You know a Rewards system is bad when it’s less generous than Nintendo’s. You really have to try to be less generous than Nintendo. When it comes to anything.
A lot of it makes sense, there is a big shift taking place. The Console market isn’t particularly growing and is only a small segment of the whole market. Meanwhile game development costs continue to go up and more and more revenue is sucked up by the successful GAAS franchises-Fortnite, GTA Online, COD etc. True Console exclusives are getting harder to justify in terms of cost unless you’re Nintendo and are working on less powerful hardware, meaning games cost less to make.
What he doesn’t say is Xbox is much more exposed to the headwinds of change than Sony or Nintendo. Not just because their share of the Console market has stagnated but because their Console business is much less important to MS as a whole than it is Sony or Nintendo. Making their Console business a 50m(ish) box segment of a wider platform makes total sense to them.
Nintendo just got behind with everything in the early 2010s. The late Wii era was barren, they bodged the 3DS launch and then had to throw resources at it to get the Mario/Mario Kart life raft sailing, then had very little for the Wii U’s first year. I remember them publicly expressing surprise at the time HD development took because of course they wouldn’t ask anyone who’d been doing it while they were pushing out Wii mini game compilations. They got there in the end though.
Totally agree on your points about Sony. They leave a phenomenal number of franchises behind rather than build them up. The PS2 was king of platformers-Ratchet, Jak, Sly Raccoon, Ape Escape all first party-but they’ve let most of them slide-very welcome to see Astro Bot on the way though. They dipped their toe in promising waters with PlayStation All Stars and Little Big Planet Karting but gave up any attempts at franchise building like that very quickly. They need to learn from Nintendo there.
Yeah it’s funny how it happened for Nintendo. In the 80s they were almost reluctant to let third parties get involved, opting to do so but under very strict conditions. If you look at what they did on NES and SNES it was similar to how Sony behave now. The basis of the library was third party stuff and Nintendos three or four huge titles a year were the cherry on the icing of the cake. It’s why so many people think of Konami, Capcom, Square, Sunsoft etc when they think of those systems.
They absolutely had to up their game on the N64 (helped by Rare) and then Gamecube. It’s actually been a long road for them when you look at the N64’s droughts*, then the Cube’s struggles. The 3DS and Wii U launches were a disaster as they basically didn’t have the resources and Wii U never recovered.
They finally cracked it on Switch, the first year was masterful and they’ve kept up a tremendous pace of releases. Lots of new stuff and slick reuse of their huge catalogue. Ironic, given how much third party stuff is on that system, more than they’ve ever had.
Their management of the brands should be a lesson to others. They don’t let that many IP disappear altogether (sobs in Wave Race). Even obscure ones like F-Zero, Pikmin, Earthbound get their occasional bones thrown in. They’ve kept the quality high especially for their key franchises. Sony don’t have the same legacy but they have much more than most and their refusal to properly utilise this continues to baffle me.
Not that much of a surprise in that outside of Nintendo, exclusives aren’t really the big sellers. They’re important as differentiators and mean the world to fanboys but they only really exist as a way to make sure people buy the big third-party games on PlayStation.
Personally though, Sonys release schedule does mean that they (along with Xbox) have pushed me towards probably going PC+Nintendo next-gen.
P.S. I also can’t believe they are ignoring so many franchises. Why we aren’t getting a steady stream of PS3 remakes/remasters/collections to fill the calendar out is a mystery. Technically difficult yadda yadda, they’re just ignoring them.
The only way that’s possible is for either Sony or MS to directly pay Take Two the amount that they think they would lose in sales by being on the service. In other words, an absolutely phenomenal amount of money. Never going to happen.
Now, years down the line when the revenue stream is GTA 6 Online yes, it’ll be on these services as with GTA V, RDR2 and others. But that will be a while away. The sub services are great overall and they work well for some games/publishers/business models but not for a behemoth like GTA6.
