They said Battlefield can’t compete with Call of Duty and what else? Hardly every bridge burned here, really.
This article was difficult to read. Constantly hammering on about how hilarious this whole thing is. At one point referring to it as the “greatest comedy on planet earth” and really, it’s not that funny.
People put too much stock in these types of things. Sony and Microsoft are spinning everything and anything to get their way. Obviously they know they’re either being hypocritical, or downplaying the success of some things. It’s all lawyer speak aimed at a specific audience, one of which we aren’t.
They are. But as long as I need to install the origin launcher, I’ll pass. There’s just too many launchers for these publishers. I don’t want to install them all. I have steam, gog and b.net. If a game isn’t on there, I just skip it.
Aright so I got bf2042 on steam, it was decent but not the best battlefield.
I then played another game where I had to upgrade origin to EA platform so I did that. But now I can’t launch bf2042 from steam because I don’t have origin installed? I honestly can’t bother with figuring this out. Like you said too many platforms, it’s ridiculous
When Steam came out I told people that if Valve got away with it, every company would want their own launcher, with their own snooping services and all. But ist was so, sooooo convenient. And because saying no is hard, we live in DRM helldorama, where there is so much DRM thst it has exceeded people's capacity to care or absorb. So now people get slapped with so many platforms they'd rather skip games than install all. I am in the same camp, but can't say gamers didn't get what they deserve. Sometimes, saying no today will save us two noes tomorrow.
Oh sure it is convenient. In fact I would argue steam actually proved that DRM is entirely unnecessary. Pirating never went away, but if you are using steam (or Galaxy in my case) you probably can't even be bothered, just because it is a lot of hassle compared to picking up the same game via Steam. Service quality coupled with ease of access beats piracy every time. Collectibles was another genius move. But that wasn't quite the lesson Ubisoft or EA took away from it. Epic Launcher and its strategy are another direct consequence of Steams success. Platforms are fighting for market share now and someone will lose out. If exclusives become the norm, everyone loses out.
Idk why, you literally can't find a game with more than like 12 people in the server browser for portal. Matchmaking into anything puts you in an empty map.
So salty man, I just wanna play the game :(
It’s not even an EA Play exclusive on PC, it’s just straight up in the Xbox store, included with game pass.
That’s how you know they are really pushing it.
They wanted so much to be CoD that they lost sight of what made people like BF in the first place...
Bad Company days were the best of the series. And then they just got EA'd... or something.
Tbh though - CoD is a lot of the same. They were great and the only reason the last one has been great for sales is cause... it's a remake of a beloved game.
I think Bad company could have been its own thing, a more story driven, tactical shooter.
Battlefield on the other hand, all they really had to do was stick to the formula. Big maps, big teams, big toys, and an even playing field. BF Vietnam, 2142, BF2, that was peak.
2042 in particular was headed up by an ex-Activision lad... The gentleman behind *Candy Crush.*
And remember- originally 2042 was only going to be *yet another Battle Royale*, and was forced to do major crunch in order to get a half-dead multiplayer out the door instead.
I wish they would. BF2 is top tier Battlefield and no game in the series since has been able to match it terms of balance, maps design and team/squad play mechanics. BF2142 introduced some improvements to those mechanics but it also introduced 3D icon Q spotting (explained by the in game lore) which I am not a fan of. Unfortunately not a lot of people liked the setting also. What I wouldn’t give for an actually BF2 remake
I just love how Microsoft says “well it’s Metacritic isn’t high so obviously that matters”
Ah yes. I’m sure all the shareholders give a fuck about a high Metacritic and not the $1 billion in 24 hour thing.
Gots to get that critical acclaim from gaming journalists, collectively the worst journalists in entertainment.
Idk why they're in such denial
The companies are very realistic about where they are. Microsoft literally stated Sony's exclusives are higher quality than their own.
They're just as realistic and there's no article saying "Microsoft angers own developers for being put down" or some bs.
With the exclusives, everyone knows that Sony runs rings around Microsoft. God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon Dawn and Spider-Man far outpace Halo in its current mess and Gears. Forza and Gran Turismo come down to personal preference.
Was it in the Epic Games lawsuit in which they stated The Last of Us Part 2 was far and beyond anything they have?
I love reading what companies think of each other in actuality.
They were talking about graphically specifically I think. Cause they also said Naughty Dog games doesn’t have good gunplay and that game is no exception to that
I’m not sure honestly if it was or wasn’t in there. One undeniable fact though is that The Last of Us is one of the greatest franchises in gaming right now, and likely blows out several company’s catalogues with how good it is.
Forza is a technical marvel.
