Earlier today, Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirmed the news that a 10-year commitment has been agreed to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo (and Steam) following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but as of right now, we still haven't heard about what's happening with Sony and PlayStation.
Microsoft has stated on numerous occasions that a 10-year offer for Call of Duty on PlayStation has been submitted to Sony, but it sounds like there's been no proper response about this as of yet.
Here's what Microsoft president Brad Smith had to say about it earlier today:
"Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before. That's good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you Nintendo. Any day Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well."
Phil Spencer has been discussing the matter today too, telling Bloomberg the following:
“From where we sit, it’s clear they’re spending more time with the regulators than they are with us to try and get this deal done.”
Spencer highlighted to the outlet that Sony has been the "one game industry participant that’s really been raising all the objections", but also stated that Microsoft has "a pretty good idea of how to build a win-win relationship with Nintendo and frankly Sony.”
We're assuming Sony will have something to say eventually about this offer, but as of right now, everything appears to be pretty silent. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is set to meet with the FTC today to make its "final case" in support of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, so we'll keep an eye on any further developments throughout the week.
What are your thoughts on this? Tell us down in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com, via bloomberg.com]
Comments 61
I said this on push square.
Sony need to move on
Get over it
They seeming desperate now, which is not
a Good for their image.
They don’t own the game or the company that produces the game. So live and deal with it.
Why in the world would he think they'd want to help Microsoft with this acquisition 😂
Was on push square earlier and a lot of Playstation fans think Sony should take the deal and make a competitor. They keep forgetting many games have tried to compete with CoD but none have come close to it. MW 2 made over a billion dollars in just a few days, brand recognition is huge with CoD its essentially an FPS monopoly on its own like FIFA is in football games. You can't compete with it, at least not in the short term. They only way they'll compete is if Microsoft acquires it and then ruins it by poorly managing like they do with all their first party games. Until then COD is here to stay and Sony leadership just need to accept a decline in profits coming very soon.
At the end of the day, this benefits Microsoft. So Sony are not going to want to make it easy. It's not about consumers, it's about profit. And it always has been. It's a business at the end of the day (built by consumers) so no COD, means no profit, COD on gamepass means less profit. That's the reason. I understand their reasoning for sure, but the reality is, this will most likely happen and PS needs a plan of action to help reduce the lack of profit, as they will be losing a ton of money, the same applies to Microsoft. Anyone thinking that they are doing this from the godness of their hearts is insane, it's about profit - this going on gamepass would boost subscribers and increase money flow. We can all be against each side, the fact is we are all in the same boat, using either console encourages us to spend our cash on their services and games. Both want our money and doing these sort of acquisitions controls us in buying into their ecosystems.
Sony doesn't care about the availability of games at all. Firstly, they buy limited exclusivity for third-party games, which proves how hypocritical they are. Secondly, it's evident that Sony doesn't just covet Call of Duty on PlayStation, but they cry because of Game Pass -that makes games more accessible- and because the games will no longer have exclusive content attached to their own platform since ABK won't be a third party they can bribe anymore. Basically, Sony is saying that it's unfair that they can't be unfair. Another thing I find jarring is that Sony doesn't seem to trust their overrated first-party interactive experiences as much as I thought.
The offer should be enough, the deal is there. If Sony decide not to take it, they regulators should see it as it was not that important anyway and let MS buy Activision.
Phil basically spilling his guts to news agencies every time he changes stance doesn't help anyone. He may buy some bragging rights against the terminally dumb who don't even understand why regulators should be involved, but anyone looking with clearer vision will see a slippery media manipulator. Personally I wouldn't trust him to hold my drink , but this is still about what regulators see and not about how much Phil tries to manipulate.
I've always suspected the merger will go ahead, but this process has already made MS change stance several times, so its already been more effective than rubber stamping it.
