Microsoft Game Studios creative director Ken Lobb has discussed the nature of the Xbox family of developers in a new interview, stating that the collective that includes 343 Industries, Black Tusk, Turn10 and more makes for a strong hand.
Microsoft was quick to fire back against the FTC’s latest claim
All the whiners 😭 complaining about Gamepass, where were they when Sony increased their prices and introduced several tiers for PS Plus membership?
When Sony does it, it's perfectly acceptable. When Microsoft does it, all hell breaks loose...
Hypocrites 🤡 much!
BTW, I bet most whiners 😭 complaining don't have or even care about Gamepass. They whine simply because it's Microsoft.
We were very vocal and many people including myself cancelled their subs. Tf are you talking about? 🤣
As isarai..said. even i cancelled it when they raised their prices. Im enjoying single player games now.
It's not the price increase the main problem. It's the removal of day one releases for console users while PC user are safe (for now). It's a weird message being send to console fan ( "You should have bought a PC bro !)
This has nothing to do with PlayStation, this is about Microsoft breaking its promises.
Bringing up PlayStation is just a petty deflection attempt to not take responsibility for their own actions.
People are unhappy because this has caused thousands of people to lose their jobs, four studio closures and xbox owners should be mad about price increases and the fact that Microsoft paywalled day one games breaking their promise to their own consumers. Now even if you don't want Call of Duty you're paying for it.
The xboners like you who keep defending this type of stuff are actually making things worse for yourselves because you keep sending the message that no matter how much Microsoft bends you over by breaking their promises you're still going to defend them.
Xbox gamers make gaming worse for everyone every time they defend this type of crap.
@Einhander1972
When ponies like you accept anything Sony does without complaining, that's the major problem here...
Sony can do anything they want, and people like you will simply take it with a smile.
This has nothing to do with Sony.
It just shows how weak the argument is when the best you and Microsoft can can do is deflect with whataboutism's.
This is about Microsoft buying a huge publisher then going to court and saying things they knew weren't true, then going back on their own word. They went into court and knew telling the truth wouldn't be popular with either the court or the public so they lied in court. That is what is being judged here, not anything that Sony did.
You claim we are defending a price increase, but you are defending outright lies that have caused studio closures job losses and your own price increases and new games are paywalled to a higher tier.
And what did you get? Games that you were already going to get without buying these publishers. And on top of that now regardless of if someone actually wanted the games they are forced to pay extra for them.
The scale difference between our two arguments is huge.
"Sony can do anything they want, and people like you will simply take it with a smile"
Isn't that what you are doing with Microsoft's price increase you hypocrite? I bet you were the first to complain about Sony's increase, but not surprisingly first to defend Microsoft's increase because you are a hypocrite.
They didn't "remove day one" for console users, they created a tier that doesn't get them. They basically brought back Live Gold with GamePass games instead of monthly drops.
Yeah I complained when Sony increased their prices it was dramatic and they didn't even comment on why it was fine and I'll complain here to
In fact there was a huge outcry just because you missed it doesn't mean it didn't happen
It wasn’t the same thing. Sony’s tiers didn’t take anything away from people. Two of the tiers already existed. No promise was broken. Xbox tiers are breaking promises MS has made regarding day one, while also increasing price.
People were complaining and pissed. Only you seem to think Sony gamers graciously accepted it. You sure do whine a lot don't you
^^^^
@Hotpot
"Your turn, criticize MS yourself, right now."
He's a hypocrite so he won't. He's going to simply take it with a smile on his face like the pic in his avi 😭
I’m not trying to be an ass here when asking this, I just genuinely want to understand more. What’s the case that the FTC have?
@crismon
Microsoft said to courts when they purchased Activision they wouldn't raise the price with gamepass but they did after they got Activision.
@slave3: “It a warp lol ftc is need but this case against Ms is over.
😭😭”
Well at least PLAYSTATION GET ALL Xbox FORMER “EXCLUSIVES”.
GEAR is next on the list of lubricants before they ram the big HALO on PlayStation.
So enjoy winning that FTC battle to badly loose the war 😭😭.
Edited for typos
I mean, yeah.. if any of these tier options aren't right for you, you can always just buy your games the old fashioned way.
You can buy games the old fashioned way now. Microsoft’s end game is releasing Call of Duty exclusivity on Game Pass.
For now.
