Jean-Louis Gassée is killing it with an analysis of the recent Microsoft management shake-up and the (gloomy) prospects ahead for Microsoft.
Following the preliminary approval from UK's CMA, Microsoft and Activision execs have published new statements.
Once this is over we can go back to business but Microsoft will eat everything up to compete buy hey gaming right.
If you believe the 10 year contract with PS is legit and bulletproof, not much should change in the short term.
MS claims to be playing the long game with cloud and PC, and not as concerned about consoles.
But who knows - they may have a surprise or two up their sleeves. Maybe there's a way they could twist the knife with COD and still honor that contract.
Without playstation in the market cod sales would be poor at best and Microshaft know this. Starfield was underdeveloped to not make the series s look pathetic. And the series x might as well not exist because of Microshafts greed in trying to steal sales from playstation and failing miserably.
I've said this before, but it's entirely possible that Call of Duty remaining on PlayStation may well be contingent upon allowing XGP on PlayStation.
I think I have a pretty decent track record on anticipating what they do. They're hopelessly predictable in their strategies.
@DarXyde - totally agree, that would be the perfect chess move for MS, and would make 100% sense.
Only thing that makes me doubt that is that Sony would certainly have had to see that and called it out if the contract allowed that wiggle room. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but that's an obvious thing to protect against, and I'd think they'd be crying foul from the high heavens if it were possible.
Non-disclosures might have been signed before they saw it, but still... that's something worth breaking NDA over
@DarXyde & Crazy There's no way Sony will allow gamepass on Playstation as it will directly interfere with PS+ first of all.
It would also mean that people already subscribed to PS+ would be required to take out ANOTHER subscription just to play COD. Or people that are not keen on subscriptions will be forced into signing up for months if it's only available via 'gamepass on PS', instead of being able to buy the game outright.
Sony ain't gonna do Microsoft favours at the expense of making things shit for THEIR customers. Also, wouldn't Sony be screwing themselves even further by losing money from sales, if people can only play it via a subscription....to Microsoft of all people?
I just don't see it happening. Playstation is not even going to make the next COD available on THEIR service day one. They prefer to have proper sales ( as they should ).
Awesome so the deal can now pass. Hopefully MS quickly move on to buying Capcom, Ubisoft, Square Enix.
UBI have Tencent money who are themselves a trillion dollar company so that ain’t happening. And good luck going through Japanese laws in buying one of their companies especially when you are a outsider
But the mindset you have is what’s wrong with Xbox fanboys. If it up to y’all you would want MS to buy up PlayStation and Nintendo next, because why have options let one company control everything
S/
They all suffer from deranged syndrome, they don't even care about the games or anything like that, they just can't stand Sony which has been wiping the floor with their beloved green box aka the most irrelevant gaming platform on the planet and that is what truly hurts them.
I wonder how long it'll take them to realise that the publishers MS are buying up are no longer competing with each other as well? The beigeification of consolidation.
Let them be misinformed & ignorant. Now it’s going to be interesting to see how the worst selling platform holder is going to sustain all of those studios & their IPs.
"Now it’s going to be interesting to see how the worst selling platform holder is going to sustain all of those studios & their IPs."
I've been saying this from the beginning. I'm so curious to see how it will all turn out. Microsoft can't even manage most of their first party studios 🤫
You are what's wrong with gaming. Don't you realize that if MS keeps this up there will be less competition in the long run and gamers will suffer because of it. This may be a win for Xbox fans on the short term but in the long run if this keeps up we will all suffer from it.
Just because something sounds good on paper doesn't mean it will be good in practical ways.
But if MS would drop out of the gaming industry and therefore less competition, you Sony fans would be ok with it?
I’m not a fan of these big acquisitions either tho, but that’s how business is done nowadays, sadly enough. It happens everywhere.
I pretty sure I can say I speak for most people when I say. We just want MS to be better. To do better. We don't want MS gone, atleast I don't lol. I just want them to develop their own IP, creatively add to the gaming industry. That's NOT what they're doing, they're trying to buy it. They're trying to RUN it.
@sagapo very few people against the acquisition want MS to drop out of gaming. The problem with these acquisitions is MS is not adding anything to the industry. MS does not care about acquiring talent, they only care about acquiring content to put on GamePass to drive subs. They don't want to expand the industry, they are happy just owning more of the pie thats already there. Most of Sony's recent acquisitions are new studios with new IP that will hopefully bring something new to the table. What is the last IP Microsoft built from the ground up? Most people would be happy if MS spent $70 billion building up their current studios. Instead, MS is content slapping their logo on Candy Crush and COD for $70 billion while adding literally nothing that wasnt there before
Federal lawyers couldn’t prove less competition but here you are claiming it lol
@ Raven @ Plague:
To set it straight, I’m not defending the way MS is working. And yes, considering the amount of dev’s and publishers they bought, the amount of great exclusives they have is pretty low.
My response to Chief was only about the competition aspect of his message and the comments you read on this site from PS fans, especially since the leaks (perhaps based on how MS operates the last years, sure).
@sagapo
no one is advocating for xbox to just close up shop. if that's your strongest argument in favor of xbox acquiring ABK, yikes.
@sadraiden: I already stated I DO NOT favor these big acquisitions! ( on another article) Again, I only responded on the competition aspect of Chief’s comment.
After reading this I did a google search on this HP/Palm purchase and how it effects Microsoft and there's some facts to this article. Just not sure if it's true.
I guess time will tell.
Really good reads if you follow the links, little bit over the top though. If you follow the tech articles there are so many power plays by big tech companies right now.