Just glad it’s finally over. Good news from a competition POV, hopefully Xbox becoming more of a threat and the change of personnel at the top lights a fire under Sony.
You can see why, to someone who just thinks in dollar signs, GAAS is so tempting. Get it right and it’s a goldmine. But so few get it right, the vast majority fail.
For Sony especially it seems like wasted resource. That could have been spent building up their single player library, resurrecting forgotten franchises, or even Remastering all those great first-party games stuck on PS3.
My expectations were low but it was a decent show even if there wasn’t a lot for me personally. But across all formats it’s been a good year and there are a lot of very promising games to come.
Back where we were before the court case. MS are that desperate to get their hands on Blizzard and especially King they’d probably have given Sony 15 if they’d have asked and we could have all moved on months ago.
In the big picture yes competition is good. The nature of the industry at the minute is that exclusives are a thing. I’d rather they weren’t and everyone competed on other fronts but that’s how it is.
Without competition you finish up with all games on one platform and one company having all the power about when games are released and how much they cost, which would be an utter disaster.
I’m totally confident you won’t be doing what you say in your last sentence. This is the nature of business, any market leader anywhere should be under attack and should feel like they are. It wards off complacency and arrogance.
Sony are in a well deserved position as market leader with a huge amount of well deserved trust in the brand. MS have realised this and are taking a different angle (zigging where the competition is zagging, so to speak), it’s now up to Sony to respond. That doesn’t necessarily mean through acquisitions but focussing on what they do so well. Up the first party output, don’t leave established franchises going mouldy on a shelf, leverage existing relationships with third parties. Competition is good and I’m hopeful Sony will respond in a way that’s good for us as gamers and consumers.
Sony were doing the exclusive games thing back in the 90s (Tomb Raider 2) before MS moved into the Console business. They were the big boy financially and used that muscle to leverage their way into a dominant market position. They outspent the competition on marketing, they had their own manufacturing plants to keep costs down, they could afford to eat losses on hardware and undercut the competitions licensing fees, they had their own established chain of retail outlets. That’s how it works. Nintendo were the industry big boys, then Sony came along as a bigger boy, now MS are the million-pound gorilla.
I agree it shouldn’t, but that’s where we are. Pretty much the only consistent thing that’s happened throughout the life of the Games industry is platform holders getting complacent and arrogant. Anything that helps preclude that (and I’m not alone in sensing some of that from Sony recently) is welcome. The vast majority of what they’re trying to buy here won’t really impact the Console sector anyway-they want WOW, Overwatch and Candy Crush most of all. Hopefully what leverage they will gain in the Sector will pull Xbox closer to my ideal scenario where the 3 platform holders have 33.3% each.
There’s a lot of people being very paranoid about this who simply aren’t reading the market properly. This got through only because Xbox is in third place and only then with a huge amount of concessions. Any subsequent big deals would be even more difficult to get past regulators.
The line about spending Sony out of the business was one email from one guy in 2019, and within context of stopping Sony/Amazon and the like from dominating the market. But now it’s getting all twisted out of shape.
Why? Nintendo had the opportunity to buy Rare and declined. After that it was either MS or (ironically) Activision who bought them. Thing is, a lot of people had left Rare from their 1998 peak and Nintendo had probably seen the decline in Rares output coming.
They can do that anyway, everything has a price. This is a very roundabout way of going about getting their hands on a big franchise in a relatively small market segment. It’s about the spread across Mobile (where more competition would be very welcome) and PC as well as Console gaming (likewise) plus the possibility of streaming becoming a significant portion of the market in the future. But if they want to keep throwing money at big names for Game Pass they can do it without regulatory scrutiny. Either way, sadly, it looks like it will run and run.
It would be difficult to do but not impossible. That doesn’t make the offer in any way misleading or pointless though. What they’re offering seems pretty clear cut. There’s no obligation for them to offer absolute parity, as long as non-Xbox gamers have access to the games.