I can assure you, Microsoft wants subscriptions to access their games.
Just a matter of when not if or optional.
If the price raise was attributed to the acquisition. Nobody can make that claim, and every sub service has been raising their prices. Sony made a massive one not long ago.
The problem is Gamepass price was already raised last year, just for them to raise it again this year. That right there will help the FTC's argument
It's only gets magnified when Spencer's words don't match what the company does. He said publically gamepass wouldn't change as a result of COD. He said the price wouldn't change. Both of those things were clearly untrue. Among other things
They didn't just raise the price though, they also removed day one games from the standard tier and paywalled new games behind a more expensive tier which they also raised the price on.
And the FTC's appeal also brings up the job losses and studio closures as evidence that this deal should have been blocked.
Well, one thing is for sure Microsoft knows more than anyone about misleading people.
The fact is Microsoft said they wouldn't raise prices due to the merger then they did including making a new tier of game pass. They said they wouldn't fire people and they did. And they also closed studios so it's hard to argue that the effect on the consumer and the industry hasn't been negative.
This is a incredibly weak rebuttal.
Go and google the FTC case against Sony for misleading it's customers about the PS Vita. Then come back and discuss who knows more than anyone about misleading people.
What you claim Microsoft said is just lies. They never said they wouldn't raise prices or fire anyone. And even if they did it's their right. You statement is pretty weak and proves nothing but you have a bias just like so many other people here. You guys are just butt hurt that Microsoft won this case and it backfired in Sony's face because they threw stones and thought their own deals would not be a factor but they were. As a matter of fact it was one of the factors that helped MS win the case. Just take the L because it's a done deal. It seems the only effects from this deal is upset playstation only fans who thought the deal was never going to happen. Microsoft won. Get over it. Stop worrying about things we have no control of. Just play games you like and don't focus so much on who made it and all that petty stuff.
You're here again Sony grrrr in a MICROSOFT article
Just chuffed you've given up the obsession with Jim Ryan with just a few more sessions and you'll be able to comment on the actual article you can do it reaper the community is right behind you
Chin up
https://n4g.com/user/home/l...
You don't understand.
Sony is not part of this appeal at all. Sony wasn't even a part of the original FTC case. The FTC brought this case aledging that Micrsofts buyout of ABK would have a negative impact on the industry. They claimed that it would cause job loss and and that the consumer and the industry would be negativly effected from the buy out including from price increases to game pass.
Sony was only there to provide testimony on how they expected the buyour to negativly effect thier buisness.
They did not file the suit.
This appeal is of the ruling that blocked their injunction, and the FTC is presenting evidence that the buyout has in fact had the negative impact that they said it would and which was the basis for their injunction call.
The fact that you and Microsoft need to keep bringing up Sony instead of actually defending the actions themselves shows that you don't actually have a defense at all.
Replies(1)
Despite losing its lawsuit seeking an injunction to freeze Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard in July 2023, the FTC appealed the decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While it awaits a final decision from those justices, the FTC’s been filing additional evidence to support its claims that the merger would hurt competition in gaming and hurt customers, including a letter from earlier this year after Microsoft laid off nearly 2,000 employees across the newly acquired teams.
FTC never heard of inflation. Did they expect Gampass to remain the same price forever?
Would be funny if Gampass remained at 10€ fifty years from now...
"Microsoft insists Game Pass prices ‘will not increase as a result of Activision merger"
https://www.videogameschron...
"It says a price rise “would be counter-productive as it would increase subscriber churn rates”
"Game Pass prices will not increase as a result of the Merger"
Gamepass wouldn't increase in result of the merger... but it doesn't mean it wouldn't increase due to other reasons, like inflation, extra expenses, etc. Do you expect Gamepass to remain the same price forever?
All other online services have been increasing prices.
I cancelled my Ultimate sub after the announcement, so they were right. And yet, they still did it. That is so MS.
Inflation is down since they made that statement.
They also call into question the 2000+ people Microsoft has fired from the developers they bought.
And again, this is contradictory to what Microsoft said they would do.
They lied in court.
Lol...they never said gamepass wouldn't increase and they never said it would because of the merger. And even they did it's their right to do so. So what's your point?
Sony and other streaming services (Netflix, HBO, ...) have been increasing prices and altering their services. Do you expect Gamepass to remain the same price forever?
Others can increase prices and alter their services, but Microsoft can't?