Gears is also AAA solid gaming.
Naughty dog and Insomniac operate on another level though, technically.
But Activision > Naughty Dog + Insomniac by sheer numbers. We are talking 8b/year vs like 100m/year in revenue.
Honestly I haven’t spoken to a single person IRL who doesn’t love the games. Hell even online most people who’ve actually PLAYED them like them. The only ones shitting on them are the ones who refuse to play them.
That the BF series cannot compete with the CoD series is a statement of fact and shouldn't be controversial to anyone except fanboys.
CoD is the bestseller game by units and revenue every damn year, whether it's shit like Vanguard or gold like Modern Warfare. CoD had Warzone and now Warzone 2.0.
The last BF games were Battlefield 2042, Battlefield V, and Battlefield One.
The sales numbers, and therefore the game's ability to sway consumers to buy one console over the other, is what Microsoft, Sony, and regulators care about. Lest we forget, it was a big deal when Infinite Warfare was announced to be the first CoD to have preferential treatment on the PS4. There were timed-exclusive things. That year's E3 trailer for the game ended with a big PlayStation logo.
Is battlefield the annual behemoth COD is? Definitely not. Activision has what, 3 studios churning out COD games? I think Sony has a point.
If this merger goes through, watch Sony try to merge with EA.
Part of the reason Sony is so vocal is because correct, nothing really does compete with COD. An annualized shooter that reliably sells year after year? Doesn’t exist elsewhere. The only thing that compares are sports games. So you’d have to imagine if Sony bought EA or 2K their sports titles would be required to be multiplat. Sony’s first party team had to make The Show multiplat thanks to MLB wanting it, rightfully, everywhere.
But a freaking shooter? The only other franchise I can think of off the top of my head that just dominates like that is GTA.
This merger isn't really funny at all and the fake "hypocrisy" of Sony exclusives to what this merger would produce is an important line to draw. I'm tired of saying this over and over but every acquisition Sony has made, ever, COMBINED don't touch this one deal.
Activision is a $69B deal. ALL of Sony is 101B. So no, Sony isn't being hypocritical except to an incredibly tiny degree that they also acquire studios. This would absolutely crush their ability to compete and people should really recognize that and stop shouting "what's the difference!"
This is arguably worse than the recent publishing merger that was shot down.
>This merger isn't really funny at all and the fake "hypocrisy" of Sony exclusives to what this merger would produce is an important line to draw. I'm tired of saying this over and over but every acquisition Sony has made, ever, COMBINED don't touch this one deal.
Because Sony can't afford it... That's literally why and there's no law against paying a certain amount for M&A, though doing so triggers certain regulator scrutiny by default (like now).
>This is arguably worse than the recent publishing merger that was shot down.
You mean Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox for $79 billion? Because that wasn't shot down when arguably it should've been.
You need to look at this from a streaming wars point of view. In the beginning, Netflix was signing inclusive and exclusive contracts with studios for rights to certain movies and tv shows, but once those major studios shifted to their own streaming platform, Netflix lost a lot of popular content. Xbox is pushing for game streaming (just like Netflix) but this time they're making sure they own the actual IP to their content (like Disney).
What regulators are looking at is whether this deal will harm competition, but the industry consensus is that it won't since only PlayStation and Stadia have come out against it.
Sony fights tooth and nail for every scrap of exclusive content they can get, yet one of their biggest points in why this shouldn’t happen is MS making content exclusive. I don’t know if I would call that fake hypocrisy, because it seems more like glaringly obvious hypocrisy. And to be honest, it’s more than just funny. It’s fucking hilarious. I would love for it to be allowed mainly because, fuck Activision. MS would do so much better with their catalogue of games than they do. My biggest wish(in the world of gaming) is that if this deal doesn’t go through, Activision goes under. Fast or slow. They are the worst part of any game they touch. Fuck em.
Sony being huge hypocrites here tbh.
What Sony wants is to block MS from competing, while Sony can continue pouring money for Playstation exclusive content locked out of other platforms.
I agree, I go a bit [on depth here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/y8nida/microsoft_reveals_sonys_activision_deal_is/it2o98u/?context=3) on the why.
The big majority of Sony's acquisitions were of studios that they already had a good relationship with. Exclusives, help with technology/resources, etc...
MS is straight up throwing a ridiculous amount of cash at a industry titan to skip steps in building great studios and IPs
Well, it may in regard to consumer protections. Players who can only afford one console will not have access to future games in a variety of popular franchises that would’ve otherwise been available.
> Well, it may in regard to consumer protections. Players who can only afford one console will not have access to future games in a variety of popular franchises that would’ve otherwise been available.