"Does this also promise to keep it on PS Extra at a fair price for those 10 years? Or will it be exclusive to Microsoft’s subscription service? "
Thats an interesting question. I'm not sure how, mechanically, they could do this. I know old COD games have been on Plus but the new games have never been on any streaming service. How would any agreement or any edict from regulators set down what that would be?
Essentially they would have to specify that MS are adequately recompensed for lost sales on PS so could they specify a figure based on the previous years sales? It would probably be too expensive for Sony as it would mean sacrificing their own royalties on top of whatever they'd have to pay but I wonder if something will be agreed.
The conclusion to this saga was always likely to be the point where MS have given away enough to persuade the regulators to pass the deal, and Sony have to realise when that point is or risk getting nothing. Steam and Nintendo agreeing deals with MS brings that point a lot closer. It’s going to be very difficult to convince the FTC, CMA etc that the same deal isn’t appropriate for Sony on any kind of competition or monopoly grounds now. And ‘but we might lose money’ isn’t going to be that argument.
“ Lol mate, were you even around during the PS3 days? The "get a second job", PSN outage days?”
True, I didn’t buy a PS3 until late 2009 which was very late given it was coming off the back of PS2. But the thing there is they never actually managed to alienate their fan base despite seemingly trying to. They were certainly nowhere near Atari in 1983 or Sega in 1995. I am seeing signs of that complacency recently from Sony though.
“ You should really read the legal document that Sony filed and the UK government published” I’m a Gaming business nerd who does frequent night shifts, I’ve read it all 😉 That’s where I believe Sony are framing a threat to them being able to trundle along doing what they’ve been doing for a few years and creaming off the profits of their dominance, as a threat to the industry and the consumer. They’ve seen an opportunity to regulate away that threat as an alternate to responding in other ways. I totally understand them trying to take it, regardless of how insecure or in some cases hypocritical it makes them look. Business is business. But I believe it’s shortsighted. If the goal is to stop COD going exclusive they are close to achieving that. If the goal is to stop the takeover altogether all that will happen is that competition can come after them in ways that can’t be ameliorated by a friendly regulator.
But either way, I agree it won’t go through so this is all academic.
“ And btw, good conversation”
Same to you sir. It’s nice to have a civil chat about these things Online. All the best.
There’s a huge difference in how Sony are ran, historically/across the company/on the PlayStation side compared to Sega and Atari though. The latter two were insanely cavalier when it came to the actual Company finances, and Sega basically went crazy around 1994/95, digging themselves into a hole they could never climb out of.
Sony don’t have any worries like that financially. They haven’t done anything to dramatically alienate their fan base like Sega did. They have a huge stable of established popular internally developed games.
Re.the takeover itself. I personally don’t care about COD but Sony are making themselves look really insecure. I’ve had at least one Sony Console in the house since January 1996 and have owned all of them, even the Vita. They’ve always been the big boys throwing their weight around and dominating the market. Now they’re complaining about the same happening to them and framing what is actually a threat to their market share and bottom line as bad for the industry and a threat to competition. If I was them I’d take the 10 year offer and pipe down.
I suspect if the regulators are going to try and block the deal it will be because of the potential for MS (with Azure) to dominate the streaming market. Sony are making themselves look a touch naive and hypocritical for no reason. In fact the end result of this deal being blocked might finish up worse for Sony (MS might have a portion of that $69 billion to throw around) and better for Tencent or whoever does then buy ABK.
I’m aware of that. I don’t get emotionally attached to any of these big firms. They exist solely to make money and MS would love to wipe Sony off the face of the planet (and vice versa). I’m just saying it isn’t possible and they’re all realistic about that. That applies whether this deal goes through or not.
It doesn’t offer an existential risk. It offers a risk to their current strategy and business plan. If it does get stopped by regulators because of concerns over the Game streaming market that’s one thing. It cutting into the market leaders revenue isn’t an issue for regulators.
