Kevw2006

I think Phil has taken his eye off the ball being so focused on the ABK saga and he now realises he needs to get back to the day job in producing great games. Like Sony MS has some great studios on their hands that should be producing a steady stream of great games.
One 10/10 game might not make a difference but a constant stream of them will and it's Phil's job to manage those studios and make sure that happens.

@cburg You're horribly mistaken if you think the feeling is that Sony must win at all costs. It's more of a genuine fear of what would happen if Microsoft are allowed to get into a position of dominance as they have a history of using their vast resources to crush the competition once they get into such a position.

The problem will come once the masses start to get wise and just pick and choose the months they subscribe depending on if a new game releases on there that they want to play and then just subscribe for the month and then cancel the sub again until something else comes along. You could then have millions of people all playing through a game at a fraction of the price it would cost them to buy it. I've already seen people say they have cancelled their game pass subs and will just sign up again for Redfall or Starfield and cancel once they are done with those.

I think they've learned from other big releases announcing their release dates too early and then getting backlash when delays have been announced so are waiting until they know for sure they can meet a date before announcing. I'm thinking it might be later than September now though.

@thefourfoldroot1 The most bizarre comments I see are the ones claiming that MS can't compete with Sony, while simultaneously praising MS for buying ABK for almost 80bn. They compete on a level that almost no one can match.

@thefourfoldroot1 I see another 10 year deal has been announced this morning. The very fact MS feels the need to make these deals tells me that they've known all along that cloud would be an issue and a possible deal breaker.
It may actually be that these 10 year deals are what has worked against them as it has highlighted the fact that if you want Call of Duty on your platform then you would need to do a deal with Microsoft. And if the fallout from the CMA decision has shown us anything, it's that if you don't do what MS wants they will get nasty very quickly.

@thefourfoldroot1 It does amuse me how MS have flipped from bigging up the cloud and talking about 150 million more gamers to cloud now being a small and insignificant market.
People keep forgetting that the regulators don't just take the current situation into consideration, they need to think about the future too and the cloud gaming market will grow and grow.

@Green-Bandit Judging by their responses to the deal being blocked I'm beginning to think there is no plan b or c. The longer they focus their attention on fighting the decision the longer it's going to take them to come up with a plan b or c too.

@BaldBelper78 A bunch of 'experts' saying that the CMA were expected to approve the deal based on little to no evidence doesn't mean they were ever actually going to approve it. The only thing we knew for sure was that they had dropped the console side of things but we're still looking at the cloud aspect. The very fact that they dropped one but were still looking into the other suggests to me that they had concerns about that part all along and this isn't just a sudden change of heart.
Cloud gaming was always listed as a concern, why do you think MS were throwing around 10 year deals to other cloud platforms like sweets, they must have known it was a potential deal breaker the fact they put so much work into it.

@Green-Bandit Timed exclusive deals doesn't give MS what they want though. They want the games on game pass to increase its value. They would need to negotiate a deal for that and if you were to add some sort of timed exclusivity on top of that then it may not be worth their while.

And people went on about Jim Ryan crying. MS and ABK are taking it to a whole new level now that it's them that isnt getting their way.

@Tharsman I know it's probably just how these things work but it never really sat well with me that Microsoft were offering these 10 year deals for things that they didn't actually own yet and could possibly be blocked. Especially being so public about it. I get that the deals were made to try and appease the regulators and garner positive public perception of the deal but in my opinion they were offering something that wasn't theirs to offer at that particular time.

@Matroska All I'm saying is that until the appeal is all said and done and there is an official verdict I will take anything that the experts say with a pinch of salt. I don't think that is an unreasonable stance to take given that everyone seemed so sure the CMA would approve the deal and they now haven't.
The statement you quoted is correct but it is only part of the story as it was still well known that they were still looking into the cloud side of things. Given that MS signed a few 10 year deals relating to cloud gaming they must have had some concerns that it might be a problem.
I've also never read the daily mail on my life so have no idea what even goes on there.

@Sakai At this point I'm taking nothing the experts say seriously as they all seemed to think it was a sure thing the deal would be approved no problem. Although it does seem like arguing that the ruling is irrational seems to be the only real grounds for appeal for this.

