a year once all exclusivity in enacted? How are they talking about negotiation and pissed off at Spider-man and Wolverine? lol...with that type of mindset in the U.S, this deal will get passed without anyone batting an eye.

@Rural-Bandit @Col_McCafferty Dudes...one of you need to change avatar so you don't look like a schizophreniac arguing with himself online.

@Perturbator Ha, well it won't be me.

1) I had it first and 2) we're not on PureXbox.

😉

One good thing that will hopefully come out of this is that Sony will get back into shooter games.

I’ve been dying for another Killzone. I love that series and it was some of the most fun I had on PS3.

I’d also love to see SOCOM make a big come back.

Also, MAG would be a good one to revive. That was such an interesting concept that was killed by the great PSN hack/outage of 2011. It needs a new lease on life.

@Pixelated
I was thinking the same thing this morning about quitting the industry. I don't want an all online service industry controlled and dictated by Microsoft. It'll end up with MTX filled mediocre crap to fill with games on the monthly for quick money

I feared this sort of thing might happen one day and I haven't embraced digital let alone services. I went into my loft to look at my large collection of physical games from this and back to past generations and said
"screw 'em. If Microsoft want the Industry let 'em have it. I've got enough games here to last a lifetime of better quality than the future is looking."

The free to play model - apart from the fact most Online MP games are going or are F2P so difficult to 'charge' for a new game - means that 'everyone' can play on any device with NO barrier to 'entry' - also NO exclusive maps, modes etc to ANYONE..

Making a 'new' game - whether 'Exclusive' or NOT would 'split' the CoD Community. Its either going to split them between platforms (new Game Pass vs old on PS) or between 'generations' (CoD 2022 vs CoD 2024). Therefore, it makes much more sense to create a F2P MP CoD game with Seasons and maybe a 'refresh' every few years - Start with a 'Modern' era for a few years, maybe then refresh Warzone and MP to a more historical setting etc - point is, everyone is getting the 'SAME' Content at the SAME time and keeping the CoD: Online Community 'Happy'.

Raven could basically become like 343 to Halo, Coalition to Gears, Raven to CoD Online to maintain and update both MP and Warzone. Have access to 'every map' ever made to 'remaster', remake etc. Maybe make a CoD Online Hub where one mode could be a 'retro' playlist that this month is CoD4 so you have CoD4 maps and Loadouts, next month maybe BO3 MP. They could have a 'Community' section for creating 'new' modes or perhaps let you play Advanced Warfare maps but with say CoD:MW2 weapons, movement and killstreaks (no exo-skeletons) which could be interesting in BO3 as the Water and wall running opened up new routes but can't with CoD:MW2 movement as you'd drown - making those maps 'feel' and play different. Point is, they have a LONG history they can use to 'keep' the future of CoD fresh without needing 'new' games every year splitting the Community between the 'new' and 'older' games

CoD: Zombies will 'exist' on Playstation because those games with 'CoD: Zombies' will continue to 'exist'. Want to play Mob of the Dead or whatever maps are on PS will 'remain' on Playstation. Treyarch however could make a 'brand new' Zombies game that is basically the same 'Game-play' and structure as CoD: Zombies, with a whole new cast (maybe get Horror actors as lead characters to play), completely 'new' origin story (not WW2 Nazi's to 'fit' the CoD name) - a 'spiritual' successor if you like, that will be 'exclusive' where Game Pass exists. PS CoD: Zombie fans may well be left out and 'annoyed' that no more CoD:Zombies games will come and have to 'make do' with replaying all the existing games or sign up to Game Pass.

Infinity Ward could make a 'new' first Person shooter campaign to bring all those PS fans of Infinity Ward 'Campaigns' to Game Pass, or maybe want to try a 3rd Person Action adventure after decades of CoD only. Sledgehammer may have their own IP's they want to make, High Moon could revisit their 'Darkwatch' IP (PLEASE), and Beenox could make a Kart Racer/Smash Bros type game with characters from Spyro, Crash, Banjo, Conker, Psychonauts, Halo, Perfect Dark, Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, Hexen, CoD, Fable, Hellblade, Skyrim, Redfall, Gears of War, Fallout etc EXCLUSIVELY to Game Pass.

honestly id be okay with gamepass coming to ps5 id buy it to be honest if that means xbox is willing to put there exclusives on playstation ive wanted to try the new forza game but

@naruball It's just insane people are trying to justify this as good competition. Then all they bring up is Spiderman and try to act like that's in any way comparable to buying up 2 massive publishers to take games off other platforms. Buying out the competition because you can't make great games yourself and let consumers choose for themselves is so good for an industry!