It seems very short sighted though. A big part of the deal for MS is the foothold it gives them in Mobile gaming and extra strength in the PC and esports market. Sony are trying to stop the whole deal because of their concerns over COD.
The end result could be a very annoyed MS and AB, and nothing to stop MS digging into their war chest to make COD exclusive, or better on Xbox, and/or put it on Game Pass. They may also go after other third party acquisitions that damage Sony.
I guess he’s talking from a Japanese point of view. FFVII released in Japan in early 1997 at which point the Saturn was very strong there, the SNES was still getting big RPGs and it wasn’t clear the N64 would tank in that territory.
When it surfaced in the West in late 1997 the success of the PlayStation was well and truly assured. Sonys marketing along with the Wipeout games, the Ridge Racers, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, Telles 2 and many others had made sure of that.
Wouldn’t be surprised if MS walk away at this point, too much hassle. If it doesn’t go through there’s going to be an awful lot of MS cash in an Account and a lot of desire to get back at Sony. Really can’t understand why Ryan has made such a fuss about COD.
Comments 282
Re: Sony to Short-Change PS Stars Members with PS Plus Renewals Starting Next Year
You know a Rewards system is bad when it’s less generous than Nintendo’s. You really have to try to be less generous than Nintendo. When it comes to anything.
Re: Xbox on Bringing Exclusives to PS5: The Industry Is Changing for All of Us
A lot of it makes sense, there is a big shift taking place. The Console market isn’t particularly growing and is only a small segment of the whole market. Meanwhile game development costs continue to go up and more and more revenue is sucked up by the successful GAAS franchises-Fortnite, GTA Online, COD etc. True Console exclusives are getting harder to justify in terms of cost unless you’re Nintendo and are working on less powerful hardware, meaning games cost less to make.
What he doesn’t say is Xbox is much more exposed to the headwinds of change than Sony or Nintendo. Not just because their share of the Console market has stagnated but because their Console business is much less important to MS as a whole than it is Sony or Nintendo. Making their Console business a 50m(ish) box segment of a wider platform makes total sense to them.
Re: 12 Major PS5, PS4 Games Leaving PS Plus, Including Horizon Forbidden West
Unsettling to see first party games taken off the service. Will put me off renewing.
Re: PS5's Lack of Tentpole Exclusives Isn't Hurting Engagement, Says Sony
@NEStalgia
Nintendo just got behind with everything in the early 2010s. The late Wii era was barren, they bodged the 3DS launch and then had to throw resources at it to get the Mario/Mario Kart life raft sailing, then had very little for the Wii U’s first year. I remember them publicly expressing surprise at the time HD development took because of course they wouldn’t ask anyone who’d been doing it while they were pushing out Wii mini game compilations. They got there in the end though.
Totally agree on your points about Sony. They leave a phenomenal number of franchises behind rather than build them up. The PS2 was king of platformers-Ratchet, Jak, Sly Raccoon, Ape Escape all first party-but they’ve let most of them slide-very welcome to see Astro Bot on the way though. They dipped their toe in promising waters with PlayStation All Stars and Little Big Planet Karting but gave up any attempts at franchise building like that very quickly. They need to learn from Nintendo there.
Re: PS5's Lack of Tentpole Exclusives Isn't Hurting Engagement, Says Sony
@NEStalgia
Yeah it’s funny how it happened for Nintendo. In the 80s they were almost reluctant to let third parties get involved, opting to do so but under very strict conditions. If you look at what they did on NES and SNES it was similar to how Sony behave now. The basis of the library was third party stuff and Nintendos three or four huge titles a year were the cherry on the icing of the cake. It’s why so many people think of Konami, Capcom, Square, Sunsoft etc when they think of those systems.
They absolutely had to up their game on the N64 (helped by Rare) and then Gamecube. It’s actually been a long road for them when you look at the N64’s droughts*, then the Cube’s struggles. The 3DS and Wii U launches were a disaster as they basically didn’t have the resources and Wii U never recovered.