Hypocrite much!
Exactly let's not forget this deal was done under the same economic climate this was predictable yet they maintained they would not be increasing prices yet now the merger is done they increased prices and split tiers to avoid further scrutiny.
This is and always has been how Microsoft do business deflect blame and increase profits
You are correct. It's actually lower. It was around 7% in 2021 and now it's around 3%, which is ideal.
inflation aint the same thing as to lock stuff behind a paywall that was previously not. lol
Yeah you're right. It's just a coincidence that this happened after spending billions of dollars buying up the industry. And closing studios. And firing thousands of people. All while barely being able to give away Xboxes. It's all because of inflation. LOL
Fanboyism bro this is pure fanboyism, it's bs we all know it so stop defending Microsoft.
Except $/mb of broadband, $/mb of storage, and $/compute power only gets cheaper over time. As Microsoft’s overhead has gone down, it’s prices have gone up.
@lelo: “FTC never heard of inflation. Did they expect Gampass to remain the same price forever?
Would be funny if Gampass remained at 10€ fifty years from now...”
I see you got the industrial size chapstick truck from Microsoft and put it into use already.
Add one more backpedaling to Microsoft and Phil rhetorics
Gamepass price was going up regardless of inflation or not and you know it. Hey atleast you guys have an excuse to ride for a little bit
Need I remind you of how much MS is worth? There was no need to let anyone go or any studio. MS are just cancer and should leave the industry.
Replies(1)Apparently it's ok that they raised PSN prices, but Xbox can't compete?!
The "Standard" is just a rebranded Xbox Live. Not expected but not crazy since they didn't really have a proper entry level subscription to match PSNs entry level.
Xbox raised their prices last year too though, their entry level was core or gamepass console.
The whole "Bu bu but Sony" thing with the PSN doesn't take into consideration Microsofts whole argument to the FTC during the entire Activision merger court case is that they wouldn't raise prices due to the merger, nothing would change.
Sony never said shit about raising prices and the like so while we can think it's scummy the FTC won't have an issue with it because the argument wasn't towards them, they never swore against anything.
If the Activision merger never happened and Microsoft raised their prices as a standard thing, like Sony with the PSN or even how Netflix has done it with their subscription it would have been business as usual.
I'm so tired of the Sony defense team. Pay off me thinks a lot of these comments come from Sony shills
All the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just got a free windows 11 upgrade!
The price hike just brings it closer in line to PSN, yet it still has greater value. The standard sub matches the lowest PSN sub.
FTC trying to seem relevant. Claiming their multi million dollar case was to stop a $3 dollar price hike is a stupid argument and embarrassing for them.
PS+
$80 per year cheaper
More total games
Retro Games - Added monthly
VR games - Added Monthly
Ubisoft + Classics
4 k Streaming of nearly all games including ones you own digital not on the service. (xbox 1080p series s)
Sony Pictures Catalog
Anime from Crunchyroll
Full Game Trials with Trophy Support
PSN absolutely does not have more total games. I have PSN Ultimate or whatever it's called.
They don't get day one exclusives.
They don't even have Last of Us 2 Remake on there yet! Or Last of Us Part 1!!
You get Ubisoft classics, so does Xbox. But w Xbox also get EA games!
VR games don't matter to me, but Xbox also gets PC games that don't matter to me.
Both have classic games.
Streaming means nothing to me, it's still a failed concept, Digital Foundry tests it often, and it's not there yet for "serious gamers". The lag is intense!
Sony pictures and anime are neat, I'll give ya that.
Full game trials are cool, but Xbox gets the full game day one, so.... 🤷
I haven't had a good game in PSN since HellDivers, this year has been dead.
Honestly, once Xbox starts dumping all these exclusives on to GamePass, it's gonna be a flood of great titles
It's $80 cheaper, you're paying $240 a year in hopes of getting Microsoft games, and things aren't looking great on the development side of things beyond all the stuff they started 5 years ago. There is no guarantee that some of these studios will even exist going forward.
No, game pass does not offer Ubisoft Classics, and you only need Extra unlike EA Play which requires Ultimate.
And it doesn't matter what you don't want, xbox isn't offering it for people who do. Those things add value for a lot of people.
What digital foundry found was that PS+ Streaming was vastly superior to xcloud.
Full Game Trials include 3'rd party games.