It sounds like those 10 year deals that were being offered didn't go far enough and were possibly still giving MS too much control over things.

@NEStalgia I wouldn't call it belated anger as such, more that at the time of the Bethesda deal things were all very uncertain on what MS's intentions were towards exclusivity. Very vague statements talking about case by case basis gave some hope that games would remain multiplatform but since then Redfall, Starfield, and now Hifi Rush have all been exclusive and that has made people fear that anything that doesn't have a specific deal on place will no longer release on PS. That and I think people weren't quite so worried when it was 'just' Bethesda but adding ABK on top of that is such a short period of time has added to the anger. MS have already publicly stated that they are not finished with just ABK so the fear is if the deal is allowed to go through then what's next?

@NEStalgia I don't think most people have an issue with there being a credible challenger to PS in the market and Xbox in the past has even been more than just a challenger. They probably still would have been too if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot with the Xbox One launch. The issue that most people have is the way in which MS is going about becoming that credible challenger by taking a short cut and buying up large multiplatform publishers and potentially making future releases for popular multiplatform ip's exclusive. CoD is the only game that an offer is being made for so that leaves a number of different games across both ZeniMax and ABK that may, and likely will, no longer be available on PS.

@RonnieL Yeah I was largely just agreeing with your original statement 🙂

@RonnieL Look up their company history, they have a track record of using their vast resources to dominate markets and destroy the competition. They will never change.

Hopefully this is the start of VR being added to PS plus on a fairly regular basis.

@GodofCapcom I actually expect Redfall to review well, but I don't think it will be a big system seller. I'd expect there to be a significant increase in Xbox sales when Starfield releases though.

If it's a fully fleshed out game rather than a tacked on add on to a game that already has more than enough content then I'm happy enough with this. I will wait and see how the game looks once there is more revealed to decide if it is worthwhile buying.

@middyone I wouldn't say it's terrible, but it's also nothing memorable either. I've had a few people tell me they've struggle to get into the Horizon games because the story hasn't really pulled them in.

@BAMozzy I think at this point we will just need to agree to disagree as ultimately we will just need to wait and see what happens. At the moment everything is really just speculation and opinions, we don't know the finer details of the 10 year contract on offer. Bear in mind that MS could theoretically hold Sony to ransom with a very unfavourable deal just to ensure they get CoD for 10 years.
Also, did you seriously suggest that people may buy Suicide Squad? 😂

@BAMozzy It's really not as important a metric as you are trying to claim it is though. Name a single Spider-Man or even Marvel game prior to the insomniac games that you would seriously consider a system seller? Yes, there is a bit of increased popularity for Spider-Man at the moment due to Tom Holland's performances in the movies but there have been popular Spider-Man movies released previously with tie in games that haven't been remotely close to being considered a system seller. Plus the insomniac games aren't even tied to the MCU version and don't use Tom Holland's likeness, which is something that has gone against other popular superhero games that have released lately.
I'm not saying they rely on money from CoD to develop games because as you say they have money coming in from various other sources, however money from CoD will go towards budgets being bigger and, theoretically, games being better because of that. I'd be very surprised if both MS and Nintendo didn't operate in a similar manner too.

@BAMozzy You are correct that Spider-Man and Wolverine may be bigger IP's that go beyond gaming but that's also where you're argument falls over. They are much bigger IP's outwith gaming than they are in gaming and in a gaming sense CoD is a much larger IP than either of those. The very fact that Sony uses money from CoD to fund development of games like Spider-Man and Wolverine says it all really and it's not even close. Add in the fact that if Spider-Man is a bigger IP then MS would have jumped at the chance when they had the offer.

@XenonKnight I only mention it as an example because Forspoken gets used against Sony and it wasn't very well received either.

@WallyWest don't forget The Gunk too. As it stands that is a full third party exclusive.

@XenonKnight That's what I don't get, people keel saying that MS NEEDS ABK to compete. They already have more than enough to compete and if they aren't then that isn't Sony's fault, they need to look at how they're managing their own portfolio.