They finally cracked it on Switch, the first year was masterful and they’ve kept up a tremendous pace of releases. Lots of new stuff and slick reuse of their huge catalogue. Ironic, given how much third party stuff is on that system, more than they’ve ever had.
Their management of the brands should be a lesson to others. They don’t let that many IP disappear altogether (sobs in Wave Race). Even obscure ones like F-Zero, Pikmin, Earthbound get their occasional bones thrown in. They’ve kept the quality high especially for their key franchises. Sony don’t have the same legacy but they have much more than most and their refusal to properly utilise this continues to baffle me.
Re: PS5's Lack of Tentpole Exclusives Isn't Hurting Engagement, Says Sony
Not that much of a surprise in that outside of Nintendo, exclusives aren’t really the big sellers. They’re important as differentiators and mean the world to fanboys but they only really exist as a way to make sure people buy the big third-party games on PlayStation.
Personally though, Sonys release schedule does mean that they (along with Xbox) have pushed me towards probably going PC+Nintendo next-gen.
P.S. I also can’t believe they are ignoring so many franchises. Why we aren’t getting a steady stream of PS3 remakes/remasters/collections to fill the calendar out is a mystery. Technically difficult yadda yadda, they’re just ignoring them.
Re: GTA 6 Won't Be on Subs Like PS Plus at Launch Because Take-Two Makes 'Rational' Decisions
Who on Earth thought it would be?!
The only way that’s possible is for either Sony or MS to directly pay Take Two the amount that they think they would lose in sales by being on the service. In other words, an absolutely phenomenal amount of money. Never going to happen.
Now, years down the line when the revenue stream is GTA 6 Online yes, it’ll be on these services as with GTA V, RDR2 and others. But that will be a while away. The sub services are great overall and they work well for some games/publishers/business models but not for a behemoth like GTA6.
Re: It Took PS5 Longer Than PS4 to Pass 4 Million Units Milestone in the UK, But There's Context
Are those average prices adjusted for inflation?
Either way that’s still a very impressive performance.
Re: Astro Bot Looks Absolutely Glorious, Lands on PS5 This September
Great stuff. A new game, not by Nintendo, that I will actually buy. Happy days.
Re: Sony Predicts Slide in PS5 Sales with No Major Existing IPs Planned Before March 2025
If only they had a load of dormant, high quality, popular franchises they could remaster to fill gaps in the schedule.
Re: PlayStation Users Set to Lose Hundreds of TV Shows They Paid For
The future is bright!
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for December 2023?
Yeah quite happy with that. Decent selection IMO.
Re: PS5, PS4 Players Will 'Remain Welcome' As Xbox Closes $69 Billion Activision Blizzard Buyout
Just glad it’s finally over. Good news from a competition POV, hopefully Xbox becoming more of a threat and the change of personnel at the top lights a fire under Sony.
Re: PlayStation's Push for Live Service Games Hasn't Been Going Smoothly
You can see why, to someone who just thinks in dollar signs, GAAS is so tempting. Get it right and it’s a goldmine. But so few get it right, the vast majority fail.
For Sony especially it seems like wasted resource. That could have been spent building up their single player library, resurrecting forgotten franchises, or even Remastering all those great first-party games stuck on PS3.
Re: Poll: Was Sony's Latest State of Play Worth the Wait?
My expectations were low but it was a decent show even if there wasn’t a lot for me personally. But across all formats it’s been a good year and there are a lot of very promising games to come.
Re: Rumour: Six PS Plus Extra Games Leaked Ahead of September Announcement
Anyone after something a bit different and chilled should give Unpacking a go. It’s a really nice game.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@naruball
It is true. It’s the basic law of the market. Competition benefits consumers.
