Its not about COD or, if its true that this is really about MS making a foothold in mobile gaming, its about a largely incompetent corporation that's gotten by on unchecked monopiles buying up industries.
Allow them this, especially after all of these complaints and arguments, and they'll be no excuse for them or another like company to go on buying sprees once they've burned out prior bought IPs.
The aftermath is a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions. If that is not much, then sure. But the multiplatform industry is now up for grabs by a multitude of mega corporations that want in. After this happens I hope that at least the number of new walled gardens will not increase by too much.
@S2Killinit: How is exclusivity based solely on acquisition rather than in house development a good thing? especially factoring in whatever money making scheme companies that know nothing about the industry they've bought themselves into decide to insert. Such a market would be no different than mobile is currently, with addictive things like MT and gocha being the foundation of what could have otherwise been decent games.
That's kind of a weird comment. If nothing will change that means cod will remain on Playstation forever. However, if it does not then something obviously will change because gamers will move to the platform that does have that game
Get ready for many of these devlopers they bought shutting down. Its the MS way. Does not matter how many times MS tries in buying out huge devlopers. They will always missmanage them. Its a MS tradition.
Sony buying SE, Sony buying Capcom, Konami, Sega, Namco, or T2. Microsoft buying Zenimax, and Activision/Blizzard/King. Putting Nintendo in the mix, no console manufacturer should be absorbing publishers. However it is a far better option than other companies from a country restricting the experiences in games we would otherwise enjoy free from that influence.
No. Square Enix has been selling minority stakes in individual dev teams. They don't want to be bought and they've intentionally made it extremely difficult and costly for anyone to attempt a hostile takeover.
Weeeeell in Japan it won’t harm competition if anything it can help Microsoft gain a foot if they make it exclusive to Xbox only in Japan but the rest of the world it will make a difference once the “10 years” are up and it’s taken away from the PlayStation gaming community specially on regions where both consoles are close in sales.
You can write a letter, you can start an online petition, you can say a prayer, you can come on here and cry about the deal, or...hear me out, you can go outside and get some fresh air, really really think about how serious you are taking this, then relax, feel how silly it is.
***The majority of gamers are NOT against the deal. Poll after poll has shown this but you refuse to accept it. Get out of the N4G bubble. ***
First, majority not being against doesn't make it good for the industry. Second, the company that wants this to go through more than anyone else is Tencent. For all these fears of Tencent owning too much of the industry, Microsoft is setting a precedent that will make it possible for them to buy up major publishers rather than AA studios and ownership on other companies.
***Now you’re just moving the goalposts. The argument went from bad for gamers to bad for industry.***
Check my comment history. I've always said this is bad for the industry, which, btw, is *also* bad for gamers. Less competition from AAA studios is bad.
***Well industry players have been polled too and are largely okay with the deal.***
Yeah, and the "industry" is also fine with Wallstreet, banks that buy bonds during inflation (the fact the audit didn't capture any of this should tell you all you need to know), ISPs that work to keep prices regulated between themselves, and so on and so on. Businesses aren't about being better for the consumer, it's about making more money for the 1%.
***Edit: And I'm fully aware that a lot of the agrees I'm getting here is because it looks like I'm pro-Sony. But, swap these companies out and I would say the same thing. I'm anti-industry shrinking by consolidating them under larger companies. At no point has that made things better for people but has led to more price control, more abuse of pricing and resources, and fewer options for the consumer as companies don't want to compete with themselves.
@console: “What do you suggest we can do?” It’s a easy one to do don’t jump console (no pun intended) but it’s going to be hard for the players already addicted to the game to go frozen turkey on it 🤷🏿
This is no way sets any legal precedent or opens any roads for Tencent or any other company to buy anyone else. That's now how trade law works. Each situation is different and dependent on the current market. Tencent can't turn around and use the argument, "Well you all let MS do it, so we can too." MS has a lesser market share and still will after this merger. You think the FTC would have let Verizon buy AT&T just because they allowed the T-Mobile/Sprint merger? Not a chance in hell.
***This is no way sets any legal precedent or opens any roads for Tencent or any other company to buy anyone else. That's now how trade law works. Each situation is different and dependent on the current market***
1. This isn't trade law, it's regulation oversight.
2. Regulation is set by historical precedence and argued based on past merits (such as Microsoft's history of agreements in the past with other company buyouts).