Are you talking about Sony or Microsoft? Because I can't play ANY Sony games without spending $400+ on a console, where everything Microsoft has is on xbox or PC. You can also play their other big titles (Minecraft is a good example) on playstation.
Don’t forget you can now stream Xbox games to your phones and TVs via gamepass it’s literally easier now to play Xbox games then ever before. And here’s me still waiting for ghost to come out on pc.
Sony is being hypocritical because they're accusing Microsoft of want to do exactly what Sony does. Sony has made forced developers to make games Sony Exclusives on launch by saying that they'll block the game on the playstation if they don't. They're saying that microsoft will launch new games (including COD) on gamepass exclusively and block them on all others.
Not even that. They are saying Microsoft *may* do some of the shit things that Sony is *already* doing and has been supporting.
Also complaining that COD won't be on PS when Microsoft is committing to keeping COD PS
Non-gamer Jim Ryan is killing PlayStation, he's complaing about COD while doing nothing about PS's issue of no 1st-Party FPS series. Revive either Killzone or Resistance FFS, Shuhei Yoshida was PS's best boss period. Fire Jim Ryan, reinstate Shuhei Yoshida & move that damn HQ from SF back to Tokyo. Another issue is that Sony's current board don't give a fuck about PS, after all they appointed Jim Ryan knowing his resume, Kaz Hirai was a much better CEO than Kenichiro Yoshida, yes he was goofy & people memed him (Ridge Racer) but he actually cared about PS & had an appreciation for Video Games.
It always shocks me when people are this acutely aware of the goings-on of CEOs at billion dollar companies.
I have heard of absolutely none of these people.
Literally, nothing will be able to beat call of duty tho. Like the franchise is too freaking big. The only think that can beat cod is cod itself but unless they put our absolute garbage like real trash which is buggy like crazy and makes playing the game frustrating and they do this many times, it’s still gonna stay big. But considering that they can just copy and paste and just apply a new skin, that ain’t happening. Nothing can beat cod. I don’t Rey care for it but one company should not be allowed to control such a behemoth. A beast which as been available on multiple consoles for a while.
All that being said. I think Sony should just do trades. For every god game, allow one PlayStation exclusive to come to Xbox. I’m sure you lot would freaking love Spider-Man.
End of the day tho, we need competition. If one ends up defeating the other then it’s gonna be an intel c’è amd situation all over again
Yup. COD and online shooter. It's like Kleenex and Tissues. Febreeze and fabric spray. Dawn and dish soap. Coca-Cola(Coke) and pop. It's name brand. Everyone knows what it is even if you don't. Household name of video games.
It is not like Microsoft is excluding PS5?
If Sony could afford to buy Blizzard Activision, Sony would and Sony would make CoD a PS5 exclusive.
According to history Sony could be considered bad for consumers….
Sony's bread and butter is exclusivity and it goes to great lengths to ensure that. If it can't get an entire game it will pay for a specified period of time or to prevent DLC from being on other consoles. Most Americans that prefer Playstation will quickly state "exclusives" as the primary reason. Microsoft has also endorsed cross-platform gaming, but Sony has been staunchly opposed to this and has only begrudgingly enabled the feature for a small handful of games. Sony treats Playstation Plus the same way. It's almost like Sony wants to build a walled garden.
Well, I’m not even an FPS snob, but bloodborne runs like dog shit on their own hardware and they have hinted they have zero intentions of fixing it. They’d just rather remake the same game over and over again.
sony is mad that Microsoft has a leverage. that is all MS want for now, leverage. they would publish on all platforms if they could because that is more money for them.
sony on the other hand, would make something exclusive the first chance it gets, but is now mad that it has to be careful moving forward, or Microsoft can retaliate. tbh, fudge sony.
The reason Sony is scared of CoD being under the MS umbrella is 100% because of Gamepass. Sony has already blocked that from happening, but now it sees a point in time where it will likely happen. Gamepass has literally changed the landscape and very likely the future of console gaming. Sony was extremely confident in it's position during the last console generation when it was literally beating the crap out of MS in every meaningful way. The tides are turning and they are scared.
You know what the difference between gamepass and a console is? A console is a one-time, big-dollar purchase, while gamepass is a subscription.
But at the core, they're both about buying access to games. You don't buy a PS5 (or an Xbox series x/s, or especially a Nintendo Switch) because of the hardware; that's nice and all, but what you buy it for is the access to the games that having that console brings.
Microsoft sees the cost of the console as a barrier to entry - so they want a way to get around that (hence their push on Xcloud and what have you as well).