Re: All of a Sudden, High on Life Is Out Now on PS5, PS4
It’s a really good fun game but that’s a very high price
Re: Sony and Microsoft Sign a 'Binding Agreement' to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation
Back where we were before the court case. MS are that desperate to get their hands on Blizzard and especially King they’d probably have given Sony 15 if they’d have asked and we could have all moved on months ago.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@naruball
In the big picture yes competition is good. The nature of the industry at the minute is that exclusives are a thing. I’d rather they weren’t and everyone competed on other fronts but that’s how it is.
Without competition you finish up with all games on one platform and one company having all the power about when games are released and how much they cost, which would be an utter disaster.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@CreepingShadow
I’m totally confident you won’t be doing what you say in your last sentence. This is the nature of business, any market leader anywhere should be under attack and should feel like they are. It wards off complacency and arrogance.
Sony are in a well deserved position as market leader with a huge amount of well deserved trust in the brand. MS have realised this and are taking a different angle (zigging where the competition is zagging, so to speak), it’s now up to Sony to respond. That doesn’t necessarily mean through acquisitions but focussing on what they do so well. Up the first party output, don’t leave established franchises going mouldy on a shelf, leverage existing relationships with third parties. Competition is good and I’m hopeful Sony will respond in a way that’s good for us as gamers and consumers.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@CreepingShadow
Sony were doing the exclusive games thing back in the 90s (Tomb Raider 2) before MS moved into the Console business. They were the big boy financially and used that muscle to leverage their way into a dominant market position. They outspent the competition on marketing, they had their own manufacturing plants to keep costs down, they could afford to eat losses on hardware and undercut the competitions licensing fees, they had their own established chain of retail outlets. That’s how it works. Nintendo were the industry big boys, then Sony came along as a bigger boy, now MS are the million-pound gorilla.
Re: PS5 Access Controller Costs $90, Out on 6th December
This looks awesome, and at a reasonable price (to my untrained eyes) too
Re: Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
@cuttlefishjones
As opposed to being part of the renowned church of innovation and originality that is (checks notes) Activision?
Re: Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
@get2sammyb
I agree it shouldn’t, but that’s where we are. Pretty much the only consistent thing that’s happened throughout the life of the Games industry is platform holders getting complacent and arrogant. Anything that helps preclude that (and I’m not alone in sensing some of that from Sony recently) is welcome. The vast majority of what they’re trying to buy here won’t really impact the Console sector anyway-they want WOW, Overwatch and Candy Crush most of all. Hopefully what leverage they will gain in the Sector will pull Xbox closer to my ideal scenario where the 3 platform holders have 33.3% each.
Re: Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
@CutchuSlow
There’s a lot of people being very paranoid about this who simply aren’t reading the market properly. This got through only because Xbox is in third place and only then with a huge amount of concessions. Any subsequent big deals would be even more difficult to get past regulators.
The line about spending Sony out of the business was one email from one guy in 2019, and within context of stopping Sony/Amazon and the like from dominating the market. But now it’s getting all twisted out of shape.
Re: Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
@SoapMonki
Why? Nintendo had the opportunity to buy Rare and declined. After that it was either MS or (ironically) Activision who bought them. Thing is, a lot of people had left Rare from their 1998 peak and Nintendo had probably seen the decline in Rares output coming.
Re: Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
Hopefully it will improve Playstation. Competition is always good and they need a stronger Xbox to keep them on their toes.
Re: UK Regulator No Longer Concerned About Activision Buyout's Impact on Console Competition
@Hypoman
Of course it’s Capitalism. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, ABK, EA, all of them only exist to make money.
Re: UK Regulator No Longer Concerned About Activision Buyout's Impact on Console Competition
@arsmolinarc
This is the U.K. regulator. The FTC has so far sued to stop it.
Re: The Enormous PS Store January Sale Gets Even Bigger with New PS5, PS4 Deals
@PenguinLtd
Not my favourite in the series TBH but still a great game.