I must be dumb not to understand that Microsoft are the best thing that ever happened to gaming. Xbox fanboys over on PureXbox are right now saying that Sony is the most damaging company in gaming because;

Sony: gets one timed exclusive here and there during a generation that everyone can still play at some point. Pure Evil.

Microsoft: Buys two huge publishers of over 35 developers, 50 IP's and locks them behind a paywall and excludes two massive platform holders.

Right now they're giving @UltimateOtaku91 a very hard time trying to explain how Sony are the bad guys and Microsoft are our saviours. I just can't bring myself to comment because I think my brain would melt trying to show them this comparison.

Especially that guy over there called Banjo. Literally every comment section he brings up Sony, even when the article has nothing to do with them and spreads pure hatred, the guy is totally obsessed with them. And the comparison I made above, he truly believes that too.

I mean, WHAT?! how are Sony the bad guys for obtaining one game here and there Vs Microsoft who in less than two years have stolen more developers and games than Sony have ever had in nearly 30 years in the industry? Educate me guys, how am I not seeing this? 🤯

@Rural-Bandit
I don't recall Activision announcing they were for sale. Just a controversy happened and next thing you know Xbox bought them.
My imagination is "sell to us and our lawyers will protect you from this scandal".

I'm probably being cynical but I didn't see any prior news that they were for sale. 'stolen' may not be the right word there, but they definitely took a huge advantage and despite Phil's claims that they are 'inclusive' PS and Nintendo will never be included unless they bow to his 'vision'.

I think bullying is really stretching it, @Olmaz. Giving reassurances, no matter how vague is not bullying. Plus you need to consider that Activision first went to Facebook to see whether they were interested in purchasing them (they also went to two or three other big companies (maybe Google, Amazon or Tencent) all of whom would have been worse custodians of the franchise. At the end of the day, it needs to be remembered that Activision was in big trouble. They need someone to bail them out and only those companies mentioned above were really in a position to buy them out. Sony just isn't big enough and the other companies are just not suitable. Ultimately, for the franchise to continue, the company ended up in the best possible place (amongst those that could afford them). I know its not a popular opinion among some PlayStation players, but it could have been a whole lot worse...

@Fiendish-Beaver I was more or less joking about the bullying, of course.
It's just the constant flexing that can get annoying, especially for people who love gaming and think this acquisition (and those that will happen after it) is not a good news.

I don't trust him and Microsoft one bit :-/ He is only saying this so the deal can go thru without people going mad and then Microsoft and him will show their real colours. DON'T FALL FOR IT SONY!!!

Fair enough, @Olmaz. I think that the bottom line though, is that it really could be a whole lot worse; we could have to have a Facebook account to play and maybe only able to do so on a PC, or if bought by Apple we might only have access to the games on an Apple device, or it could have been bought by Tencent and maybe with the backing of their government they would never have heeded any prior contracts. Likewise Google may have shifted everything over to the PC and would have expected us to inform them what we ate for breakfast before logging in! I know I may exaggerate (or do I?) but the truth it, it really could have been a lot worse...

@Rural-Bandit
That must have escaped me as I never heard anything about it. Do you happen to have any articles I can read? I'm not trying to be that 'got a source' kind of guy, I'm interested in reading it.

As for Zenimax I also can't remember if they put themselves out there either. I guess if these companies are actively seeking a buyer then it's not so bad. But if MS are simply swooping in and saying 'here's money, join us' then I think that's unfair.

As for the change in the industry, I hate it. Not because it's Microsoft but because I'm a collector. I never buy digital, I don't like subscriptions. I still buy all my media physically. So I can play what I want when I want without a corporation telling me what I can or can't play and when I can play them (licences). Plus internet dropouts means I can't play anything during that time.