@Chaudy They can make a good competitor but they need to invest in it too. They need a long term vision. Imo Killzone/Resistance/SOCOM/ … had potential but this takes years. Instead they made room for COD/Battlefield on the PS platform. After all these years what became the secret sauce for the popularity of COD games on PS? Battlefield failed a few times but with Vanguard we saw COD fail as well. And what makes the F2P shooters genre popular? A lot of people seem to invest in those.
@Kaloudz msn bypasses the paywall for most those sites. Search it on bing news.
@Titntin
Personally I wouldn't trust him to hold my drink
Oh, that explains why you fellas no longer go out for drinks 😉.
but this is still about what regulators see and not about how much Phil tries to manipulate
Indeed. We can all have our opinions but ultimately its down to the Regulators to make the necessary enquiries before coming to a decision. I still find it baffling that the whole takeover has become so COD centric that everything else just gets ignored...figures.
@Dezzy70 but but profits
@Kaloudz The FTC is in what the eu, uk etc would refer to as phase 2. This is all part of that "Phase", it is just different regions have slightly different ways of going about these things. As for the Sony talking to them the investigation, as with any legal matter, is open to be contested by anyone who feels they have a case. Sony is going to them because they are contesting the merger so no they wouldn't say go work it out with MS, they would say thank you for the input we will take it into consideration now does anyone else have any input they like to make etc.
I have not cared about stupid console wars since I was a child in 1996 and the whole Nintendo vs Sega vs Sony thing was in full force. Since then, I’ve been platform agnostic and have appreciated the different experiences I’ve had on Nintendo, PC, Xbox, and PlayStation systems. Sony’s behavior is bringing back that sneering “Well, **** [insert platform]” nonsense feeling of the 90s I had. They’re making me hope they screw themselves and get the raw end of the deal. Not because I don’t love my PS5, I do. But because this is going from “concern” to simply juvenile and antagonistic.
@Sol4ris
"that explains why you fellas no longer go out for drinks 😉"
Lol. Though who wouldn't go out for a drink with Phil? I think he's as slippery as any major exec for a global corp, but I bet you could have a good chat anyway!
I get your second point - all the other titles have been overlooked, but to be fair, COD is the only one with enough market clout to warrant the attention of the authorities. If Microsoft purchase the rest of the titles, I guess that's not much of a concern as they are pretty small fry in terms of business turnover, and Sony can develop alternatives.
Personally I'd rather 3rd party publishers stayed that way and that their games were brought to the platforms they wish, but MS need games to compete, so consolidation it is:) I'm always on all platforms, so no FOMO here!
I wonder how Sony is going to convince regulators that screwing up this deal for Nintendo and taking COD away from one of the biggest platforms and competitors is good for competition and the industry. It's more and more obvious how Sony is only looking out for themselves and their own interests.
Microsoft is trying to have the series reach more platforms than ever, while Sony still tries to cry foul. By this point it's gone beyond pathetic. Sony is about as anti-consumer as a company can get.
@Titntin however Phil promised to not take away the largest game in gaming and to bring it to more places and the same places and this deal does both, Nintendo and Steam. While the benefit is to build GP with AAA titles making it the service to have now and into the future, and that is why Sony is upset, cause this will make the services game for a lacking PS+ a uphill battle for a long time. Phil’s job is to get MS money and not level the gaming industry and thats not a easy rope to climb, but i think he’s done a really good job for what can be done there and takes the industry as a whole with a lot of respect. He is loved by his peers in the business and that has to say something about his trust and respect levels with others.
Sony are pathetic. I thought this months ago as a result of their acquisition BS. I think it even more strongly today.
Do they not care about their public image? They are total hypocrites.
I say again I love ps games but I will not be buying a PS5 unless it's on eBay. Same for any game I want to play. eBay all the way. Never giving a penny to Sony again.
Crossed them off my potential TV list too... I'm upgrading soon.
Petty of me? Voting with my wallet. Seriously... The BS we have seen from Jim Ryan and sony this gen. I could write a list.