Re: The Enormous PS Store January Sale Gets Even Bigger with New PS5, PS4 Deals
Tempted by Rift Apart but there’s a voice saying ‘that’ll be on PS Plus Extra soon’
Re: Microsoft Invites Sony to Sign Its Own 10-Year Call of Duty Deal
@thefourfoldroot1
They can do that anyway, everything has a price. This is a very roundabout way of going about getting their hands on a big franchise in a relatively small market segment. It’s about the spread across Mobile (where more competition would be very welcome) and PC as well as Console gaming (likewise) plus the possibility of streaming becoming a significant portion of the market in the future. But if they want to keep throwing money at big names for Game Pass they can do it without regulatory scrutiny. Either way, sadly, it looks like it will run and run.
Re: Microsoft Invites Sony to Sign Its Own 10-Year Call of Duty Deal
@thefourfoldroot1
It would be difficult to do but not impossible. That doesn’t make the offer in any way misleading or pointless though. What they’re offering seems pretty clear cut. There’s no obligation for them to offer absolute parity, as long as non-Xbox gamers have access to the games.
Re: Microsoft Invites Sony to Sign Its Own 10-Year Call of Duty Deal
Have Sony attempted to make a deal? For example we'll sign to keep Destiny multi-plat for 15 years if we get COD in return?
In their CMA filing they don't even mention Overwatch, why are they not asking about that, why just COD?
Re: Microsoft Invites Sony to Sign Its Own 10-Year Call of Duty Deal
@thefourfoldroot1
"Does this also promise to keep it on PS Extra at a fair price for those 10 years? Or will it be exclusive to Microsoft’s subscription service? "
Thats an interesting question. I'm not sure how, mechanically, they could do this. I know old COD games have been on Plus but the new games have never been on any streaming service. How would any agreement or any edict from regulators set down what that would be?
Essentially they would have to specify that MS are adequately recompensed for lost sales on PS so could they specify a figure based on the previous years sales? It would probably be too expensive for Sony as it would mean sacrificing their own royalties on top of whatever they'd have to pay but I wonder if something will be agreed.
Re: Microsoft Invites Sony to Sign Its Own 10-Year Call of Duty Deal
The conclusion to this saga was always likely to be the point where MS have given away enough to persuade the regulators to pass the deal, and Sony have to realise when that point is or risk getting nothing. Steam and Nintendo agreeing deals with MS brings that point a lot closer. It’s going to be very difficult to convince the FTC, CMA etc that the same deal isn’t appropriate for Sony on any kind of competition or monopoly grounds now. And ‘but we might lose money’ isn’t going to be that argument.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
@Art_Vandelay
“ Lol mate, were you even around during the PS3 days? The "get a second job", PSN outage days?”
True, I didn’t buy a PS3 until late 2009 which was very late given it was coming off the back of PS2. But the thing there is they never actually managed to alienate their fan base despite seemingly trying to. They were certainly nowhere near Atari in 1983 or Sega in 1995. I am seeing signs of that complacency recently from Sony though.
“ You should really read the legal document that Sony filed and the UK government published” I’m a Gaming business nerd who does frequent night shifts, I’ve read it all 😉 That’s where I believe Sony are framing a threat to them being able to trundle along doing what they’ve been doing for a few years and creaming off the profits of their dominance, as a threat to the industry and the consumer. They’ve seen an opportunity to regulate away that threat as an alternate to responding in other ways. I totally understand them trying to take it, regardless of how insecure or in some cases hypocritical it makes them look. Business is business. But I believe it’s shortsighted. If the goal is to stop COD going exclusive they are close to achieving that. If the goal is to stop the takeover altogether all that will happen is that competition can come after them in ways that can’t be ameliorated by a friendly regulator.
But either way, I agree it won’t go through so this is all academic.
“ And btw, good conversation”
Same to you sir. It’s nice to have a civil chat about these things Online. All the best.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
@Art_Vandelay
There’s a huge difference in how Sony are ran, historically/across the company/on the PlayStation side compared to Sega and Atari though. The latter two were insanely cavalier when it came to the actual Company finances, and Sega basically went crazy around 1994/95, digging themselves into a hole they could never climb out of.