PlayStation get's "good games" all the time that aren't on xbox,GranBlue Fantasy Relink, Final Fantasy, Helldivers, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Zenless Zone Zero, Pacific Drive ect. every week something new comes out or is announced for PlayStation that's not on xbox.
And you're bragging about day one but that keep proving to be unsustainable. That's why studios got closed, 5000+ people got fired, games got ported to PlayStation, the reward system got gutted, prices were increased multiple times and those new games got removed from game pass and paywalled to a more expensive tier.
@GamerRN
I guess you don't subscribe to both services.
PS+ Premium has close to 1000 games.
GPU has less than 500.
GPU doesn't come with Ubisoft Classic.
However, the do have EA Play instead.
I pay 120$ a year by using cdkeys.com for GamePass Ultimate
And I definitely have both... My main gripe is PSN extreme or whatever it's called is u don't have all the 1st party stuff I want. That being said I just started up Death Standing Directors cut (terrible game, cool story)... I really want Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2.... Other than that, I don't think I have access to Ubisoft games? Where do I access those? Are there any good ones? The menu system is very confusing trying to go to classic games, PSN collection, etc etc etc
The FTC should give up. Microsoft owns the US Government and then someday the world and all its useless masses.
The low number of new games coming to Xbox Game Pass as part of July 2024's Wave 2 lineup couldn't have come at a worse time for Microsoft. Just recently, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass, and not only that, but it's announced that major day one releases will be locked behind Game Pass Ultimate. These decisions have understandably upset longtime Xbox Game Pass subscribers, with analysts predicting that another price hike and perhaps an ad-based tier could potentially be introduced down the line.
You'd think they would have packed the lineup after announcing an impending price increase in Sept.
That would just be throwing good money after bad at this point. Microsoft needs to just drop this failed experiment altogether, leave Xbox in the wind and become the biggest 3rd party publisher on the planet. It's the only way they will ever be successful in gaming.
They already were successful in gaming before joining the console space. And they already are the biggest 3rd party publisher on the planet. They are in this to make $$ from all fronts. So suggesting they bow out and only focus on one area is a stupid idea. They make $$ from all of them, some more than others... but they all make $$.
The console, and gamepass is just costing them money and splitting their focus. They would make more money simply being a publisher, not a platform holder, and SELLING their games, like publishers are supposed to.
They wouldn't be acting like they are if that wasn't true. Xbox is the red headed step child of Microsoft's gaming portfolio now. Just sell games. You've bought enough Dev's and IP now to do that.
Rumors are circulating that Microsoft may add Modern Warfare 3 to Game Pass this month, as suggested by the current game release schedule, which lists only five games instead of the usual seven.
They released 8 games during Wave 1 for July… and the 3 coming now are all actually quite interesting.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (Cloud/PC/Xbox Series X) - July 18
Dungeons of Hinterberg (Cloud/PC/Xbox Series X) - July 18
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (Cloud/Consoles/PC) - July 19
I’d say releasing 11 games in 1 month for gamepass should be enough…
The reason for the price increase is the same as the reason for procuring fewer games from their parties; more profit.
To be fair, the July releases on Game Pass are great. I'd rather have today on my ps5 then the junk we are given.
It's not that I don't believe him, it's just that their track record pre-Xbox One doesn't lie. They were doing great during the 360's launch years, but do you remember the last Microsoft-funded, AAA new IP that was widely successful?
Alan Wake, back in 2010. Sony has come up with so much more since then.
I've never seen a game like God of War from them, or Uncharted, Journey, inFAMOUS, Demons Souls, Last of Us or Heavy Rain
Alan Wake is the only one I could pick from their first party games over the years which has been different from the rest of them.
It seems strangely peculiar how every statement that comes out of Microsoft lately is geared toward the 'core'' gamer.
Where was this sentiment when they were ramming TV, TV, Entertainment, Kinect, disastrous restrictions, and a general attitude of contempt for the ''core'' gamer?
Seems very disingenuous, and borderline insulting.
And to counter Ken Lobb's argument, compare 2010-2013 with Sony and Microsoft - what a sobering reality.
True.
I saw a mention of Viva Pinata up there.. reminds me it needs a comeback!
I can't wait for Project Spark, that is a nice diverse game from MS...
I can see MS are really trying to match Sony's diverse portfolio of IP.
Can only be a good thing, unless you happen to be a 'hater' ;/