@JayJ Sony has watched themselves over the years lose out to many companies in many different categories, they see some Doom and gloom on the wall here cause they know what it looks and smells like. Samsung did it to the TV business, Dell, HP and others did in Sony’s PC business. Etc etc, PlayStation is the one area Sony felt safe and got to sit back and count the cash. Sony has a bad history of not changing to the times and being over priced and that cost them the TV sales, Camera and Laptop business, didn’t adopt fast enough to the MP3 market, and when they did they built a proprietary file system that wasn’t compatible with iTunes, the market leader then and now. They are nervous about GP and the thirst MS has for AAA not only on the service but day and date. I for one used to like Sony TV’s, i don’t even support that anymore, i buy LG OLED’s. I give Sony little to no profit on my PS4 and PS5 profit, seeing as hardware makes no money, i don’t pay for their services and only buy their exclusives for the PS platforms. All other games and services i use and pay for on Xbox. So as more users shift to GP, they know this deal will eat some of their profits, but Thats business, it’s about adjusting and making their products compete and as i mentioned they know they aren’t good at that by all the closures they have had in other divisions.
@Tangerine dollar for dollar and feature for feature the LG OLED C1 or C2 is a better TV for gaming. Last October 2021 i needed a new tv for my PS5 and Series X and i used to buy Sony TV’s, but they had no VRR, 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, a higher price tag, while the LG was slightly cheaper, 4 HDMI 2.1 ports, VRR and GSync out the box. I made the switch and do not regret it one bit. The C1 LG Oled tv i own now is the best tv i have ever had and i plan to at some point buy more.
Ps suck tbh....I preorder the psvr 2 yesterday and part of me is already thinking they probably will only half ass support it...which will be a piss take if that's the case when we are paying over £500 for it
@Would_you_kindly no one in their right mind would expect sony to help Microsoft with this merger, but they keep bringing them up in articles to bring more bad press towards sony to pressure them into signing the deal.
Its been a well thought out strategy from the get go, I mean how many articles do we get every week about Phil saying this and that, and articles aimed at getting people to hate on sony. Every week Phil does an interview about this acquisition.
Sony haven't responded most likely because they are busy trying to figure out how they can possibly spin the announcement of the deal with Nintendo into a negative for Microsoft.
@Kaloudz there are paywall blocker extensions you can get that delete cookies to bypass many paywalls.
@Kaloudz Yes, I use an extension. I had to manually install it from files on Github. I believe it works for Chrome and Edge. Chris Titus Tech on Youtube had a video about it just a few days ago. Worked for me.
This is mostly just posturing by xbox. They are trying to frame this as a concession and paint Sony as the unreasonable ones. It's not really a concession since they have been saying they want to keep it multiplat and bring it to Nintendo since the beginning.
Seems like a good strategy though and they are really going to hammer this point as much as they can. Add this narrative to the union efforts and you really look bad opposing the deal.
@StylesT Yeah I skipped the preorder. That's a lot of cash for a peripheral I'm not sure will have legs. It cost more than the console. I figure if they "do a Sony" and cut support when it's not the next big thing, I can buy it cheap on a fire sale, and if it does take off or they stubbornly hold price like they did with Minidisc and UMD, it'll be there to buy in a few years still, and the library will still be small enough to catch up on it all at a discount. Or Plus.
@Banjo- I think Sony made clear they don't trust the profitability of their single player titles when they announced pretty much their whole focus for the generation was going to be on live services. The big money is CoD and GTA, not GoW. They know it. I don't think they'll make NO single player games going forward, but I still believe PS fans are in for a rude shock at the coming direction shift of Sony's 1st party output over the decade as they relentlessly plug the CoD-exclusive-content shaped hole. I mean, Sony directly said so, but people are still in denial and assume that those dozen service games are going to come along side the usual roster of single player games, and they just don't have capacity for that.
I'm sure a lot of that shift was inspired by the ABK announcement though, and their assumption it would go through. They probably should have learned from MS's failure of Halo that trying to "duplicate" CoD doesn't happen on command.
