XBOX says no more.[Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard]

#126
#126
Brave Volunteer said:
Every fanbase is going to have their crybabies. It's unavoidable. Xbox fans whined about it with Street Fighter V and Final Fantasy, Sony fans are whining about it with Bethesda and Activision. You won't hear me whine about it. MS' biggest asset is their wallet and they're finally using it. Good for them! I just wish I could convince my son to trade in his Switch and games towards an XSX, LOL!
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Im not in either fanbase, Im a fan of all the consoles and PC.
 
#127
#127
Freak said:
Fair enough. I just don't think we're anywhere near there, considering the size of the gaming divisions of Tencent and Sony by comparison. I wonder if there's a historical precedent for blocking an acquisition to become the third largest? Plus I'm sure Microsoft is willing to allow all of its games on Playstation, via gamepass. :) Besides, Microsoft feels pretty confident this will pass, they put up $3 billion saying it will.

Another big thing to consider is gaming includes mobile phones, which is by far the largest segment, and where Microsoft has no platform and very little presence.

You said this gen you're probably doing xbox, is that because of game pass? I loved the 360 much more than Playstation. Then I thought the PS4 was better than xbox one by far. But this generation I'm a little more torn between the two. I have likes and dislikes about both.
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At this point I don't think Microsoft is anywhere near having to worry about antitrust. But there is a direct path to it from here. They are the only American company in that discussion, not sure if that helps or hurts them. I'm not sure if mobile really counts. You're not wrong about some of the uproar being butthurt fanboys though.

I'm right with you on console choices, I did 360 then PS4. To answer your question, yes Gamepass is exactly why I plan to go Xbox. I would love nothing more than PS to just get on the band wagon and make that choice harder. I'm usually a single player guy and that had me on PS4. But that means I've played 90% third person open world type games this generation and I'm kind of getting tired of them.
 
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#128
#128
Freak said:
You could be right. I guess EA, Ubisoft and Take Two are the main ones that come to mind, along with Sega, WB, Capcom and Square Enix.
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Don't forget Konami. They don't have any studios to speak of but their IP and back catalog is a gold mine. Castlevania, Bomberman, Contra, Silent Hill, Suikoden, and most importantly Metal Gear. They could be had on the cheap too.
 
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#129
#129
Freak said:
I had a switch for a little bit, but found myself never playing it. I live the concept of a handheld so I wish I had enjoyed it more.
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Imo if you're going to live and die by the handheld format, you should iterate more to keep up with performance standards or you will lose 3rd party support. Consoles are now on a 7 or 8 year cycle. If Nintendo plans to stay solely in the handheld market I wish they would introduce a new, more powerful version about every 4 or 5 years.
 
#131
#131
I think one point we are missing or at least not addressing is, these arent hostile takeovers. These publishers wanted to sell to MS. The question is why? Why now? I think its a product of the reality of modern game development in that it has become ridiculously expensive to make AAA games, probably to the point to where it wasnt sustainable for a lot of developers anymore. MS is one of the few companies that has the capital to fund modern game development. Sony spends more money on one of their AAA games than a lot of Hollywood studios spend on blockbuster movies. Smaller publishers are going to have an increasingly harder time being profitable as development costs continue to go up. That's why Konami got out of the business. Sadly I think it will result in more consolidation of the industry. Zenimax was not in good shape when MS bought them. They were on the brink of closing some of their studios. Activision was struggling as well. These acquisitions actually helped save some of those studios.
 
#132
#132
Brave Volunteer said:
You're free to clarify then. I responded to a direct quote from you. What was your point that I seemed to miss?
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You are free to read again and this time without your normal sony fanboy hat on. I never said I had a problem with what Sony does with exclusivity, I am saying that I am not going to be sad for them because M$ is doing it right back to them. People praise Sony for their exclusives and the same people get all up in their feelings when M$ does something like this. In a perfect world, everything would be cross platform and exclusivity would not exist, but it doesnt and I am not going to rip M$ for this when Sony has spent more than 3 decades basically doing the same thing.
 
#133
#133
Brave Volunteer said:
I think one point we are missing or at least not addressing is, these arent hostile takeovers. These publishers wanted to sell to MS. The question is why? Why now? I think its a product of the reality of modern game development in that it has become ridiculously expensive to make AAA games, probably to the point to where it wasnt sustainable for a lot of developers anymore. MS is one of the few companies that has the capital to fund modern game development. Sony spends more money on one of their AAA games than a lot of Hollywood studios spend on blockbuster movies. Smaller publishers are going to have an increasingly harder time being profitable as development costs continue to go up. That's why Konami got out of the business. Sadly I think it will result in more consolidation of the industry. Zenimax was not in good shape when MS bought them. They were on the brink of closing some of their studios. Activision was struggling as well. These acquisitions actually helped save some of those studios.
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I dont believe this to be the case. Activision reported almost 2 billion in revenue....in 3 months.
 