What I'm most afraid of is Microsoft gobbles everything up. There are no or not many games and studios left for anyone else. It's all locked behind a subscription. And I can't buy any more games to keep forever. Even digital games are not forever due to licencing constraints.

And even when GamePass evolves into a full cloud based service I think even digital distribution will go away and become nothing more than a TV app streaming games where all you need is a controller. Because everyone has TV's in some form.

People talk about preserving games. Personally I don't trust any corporation to preserve anything or offer a way to access very old games forever as time goes on. So, I do my own preservation, by keeping them forever. I don't want that taken away from me. And I hope some people can understand that.
Corporations are like politicians, they talk a lot but can't be trusted.

@Rural-Bandit
Thanks for that, I'll have a look shortly.

I get the convenience of digital, I just, just.. can't do it. I just don't trust these companies at all not to take away that which I bought and loved so much.

True, a lot of discs have day one downloads. Some don't though. Persona 5 for example is still on v1.0 and I re-bought Spyro with all the data and patches on the disc. It was quietly redistributed after the initial launch. I have several games like that.

For the ones that do require downloads, I'm covered for that. I have a website bookmarked with a catalogue of ever piece of patch data and data needed to complete a disc copy of a game. I spent a whole day downloading and backing up the latest data to every game I own.
In the future when the servers shut down I can use a USB to manually reinstall that missing data and continue to play them forever. Of course if it comes to that I may have to use a homebrew method, but by then they won't care because they will be offline anyway.

I'm very protective over what I pay for and enjoy. And I don't trust any company to be my friend. I suppose you could say I'm cynical and a bit obsessive, maybe a little.. crazy?
I do have severe mental health issues so that could have something to do with it.

GamePass on PlayStation will be profitable for Sony. I hope we all understand that whatever game subscription service is there, it has to pay the cut to the platform owner.

Remember how even Fortnite pays its share of revenue to Sony for micro-transactions conducted outside of PlayStation (depending on what platform the spender plays the most).

You can read it any way you like but one thing is true: that's some big di** energy and everyone knows it.

@Rural-Bandit
That's very kind of you to say. Some people think I'm crazy to be so protective of my games. They think that once you finish it, it's done. But not for me. Heck, I've been playing KotOR once every year since the original PC release came out in 2003. I go back to games a lot.
My brother says I think too much into things too, but he doesn't care as much as I do, I'm much older than him and didn't really move on from the old ways of just putting a disc in. And even though I have a backup plan, I despise the day the internet arrived on consoles.

I'm always on the lookout for little hidden gems in serving hand and charity shops for old games to buy and look after.
And one day, when old and wrinkley I'll be able to show my gran kids and say "you don't know what this little round thing is. It's from before your time, when games were in their prime".

Some people try to scare monger by saying games and consoles don't last forever. I disagree, I've got games from the PS1 releases over 25 years ago, and some further back than that. There are no signs of wear, no disc rot as they call it. They still look brand new. The trick is LOOK AFTER THEM. All my consoles work just as the day I got them too.

Just the other day I was playing Dino Crisis 2 on my PS1. Good times.

I'm not sure I see any of those other companies as a threat myself. Netflix wouldn't know how to run a games company in my opinion, and if they tried they would be no better than mobile games.

Amazon and Apple already have mobile stores so I don't see them as anything big that can affect mainstream gaming.
And Google Stadia failed, proving no matter how much money you have, that doesn't mean you'll be successful.
That's my take anyway. I just wish people, and I mean everyone, Sony MS, Nintendo, etc will just leave gaming as it is. If it ain't broke, y'know.

If I was Microsoft I would cut support for PlayStation as soon as possible, it's like buying an expensive brand new car and giving my neighbor that I don't really like a set of keys and telling him he can use it whenever he likes, it just don't make any sense.

You can spin it whatever way you like but PlayStation is Xbox's direct competitor and they ain't laying down billions to play happy families with Sony, they wanna be on top, and they want Xbox to be market leader and power moves like what we've just seen prove it. PlayStation will be lucky to get one more COD but after that it's lights out for that franchise on any other console not to mention all the other ip's.