IMO they'd do better to lean into being "Nintenodo-like" like they were vocally resisting, and just do their own thing for their own niches. But that's hard and being a default CoD box for a flat exclusivity fee is easy. Although Nintendo will have CoD for the next 10 years and PS may or may not, so being "Nintendo-like" may be harder than they thought.
@Would_you_kindly They don't need to help their competitor become stronger, but at a certain point, when you're the market leader as Sony is, you're the only party raising objections, those objections are mostly based on alleging the potential of a competitor using your own business practices, and your other competitors have all walked out the door with a contract and gains while you refuse to sit down at the table while asking the courts to intervene to protect your position....you start looking like you're just using government as a tool for maintaining market dominance. Which they are.
They could get away with it when it was a contest of "Microsoft vs Sony" and MS getting "too big" and risking becoming a monopoly against their smaller corporate competitor. But the equation has shifted, and the balance is now "everyone but Sony, who refuses to negotiate". The onus is now on Sony alone.
The Nintendo contract is genius, and the Valve contract is just a cherry on top. Nintendo, a famously hard to negotiate with company that once literally laughed Microsoft out of the room signed a 10 year contract with them at Sony's expense. Smart on Microsoft to shift the whole paradigm from Sony alleging Microsoft could lock one of the world's biggest IPs in a walled garden, to Sony being the only one walling themselves OUT of the garden, making their "taking games away from gamers" arguments ring absurdly hollow. And smart on Nintendo for leveraging Sony's tantrum and Microsoft's plight with governments to their advantage and securing a long-term generational contract on one of the biggest IPs in the world they were otherwise generally excluded from on account of their non-standard hardware. Bad on Sony for overplaying their hand in the extreme resulting in a keystone for their ecosystem being included long-term in a competitor's they previously didn't have to compete with, a competitor with a larger install base(!), and for being so myopic they focused only on CoD and didn't even bother mentioning other IPs that MS would now have free reign to take exclusive if they chose because Sony was only ever concerned on their high-profit cash producer and not the actual consolidation of game properties at all.
It's really an incredible development, not from a console war perspective but from a business perspective from all the players. Adding valve ensures competitive marketplaces in PC digital, which is also an important factor for regulators, and Gabe walks away another decade safe.
Yesterday Sony feared losing CoD money to a "subsidized" Game Pass. Today they're now facing Game Pass AND the Nintendo juggernaut competing against their new service games. The harm comes ironically not from a competitor restricting them, but from the content widening to more competitors. By making the game LESS exclusive, MS basically undermined the entire argument Sony's been making and strengthened their mutual competitor.
Hardly altruistic, but smart. Reminds me of when Apple was nearly bankrupt and Microsoft funded them to keep the duopoly going and prevent new competition.
Jim Ryan is just being a ***** little baby because MS beat him to the punch. Did MS pull this BS when Sony acquired Bungie?? Sony needs to dump Jim Ryan for good.
@Tasuki 'Did MS pull this BS when Sony acquired Bungie??' they'd just acquired zenimax & were in the process of this Activision acquisition when Sony acquired bungie how could they have possibly complained about it 🤣
@Brue I concur.
Whether someone or not cares about the console wars, the wars are effecting your gaming. Sony isn't buying Blizzard/Activision Microsoft is. Sony doesn't get a say, this was an olive branch and they lost that opportunity because Sony is such a hubris company, they are dumping money to keep games away from gamers. You may not care but Sony is paying money to keep you from playing games you want to play because it isn't theirs. Sony has zero integrity. Microsoft is just as bad though.
@Would_you_kindly Sony feels entitled. I hope they lose everything about this due to their arrogance. They could have put up an offer themselves but Microsoft did. Sony looks like they are just throwing a tantrum.
So much drama. We all know it will go through. Sony will have to accept an offer, stop whining and we can all go back to gaming and enjoying ourselves.