@Oscarjpc And MS could use their vast money to fund exclusives and invest in and grow their own existing studios rather than just buying publishers and making their own deals for third party exclusives, which you conveniently seem to forget that they also do. Why should it just have to be Sony that should be restricted to having to invest in their own exclusives and not be able to look elsewhere?

So I assume they will be asking MS for the same documentation on their deals and acquisitions that they have made then just to make everything nice and fair...

I was trying to resist watching to avoid spoilers but have ended up caving in and now I can't wait.

@Tharsman I sure hope it is a major overhaul but to be honest for what it needs the delay should be a lot longer.

@get2sammyb I'm kind of surprised that Sony have taken the bait if that was indeed the intention.

@TheGrizMan I can't speak for Nintendo Life but Pure Xbox definitely does do console war, it's usually a bit more subtle but it's definitely there.

@BAMozzy He never said he didn't care about CoD, he said he didn't care about making a deal for CoD. There's a massive difference there.

"disappointing behaviour"

It's quite refreshing that such a game can win best game over some big budget AAA release. Personally my only experience of it is on mobile and I didn't get on too great with it, although that's a personal preference thing on not liking touchscreen controls. I feel I would quite enjoy it with a controller.

@Tharsman Fair point, I wasn't disputing what you said. It was more just a generalisation. Although surely CoD must bring in enough money to fund it's own development. Obviously it all will just become Microsoft's money which is then up to them to distribute as they see fit and may be spread out to fund other releases, but I'd expect that a large chunk of what CoD brings in will go back in to funding future CoD releases.

@Tharsman While it's undoubtedly true that Microsoft would be the ones paying for every ABK game going forward they will also be getting revenue from any ABK game that sells on PlayStation, past, present and future. Those revenues would also in part go towards development of those games.

I'd just been considering buying Sackboy in the past few days and was going to check if it was on sale at the moment. Glad I held off now 😃

@EhronLocke Fingers crossed it is. Although I'm still playing through Persona 3 and then have 4 to play after that so they will keep me occupied in the meantime.

@EhronLocke There was a leaked screenshot that suggested Shin Megami Tensai games are coming to Xbox too, the screenshot didn't list PS as one of the available platforms so that could suggest it's coming to Xbox but not PS. All rumours at the moment though so until anything is officially announced we can't be sure

@Wilforce it's in the terms of their deal that Bungie can self publish and release on any platforms they choose. I think they were rather insistent on maintaining their independence. Although I don't recall Microsoft ever stating that they would continue to release multiplatform games after they have bought a developer apart from when there was a pre-existing contract or announcement in place, and those have all been honoured to be fair. Other than that they have been fairly vague about whether releases would be multiplatform, and they still are largely being vague about it.

@UltimateOtaku91 God of War Ragnarok may have sold more than CoD on PS but CoD will still be bringing in way more money to Sony through microtransactions. Same with all of the other games you mentioned.

@Wilforce No one batted an eyelid at Bungie as it was categorically stated at the time that Bungie will continue to operate in an independent manner releasing multiplatform games. It was a condition of the buyout.

@Sakisa That very same game that you are questioning if Sony are so reliant on is the very same one that Microsoft are so desperately trying to take ownership of. The very fact that they are dangling it as the carrot in deals to try and push the acquisition through shows how important MS think it is too.

@cburg I don't think anyone here is trying to claim that Sony are innocent of anything here. The main complaint seems to be that they are getting a lot of flack for engaging in practices that Microsoft have, and still do, engage in themselves. That fact seems to be clearly forgotten about when people say things like Sony have brought this on themselves. They also HAD to try and stop the merger, it just simply wouldn't have looked good if they had just sat there and did nothing. I would fully expect Microsoft to have done just as much to try and stop it if it was Sony buying ABK. Let's not forget that Microsoft have been guilty of engaging in some shady business practices in the past and anyone who doesn't believe they are capable of doing it again is being naive.

@BAMozzy Barring a couple of high profile examples, where is your evidence that Sony actively blocks "the majority" of Japanese games from Xbox? And cause Microsoft said so isn't really evidence.

Have they actually looked at the sales figures over there for both hardware and software? Although US Congress does seem a bit out of touch with reality following the Tiktok hearing 😂