@GADG3Tx87 "games as a service" - that quote alone should send chills down gamers' spines. not in a good way, either! but there's more to this acquisition madness going on right now. there's definitely a "woke" agenda at play here, because i can guarantee ya that's where all these games are headed. again, as i said, if sony were doing this? i'd say the same thing. then you have the casuals that'll literally play ANY game, not caring agendas are within. they just buy, buy, buy. these are the same people who get upset that "core" gamers are complaining about these issues. we complain because it's our hobby and we spent tons of time and money over 20, even 30 years buyin and playing games and we dont wanna see them go down doo doo road!

@MEGAMAN_D
And if I was Microsoft I'd do the exact opposite of what you just said because you fail to see one huge advantage they would get by still including PlayStation and still giving their own users the best position.

GamePass - For users who want a cheap means of playing these games. Their own player base get this great deal. And preferable treatment.

PlayStation - For absolutely stubborn users who refuse the GaaS model, make them pay full price at £70 and tap into Sony's own player base that would never have left.

It's a win-win for MS. Because there are some or a lot of users that will never buy an Xbox. So charge them anyway. Sony has a very large user base, make money off of them.
Sony will always have customers either way. Might as well get money from them and even slightly humiliate Sony in the process by having the 'Xbox Game Studios' logo show up in a game on PS.

@Pixelated
Yeah, agreed. I will never accept a GaaS model. I don't even accept digital. I refuse to give up my rights to a service which will dictate what and when I can play.
I will continue to buy physical as long as I can, services can shove it.

Over on PX I can't fathom how they say Sony are the bad guys for the odd timed game here and there which they get to play anyway. But MS are the good guys for permanently taking games previously available to all forever from two major platforms. And they don't even realise that MS were the ones who started that idea.

And what about paying for Indiana Jones exclusivity? Hypocrites much?

Where's the logic?
There isn't one unless you're a fan of a logo. As an industry, it is damaging, and MS have the audacity to say "please don't damage the industry, Sony."

..."because we need to get there first and take everything because we suck and can't win fairly".

@MEGAMAN_D right.. and when M$ buys too many other corporations out? anti trust laws kick in. last i knew, monopolies are illegal! sony should so what nintendo does - ignore M$. u cant buy success.

@GADG3Tx87 was childish of M$ to ask SONY not to damage gaming lol. how can sony damage it? its not THEM becoming a monopoly! xbox people are laughing and making fun right now, but they've NO clue what's in store if M$ did take over gaming down the road. it's not a bright future. it's fulla woke crap, micros, digital only, possibly another run at forced always-on and forced kinect camera always-on. gamers still dont get it - gamepass = all digital, and all digital = you dont own games, and not owning games = they become a service, becoming a service = they can TAKE your games from you at any time for any reason or no reason which includes im sure finding a post you made on facebook that wasnt "politically correct" and then you get your "gamepass" yanked away.

@InvaderJim right... well... then Sony needs to find/hire a new dev, even an indie one, to make a better knock-off version of "call of duty" and then make it exclusive to PS5 and have NO pc port, either. the door is wide open for sony to buy/hire new talent now. because obviously M$ has none to sport, they gotta buy up talent.

i'd quit porting games to pc, if i were sony. also, i'd seriously look into creating another handheld if i were sony. i'd also extend an olive branch to nintendo, because M$ is doing that right now with nintendo and its very odd to me that a U.S. company (M$) is gettin buddy buddy with a japanese company (big N). you'd think it'd be sony gettin buddy buddy.

@Pixelated
YES! EXACTLY! someone who gets it! I don't like a future where I don't own my games. I will not give up my rights to a corporation on what I can play or buy and how long for. Which is why I collect a huge library of past and present games.

As for the whole politically correct stuff. Remember it was Phil who wants a world where if you break the Xbox code of conduct he will have the right to ban you across every platform and social media there is.
PS, Nintendo, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch. He has full control of your accounts and if he doesn't like the things you're saying can banish you from the internet?

This is 'Mr Nice Guy?'
WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?!? the power is going to his head. And that's a scary thought.