All a bit much of a muchness the big corp posturing. If the boot was on the other foot and Sony acquired EA (would never happen but hypothetical) MS would panic and moan the same way about Fifa.
Bottom line. Its all about money.
Sony knows they will lose because of this merger and they know it won't be blocked so the plan is just "might as well be a thorn in their side" because of it.
@Would_you_kindly
They could have started complaining about not getting a guarantee of every Bungie release for 25 years with exact feature parity written in blood. Maybe in hindsight they should have done.
@Green-Bandit Yeah, well said. Sony has always been a company that gets complacent whenever they get a lead, which leads to them losing ground to competition. Combine that with their desire to always charge more and consider themselves a "premium" brand, and the way they try to be highly controlling with every platform they get (as you mentioned the proprietary file management, and later their proprietary memory cards on the Vita), and it's no wonder they wind up losing to competitors over time. That and as we have seen with the Vita and Vaio brands, they can be quick to abandon their sub-brands when they don't succeed. Playstation has been a real cash cow for the company despite the failure of the Vita, and as we have been seeing lately they really don't like it when competition steps up and changes things in their comfort zone.
@JayJ right on the money, you got it and they got to count their cash with the Xbox one management issues. But Xbox is here to say and fight harder and harder for customers to play in their ecosystem, and for the ones that don’t they will still be buying Microsoft license games. When 2 Trillion dollar companies wake up and start to compete it’s normally fast and fierce. Microsoft is doing their best to go from a few studios to the market leader in studio size. Sony don’t have to take their ball and go home, PS is still the leading name and attention of the industry. But they will have to try harder and god forbidden spend a little more money and eat a little more profit to compete. What’s so bad with that? I would think gamers around the world would want to see companies fighting for our time and money. But PS diehards are nervous and they ain’t ready to lose the internet wars as silly and pointless as those are, thats a game they never get tired of replaying.
I liked Medal of Honor better. Or at least Frontline.
It was the first Surround Sound game I played, along with Rogue Leader.
@Kaloudz yes but by getting nintendo to sign they made sony look like little bitches complaining about essentially not being able to buy activison blizzard themselves.....if i was MS i would tell sony to F off and bring the cod franchise to every system except sonys.... or make sony pay out the ass to get the game at all.....
@Green-Bandit Sony doesnt have the money... they are still only about a decade out from almost going under.....right now sony as of the end of oct has 11bn cash on hand which is down 33% from last year compare that to MS who has a whopping 104bn cash on hand...nearly 10x times more cash on hand to spend... not to mention... my point is MS can literally spend sony into the ground, and honestly probably nintendo... but nintendo survives on their first party titles, sony does good on their first party but honestly Playstation could never make it without 3rd party support.....
@Blessed_Koz Yet Sony has plenty of money to spend on COD perks, $3Billion on Bungie, and all the other titles they fund for exclusive perks, they even spent money on Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop ,so by that account i would have to assume they have more than enough to make and keep PlayStation a very high demand product for years to come for them. Microsoft isn’t taking COD, or Diablo 4 away, sure i will admit MS seems intent on keeping new IP’s exclusive to Xbox and PC, and that will be where MS has some competitive edge and Sony’s has their big heavy hitters in their first party line-up. That is good healthy competition that should keep both systems flying off shelves and making a more well rounded industry, where we don’t have a 2.5 - 1 sales lead for PS. I own both a PS5 and Series X and intend to do so for the foreseeable future.
@Green-Bandit i own both too my point was ms has enough money on hand to technically buy sony... what i was trying to say is if MS really wanted to they could outspend sony and barely feel it....i dont see them doing it... if im being honest out of the big 3 MS is the most likely to be the one to leave console(if that were to happen and i dont see it happening) they make most of their money elsewhere, sony on the otherhand and nintendo to even more extent are reliant on video games sales to keep them profitable... personally i love when the console makers have a console war, pushes them all to do things better, but sucks when they think it means gate keeping other systems is the way...
and i wasnt trying to say sony is broke, just saying is MS wanted to actually fight a console war theoretically they could dump money and block sony from getting games or other addons, they wont they seem intent on trying to play nice for now.