Sony don’t have any worries like that financially. They haven’t done anything to dramatically alienate their fan base like Sega did. They have a huge stable of established popular internally developed games.
Re.the takeover itself. I personally don’t care about COD but Sony are making themselves look really insecure. I’ve had at least one Sony Console in the house since January 1996 and have owned all of them, even the Vita. They’ve always been the big boys throwing their weight around and dominating the market. Now they’re complaining about the same happening to them and framing what is actually a threat to their market share and bottom line as bad for the industry and a threat to competition. If I was them I’d take the 10 year offer and pipe down.
I suspect if the regulators are going to try and block the deal it will be because of the potential for MS (with Azure) to dominate the streaming market. Sony are making themselves look a touch naive and hypocritical for no reason. In fact the end result of this deal being blocked might finish up worse for Sony (MS might have a portion of that $69 billion to throw around) and better for Tencent or whoever does then buy ABK.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
@Art_Vandelay
I’m aware of that. I don’t get emotionally attached to any of these big firms. They exist solely to make money and MS would love to wipe Sony off the face of the planet (and vice versa). I’m just saying it isn’t possible and they’re all realistic about that. That applies whether this deal goes through or not.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
@Art_Vandelay
It doesn’t offer an existential risk. It offers a risk to their current strategy and business plan. If it does get stopped by regulators because of concerns over the Game streaming market that’s one thing. It cutting into the market leaders revenue isn’t an issue for regulators.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
@Giancarlothomaz
It seems very short sighted though. A big part of the deal for MS is the foothold it gives them in Mobile gaming and extra strength in the PC and esports market. Sony are trying to stop the whole deal because of their concerns over COD.
The end result could be a very annoyed MS and AB, and nothing to stop MS digging into their war chest to make COD exclusive, or better on Xbox, and/or put it on Game Pass. They may also go after other third party acquisitions that damage Sony.
Re: Everybody's Favourite Exec Shuhei Yoshida Says Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest Saved PlayStation
I guess he’s talking from a Japanese point of view. FFVII released in Japan in early 1997 at which point the Saturn was very strong there, the SNES was still getting big RPGs and it wasn’t clear the N64 would tank in that territory.
When it surfaced in the West in late 1997 the success of the PlayStation was well and truly assured. Sonys marketing along with the Wipeout games, the Ridge Racers, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, Telles 2 and many others had made sure of that.
Re: Splinter Cell Is Getting a BBC Radio 4 Adaptation, of All Things
Living in the U.K. the last few years have got us used to seeing news articles that make you go ‘huh…..wait what?!’
But this still stands out as an odd one.
Re: Report: FTC Could File an Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Xbox's Activision Buyout
Wouldn’t be surprised if MS walk away at this point, too much hassle. If it doesn’t go through there’s going to be an awful lot of MS cash in an Account and a lot of desire to get back at Sony. Really can’t understand why Ryan has made such a fuss about COD.
Re: Best Co-Op Games on PS5
Not a great list for the reason others have pointed out.
IMO Sackboy should be higher, brilliant game.
Re: Poll: Do You Care About 60fps on PS5?
@BlackTux
Stop making excuses for bad devs and cheap TVs
Re: Poll: Do You Care About 60fps on PS5?
@BlackTux
I’d happily cut back on graphics in favour of Framerate. That’s why Devs should offer a choice. It isn’t just about what you want.
Re: Poll: Do You Care About 60fps on PS5?
@streetzman
I don’t have to ‘prove’ anything. I don’t know why you’re so upset. Grow up or stop bothering me.
Re: Hideo Kojima Says Next Project Will Transcend Video Games, 'It's Almost Like a New Medium'
TBH I’d be more surprised if he came out and said ‘I’m making a retro shooter’