3. Economy is global and any difference between regulation of companies of similar size and nature would become political, which China would love to see the U.S. do since so many U.S. companies make billions in China.
Trade law and regulation all fall under the same umbrella and go through the same organizations. And no, precedence doesn't get set. Not sure where you heard that, but it's simply not true. MS can't buy Activision and then turn right around and buy EA because a precedent had been set. Neither could anyone else. That's simply not how it works. The situation would be looked at the same way. What effects would it have on the current market and future market. It's true they will consider historical events, but it won't be done with precedence. The priority will always be how it affects the current and future of the markets, not what was allowed in the past.
Looks like the pieces are all starting to fall in to place.
Interesting how Japan approves right after the US claim of the Sony monopoly in Japan. Could be a sign they don't want to look biased of western acquisitions.
You do know the decision does not get made over night right? This literally changes nothing for MS in Japan. The Japanese market doesn't support MS because MS doesn't see any need to invest in them. Activision games I believe don't sell that well in Japan
Lightning that has nothing to do with Japan. Most of Japan has played those games. You do know ni no kuni came out on ps3 right. It wasn't a brand new game. Ms tried Japan during 360 and I felt they did pretty good. Then they abandoned it. Hell the last few years and almost all of Xbox one was lacking for everyone in general. Aside from a game here and there.
SONY needs to start Focusing on Remaking a few of those FPS titles they stopped making. Like Kill Zone, Resistance, MAG, Dust 514 and SOCOM. When your own Government is siding with Microsofts argument, its time to throw in the towel.
@OG Their own government is capable of assessing the purchase on the merits and it has determined that it won't substantially reduce competition in its jurisdiction. Did you think they would lie just to support Sony? I think this transaction should have been blocked because it encourages mega-corporations to consolidate even more which won't be good for anybody. If this is the world regulators want then so be it. There is likely acquisitions coming done the pike that those cheering on this particular one will not like and it will be fascinating to watch how positions switch.
Gave you an upvote for mentioning Dust 514. I truly hope Sony and CCP Games bring the ip back. That game was way too ambitious for the ps3 but it was fun to play with a great community to match.
Well said @SullysCigar and @Ninver. I forgot about Planetside. I use to spend nights playing that as well. SONY has way to many FPS titles to not be making none of them at all for the PlayStation. I really dont understand whats going on.
I heard a Rumor that Steam will no longer use Windows, they are gonna repurpose the whole thing to only work on the Game Gear, the Nomad, and for high end the Jaguar.
Japan probably don’t believe that merely because Xbox doesn’t have a presence in Japan. And their people aren’t huge on cod either so their market would be unaffected
I'm a Playstation fanboy, but i find this whole situation just embarrassing. COD has single handedly destroyed the FPS genre imo, ever since COD4, developers have just been chasing that formula, with level based progression being used as a cohesive gameplay mechanic to squeeze the consumers via MTX. Just because a franchise shifts alot of copies, it doesn't mean its great. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift sell millions of albums each year...so what? Playstation need to go back to creating great 1st party online shooters like the PS3 days. Where the hell is SOCOM, Killzone, Resistance and Warhawk?
Let the deal go through and let the COD fanbase stay on team Xbox, it'll great if we could start to contain that community in one specific area.
Yeah it's like a self fulfilling issue... Once the FPS multiplayer market is dominated there's not much incentive to risk a new game when the chances of dethroning are slim. It's gotta be hard to break into that market with a new IP, but it can be done. A free 2 play SOCOM that is multi-platform might do the trick. You can't do it unless you're multi-platform at this point imo
I'm just ready for the aftermath
It affect the competition is some minor ways but I rather Microsoft not buy a publisher like at all.
Looks like the pieces are all starting to fall in to place.
Interesting how Japan approves right after the US claim of the Sony monopoly in Japan. Could be a sign they don't want to look biased of western acquisitions.
SONY needs to start Focusing on Remaking a few of those FPS titles they stopped making. Like Kill Zone, Resistance, MAG, Dust 514 and SOCOM. When your own Government is siding with Microsofts argument, its time to throw in the towel.
Took them 18 days to come to their conclusion. They first had to find out what an Xbox was lol