@Green-Bandit Yup, spot on. Personally, I'm tired of their internet wars.
@Blessed_Koz i get your point, i just don’t see MS forcing sony out. If that was the case Diablo 4 and COD would be Xbox and PC exclusive. I think MS see’s that the Console war was won by Sony and for them to compete will consoles are the main place for most gamers. They need top of the line games and services and their deals support that. Then in 10-15 years time if causals move to cloud and hardcore on PC and console. They are sitting pretty with all those AAA games to push via GP to all areas gamers are. Consoles could be around for 25 more years or they could not and if they aren’t sony is doomed to begin with cause they don’t have the cloud infrastructure MS does. That is to be determined if cloud can get good enough for the more casual fan or not. PS fans made fan of xbox for not having games, xbox knows to stay in the business they need games, they can’t build studios from the ground up and wait for those games, that takes years upon years. So they bought who was for sale. Smart move and of course like you mention they have the money to invest. I think this will really help Xbox long term and have little impact on sony. Sony is still insanely popular around the globe with it PS brand. This should make the gen’s look more like PS3 vs 360 than PS4 vs Xbox one and i think that is a healthy thing for both gamers and the industry.
@JayJ it really get old buddy. The industry is great and doing well, it doesn’t need people arguing and making the industry look bad cause they don’t prefer a certain console over the other. Buy the one or multiple ones that make you and your family happy and be quiet haha, if only it was that easy huh buddy? But i think a less dominant console brand and more even sales and good games across all 3 might tame it down a tad, but i am sure they will find something to fight over.
The reality is that Sony don't want COD on Game Pass day one.
They won't accept a 10 year deal, or anything else.
For their shareholders, they will fight to the death to show they tried everything they could to block the deal from happening.
They don't care about gamers or allowing COD to be more widely accessible, they only care for their bottom dollar.
@electrolite77 so you think Microsoft should've complained to regulators about Sony acquiring bungie while they were in the process of the largest ever gaming acquisition? Lol
At this point the regulators need to stop being concerned about Sony's well being, it's not their job to ensure their position as the market leader. Xbox has clearly demonstrated the willingness to have COD available everywhere and there are other gaming platforms other than PlayStation, one which let's not forget is more than happy to keep games exclusive and pay for third parties to do so such as Final Fantasy for example
@carlos82 Microsoft have done this as well they paid for 1 year exclusive on tomb raider they had exclusive early access to cod map packs first back on 360 and also got gta 4 dlc exclusive for a while as well both these companies are as bad as each other.
@Rangers420 I'm not for 1 second suggesting only Sony have ever done this, just how hypoctical it is of them to argue that point all whilst announcing more exclusive deals
I'd laugh so much if it got past the regulators and Sony got nothing, though that's not going to happen.
@carlos82 Never said you did I'm just pointing out both of these companies are hypocrites something a lot of people on here seem to forget.
@Green-Bandit Yeah I think everything got super toxic last gen with all the Sony fanboys and the console war that was going pushed at that time. It's honestly made it so I stopped going to some websites and started avoiding some areas in the industry. The whole fanboy issue has been really tiring for sure. I just naturally gravitated towards Xbox and Nintendo last gen, probably because they were making the games that appealed to me while I wasn't really enjoying what Sony was doing with the PS4. it feels like the entire culture just really changed for the worst when that gen started.
@Would_you_kindly
Yeah they might as well have done. Sony used ‘games being kept off our platform’ as a justification to do so.
@Kaloudz Microsoft does not need to give concessions or volunteer concessions. A regulatory body may ask for concessions.
Sony did not respond to the 10-year offer. The refuse because they want to keep pretending and attempt to block, slow, or evoke concessions in some form. The longer they can drag it out prevents MS from moving on to smaller acquisitions of troubled developers.