#134
#134
K-town Vol Fan said:
I dont believe this to be the case. Activision reported almost 2 billion in revenue....in 3 months.
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With Activision I was talking more about the scandal over...let's just say less than professional behavior in the workplace. There's been a huge push to fire CEO Bobby Kotick for what many considered fostering a toxic work culture. So much so that several employees staged a walk out back in December over it. Also not to mention that Call of Duty Vanguard sales were down 36% ftom the previous Call of Duty.

One thing is for certain, with this acquisition MS absolutely owns the first person shooter genre! They now have COD, Overwatch, Halo, Doom, Wolfenstein, Deathloop, and I'm sure there are others Im not rememering.
 
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#135
#135
Brave Volunteer said:
With Activision I was talking more about the scandal over...let's just say less than professional behavior in the workplace. There's been a huge push to fire CEO Bobby Kotick for what many considered fostering a toxic work culture. So much so that several employees staged a walk out back in December over it. Also not to mention that Call of Duty Vanguard sales were down 36% ftom the previous Call of Duty.

One thing is for certain, with this acquisition MS absolutely owns the first prrson shooter genre! They now have COD, Overwatch, Halo, Doom, Wolfenstein, Deathloop, and I'm sure there are others Im not rememering.
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They got Hexen and Heretic in the Activision deal. With ID and Arcane in thier stable, that is a franchise ripe for a revival.
 
#136
#136
JCHateSteve said:
They got Hexen and Heretic in the Activision deal. With ID and Arcane in thier stable, that is a franchise ripe for a revival.
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Lol Lord when was the last time those had a release? I played Hexen back in the 90's on my Pentium 133mhz and Matrox Millineum video card.
 
#137
#137
Brave Volunteer said:
Lol Lord when was the last time those had a release? I played Hexen back in the 90's on my Pentium 133mhz and Matrox Millineum video card.
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It's been a long while. But, they would look fantastic with the Doom/Wolfenstein treatment.
 
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#138
#138
Surprising to me, but M$ has come out today and reiterated that they will keep COD on all platforms even beyond the current agreements. Still a chance that whatever the new agreement for future years will be absurd for Sony to agree to, so still up in the air technically.
 
#139
#139
BearCat204 said:
Surprising to me, but M$ has come out today and reiterated that they will keep COD on all platforms even beyond the current agreements. Still a chance that whatever the new agreement for future years will be absurd for Sony to agree to, so still up in the air technically.
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I would have to think Sony would be insane to keep COD from coming to their platform, regardless of how profits are shared. The game is way too engrained in the "zeitgeist" of gaming culture for Sony not to want their console to continue to be a part of it.

My guess is COD will continue to come to PlayStation, however Sony will simply lose marketing rights to the game once the current contract is fulfilled, which means every COD commercial will have Xbox Game Pass splashed all over it. Also any DLC or other bonus items that used to come to PlayStation first will most likely now be available everywhere same day or go to Xbox/PC users first.
 
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#143
#143
Brave Volunteer said:
If only Nintendo made hardware that doesnt struggle to run Fortnite.
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Hah. I tried playing Apex Legends on the Switch and it would barely run and took up like half of my storage.

I recently turned on my Wii so I could play The Wind Waker and was immediately struck that a game from 20 years ago looks and plays better than some of these Nintendo made Switch games.
 
#144
#144
WestTennesseeVol said:
Hah. I tried playing Apex Legends on the Switch and it would barely run and took up like half of my storage.

I recently turned on my Wii so I could play The Wind Waker and was immediately struck that a game from 20 years ago looks and plays better than some of these Nintendo made Switch games.
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Absolutely boggles my mind that Nintendo hasnt released a Wind Waker remaster on Switch. Or Mario Galaxy 2, or a Metroid Prime Trilogy remaster for that matter.
 
#145
#145
Brave Volunteer said:
Absolutely boggles my mind that Nintendo hasnt released a Wind Waker remaster on Switch. Or Mario Galaxy 2, or a Metroid Prime Trilogy remaster for that matter.
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They just did a remaster on the Wii U, but of course that was a flop of a system.

Nintendo makes the worst decisions, but they have a loyal fan base that buys it all up and rebuys old games at current day prices, so they don’t really need to do anything major to continue making a ton of money.

Unfortunately, I probably contribute to that problem in my own small way.
 
#147
#147
WestTennesseeVol said:
They just did a remaster on the Wii U, but of course that was a flop of a system.
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Yeah I guess I meant just a port of the Wii U version. Because of its art style, Wind Waker really holds up well graphically and its still one of the better Zelda games in the 3d era.

Nintendo is a frustrating company to deal with for sure. As high quality and endearing as many of their games can be, they are without a doubt the least accommodating of the 3 console providers when it comes to meeting modern gamers needs/wants. I guess they dont feel like they have to, given they really have no competition in this "hybrid" space they have created and their die-hard fans dont seem to demand more from them. While I dont expect the Steam Deck to put much of a dent in the Switch's sales, hopefully what it does do is sell well enough to open the floodgates for other competitors to enter the hybrid space and push Nintendo to try harder in the other "quality of life" areas of their system design.
 
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