@GADG3Tx87 wow, he said that? ban u across ALL platforms? wowww... then i was right. this is orwellian and its to control speech. making more sense now why M$ wants to "own" gaming. they want it under control so they can push the agendas like we're seeing in movies and music and even comics now. everyone saying "i'll just get it on gamepass!" have no idea that those words will eventually wreck gaming down the road (I had a pc gamer tell me M$ buying up stuff wont affect him as a pc gamer, i told him if he uses windows then YES, it most certainly will affect him). i've noticed the agendas being pushed on PS5 as well with what they promote lately in the online store. everything is a political agenda now and gaming is obviously about to go under hardcore control and speech control. this is why i think it's so sinister that suddenly M$ wants to buy everything up but gamers are giggling and laughing and not seeing the bigger picture.

@Pixelated
Yep, he said that alright. And no one is even calling him out on it. Because it's 'My Nice Guy, Phil!'

How can no one see through him.

Here, read for yourself.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/01/phil-spencer-wants-the-gaming-industry-to-implement-cross-platform-bans1

@GADG3Tx87 wow that article is insane... well... he has no control over my speech, and i buy my games. he doesnt buy them. he wants people to be banned from playing a game they bought, all because someone said words he doesnt like? lol george orwell saw the future didnt he? the article u linked mention a.i. snooping your posts lol. i read a while back an article claiming M$ wants to unleash this kind of a.i. on the entire internet. to me, thats an agenda. control. im glad i quit using windows and xbox YEARS ago. i was smart and i saw the writing on the wall.

@Pixelated
Yeah, I quit Xbox and moved to playStation when they started showing that they want to control everything you buy, force you into their way of thinking and when people were against it MS be like.
"I know, let's buy everything then they will have no choice".
People think MS are friends with Sony, Nintendo and every other social platform? When they slowly eliminate the competition by leaving nothing for anyone what happens then?
We're either forced into Xbox and Windows, whatever social media they come up with. They control everything we say, buy, how long for and what price we pay, because there is no other choice.

The alternative? Don't like it, no internet for you. Bye-bye.

I left Xbox, refuse to support MS. I just can't believe people can't see them for what they are. Xbox fanboys go on about Disney, Sony, Tencent, Google etc. I'm sorry, how is MS saving the world by controlling everything? censoring everything? The thing Xbox fans accuse Sony and all the others of? MS want to do it on a worldwide scale! How are people so damn blind! Because it's MS and their precious Xbox?

Xbox is just the stepping stone to MS world domination, because gaming is more popular than ever. Nowadays everyone has a computer in there pocket than MS can wiggle their way into with their 'services'.

This is why my games collection from now to the past continues to grow. Physically. I won't conform to their future. And I'll laugh when everyone is under their control because they kept saying 'but, but, but, GamePass! It's consumer friendly!"

Yep. For now.

@GADG3Tx87 seems to me ALL the companies will fall in line with the same agenda eventually. always do. nintendo is the rare hold-out, but even they cave at some point, to some degree. i just wish nintendo would quit releasing decade-old tablet hardware, calling it a "game system" and then charging a premium for it lol. they also need to get a real UI for their consoles and a real online service that doesnt require use of a phone app to voice chat buddies.

as long as sony does their "own thing" over to the side like nintendo always does, they should be able to shrug M$ off. people think this is "sony pony fan talk" - nope, it's not. PS4 was my first playstation ever. i liked it, got PS5. im not a hardcore fan, i'm just trying to be smart and not use consoles run by overlords lol.

@redd214 You realize they don't own them until next year when everything is signed. Phil can't say what there gonna do because they don't own them yet

@GADG3Tx87 yeah because that's exactly what SONY would do right?

XBOX know they are lagging in 3rd place, my co-workers were in the office talking about the PS5 at the new job I just started and when I mentioned the series X they didn't even know what it was!! they can't even compete with Nintendo let alone Sony, the PlayStation brand is just too strong and Microsoft know it and people can say all they like that Microsoft don't care about console sales and that all their money is in gamepass and while the latter may be true I can promise you that while MS is putting boxes out there on store shelves, they care about them console sales and they want them off the shelves and the stage is being set for a console/brand war and they are gonna go for the kill and anybody thinking otherwise is kidding themselves, Whether it pays off only time will tell.

@Jconn79 thanks for that tidbit, really helpful!