Nintendo already agreed to their 10-year deal and Steam responded that anything in writing was not necessary. One would think Sony was the first to get their offer, yet they refuse to acknowledge it.
If the FTC decides not to pursue any further objections, approval on their end would probably come early next year. Other bodies would not be able to ignore the decision and would have to drop the act (CMA).
@Rangers420 Yes, however, do you see how you and Sony fans have only these two examples to bring up over two decades?
Sony has many times more timed-exclusives (some indefinite i.e. never coming to Xbox) and exclusive content deals coming next year from Square alone. Sony also hampers PC releases. Take a good look at the coming releases and start working your way backward through the years.
Where is Nioh 1 & 2 on Xbox? FFVII Remake? SFV? Deathloop and GDW:T delayed a year while owned by MS? No Man's Sky, Nier: Automata, so many games receiving lengthy delays.
Next year there's Forspoken (2-year exclusivity, 🤣) and FFVII: Part 2, and FXVI, just from Square. I might be missing a few more Square titles. Sony consistently leverages Japanese ties, let Microsoft team up with Americans.
If Sony is going to keep this up, either Microsoft outbids them on everything 3rd-party and we have total anarchy or step out of the way when Microsoft buys studios. I can't imagine Sony's intervention in the ABK has endeared them over at Microsoft in the slightest.
@imdonewithMS Microsoft has bigger goals as they are a much larger company. Xbox got limited backing from MS for decades and Xbox caught hell last generation for it. Now MS backs them strongly and people are like, "Wait! Hold on a sec!" LOL.
Microsoft could have truly back Xbox at any point. Maybe they are finally convinced, I don't know.
Sony is stubborn and wants to control everything by shoving it through the console. They don't want to spend a ton of money and don't have it to spend. Sony wants to rely on the same old model where they can exact a great deal of control.
Millions are used to pay to keep games of off Xbox (and PC), subtract from them through content, rather than buying new studios. Sony spends less, spreads it around, and stifles Xbox more effectively. Look at the Callisto Protocol launch on Xbox and PC.
I believe Microsoft wants to grow the game division into something like the success of Windows or Azure. Windows is not hardware-specific and they realize Xbox doesn't have to be, either. Xbox doesn't have to "win" in console sales, only in software and services revenue.
Microsoft frankly just wants to make a ton of money running a software & services business. The consoles are just a delivery mechanism. They have abstracted Xbox to reach as many customers as possible. A cheap console, and premium console, support for legacy games, PC day-one releases, cloud gaming, physical & digital purchase, Game Pass, and the All-Access program.
@JayJ I can’t disagree with that. N4G website is so pro Sony i rarely use it these days and never comment on it and you are right it ruins the industry by making gamers stay off those sites or avoid stores in person. That isn’t a healthy thing for the industry. My outdoor hobby as i call it is Bass Fishing, makes my indoor hobby of video games look cheap, but we fisherman bond at stores and websites and treat each other with respect and bounce ideas or share stories together. Teach the younger crowd and really feel like a family if that makes sense. The video game culture is the exact opposite. Sad really, but it takes people wanting to change and make the industry better and sadly i don’t see that change happening anytime soon.
Imagine unironically supporting Sony the most anti-consumer trash company in gaming
@Green-Bandit I think the problem with that is how so many people have been beaten down in recent years, especially those who don't fit the mold or standout in some way. The industry and it's fanboys have been unnecessarily hostile towards anyone they deem outsiders or (gasp) someone who likes things they're not a fan of. After a while people just stop caring to engage. I'm just glad I found the occasional good site like this where there's a more relaxed and focused community.
@NEStalgia Ha ha. I know but I've never seen Sony this aggressive. PS4 was such an easy success, with Wii U and base Xbox One to compete against. I am aware of that meeting where they revealed that over half of their games will be available on PC and mobile. They used to say that Xbox has no games. That Xbox has no exclusives. That Sony exclusives are better. So, what's next? Keep crying? More indefinite Final Fantasy deals?
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