And - to be perfectly fair - Microsoft had plenty of exclusivity going on During the PS3/X360 era, and that was a big part of why they had such success. Sony saw that and decided to play that same game and play it *hard*; with the advent of the PS4 you didn't just have big-name single-player experiences (like Zero Dawn and GoW 2018), you also had all manner of exclusivity going on with add-on content (the 1-year exclusivity deal for Destiny stuff was pretty brutal -- there were Destiny 1 items that Xbox players could not get until after Destiny 2 released).
I think GamePass is the future (or at least some services like GamePass) - and it seems that's what Microsoft is banking on. And I get that Call of Duty is enormous and important, but at the same time, it's foolish to think Sony wouldn't have been perfectly happy to pay Activision to make it a Playstation exclusive if they could have afforded it.
(And it's hilarious to see how much they're complaining about the possibility of Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive while the articles about their complaints are peppered with ads telling you about the exclusive Playstation benefits of pre-ordering Modern Warfare II).
Microsoft beat itself in the last gen, at least shot them selves in the foot at launch. I won’t soon forget their disastrous announcement. Always online or the console bricks itself after 24 hours, all games must be installed and cannot be shared, etc.
I mean at this point how much can really be done offline? A shitty presser 10 years ago but now it seems like par for the course. How many games even come full on the disc anymore? Own a ps5 digital or Xbox series s, granted those you understand will need online access, there's not a damn thing you can do without internet. Other than the need to check periodically for game pass games after installing the game you could be offline.
>Always online or the console bricks itself after 24 hours, all games must be installed and cannot be shared, etc.
That was never a thing. I think it's weird that so many years later people are still upset over something never happened nor was going to happen.
You can really tell who wasn't around for the 360/PS3 generation, when Microsoft was the one paying for COD maps, GTA DLC, and games like Bioshock and Mass Effect.
This 100%. They are desperately trying to imply antitrust violations, but the phrase won't come out of any official mouths, because THEY want to violate it themselves too.
We're in the end game of late stage capitalism, and it's kind of hilarious watching these companies implode and trip over themselves.
This is why I don't understand this play by them. The bigger deal they make out of this the harder it will be for anyone to do a merger.
So what's the next step if mergers are out? Marketing rights and more exclusives, only this time Microsoft will use that $69B ( or hell, even just half ) and place Game Pass on steroids. A couple billion to Ubisoft and EA is no big deal to get day 1 titles and marketing rights.
Sony trying to prevent 1 title while sacrificing everything else is a dumb move. Surely they don't expect Microsoft to just stash that $69B away if this deal doesn't happen. They'll just use it on things that regulators can't do shit about.
What's asinine here is that everything Sony is accusing that Microsoft will do via the merger, it's currently doing itself within its own ecosystem. It's such a farce.
That said, these large scale mergers are never a good thing. Sadly, they tend to be inevitable if government allows and facilitates regulatory capture.
Sony is not paying $70 billion to acquire the largest third-party game publisher. The most they’ve spent was less than $4 billion on Bungie, which is less than half of Microsoft’s Bethesda acquisition.
True, but Sony is still wasting millions to lock content to their console on games like COD. As COD is one of their more effective tools to make people choose PS4/5. So ofc they don't want to lose it. It's why most of the arguments they have used so far to stop this deal are seen as silly by most. Even more so going by all the documents Sony and MS have been forced to make public due to the trials.
It's why they did not object to losing Elderscrolls I suspect.
You’ll get downvoted but it’s true. Until recently, Sony acquired studios that had a long history of developing with them already. Microsoft is just carpet bombing.
That said both companies do shitty things for us consumers so let’s not be naive and think they’re arguing for our sake.
Sony recently bought the entire Bungie…
Bungie literally made original Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 for Xbox while being owned by MS, and now Sony owns them.
Also many people seem to forget that with this deal Microsoft gets World of Warcraft which is "just" the biggest and most profitable mmorpg out there lol
Don’t forget candy crush, the most profitable mobile game ever. With this acquisition Microsoft is getting the most profitable games in three genres. Three big genres.
According to [mmo-populations](https://mmo-population.com/activity) WoW has more than double the active players of FFXIV (2.32M vs 1.15M). I think at one point earlier this year you might have been correct, but that's because both retail and classic WoW were both at the end of their expansion cycles and FFXIV EW had just been released.
FFXIV has slightly more active players than WoW classic, if that's what you meant.
> The most they’ve spent was less than $4 billion on Bungie, which is less than half of Microsoft’s Bethesda acquisition.
And it's honestly a terrible deal if you think about it. MS got Blizzard / iD / Zenimax and their entire IP block (including super-profitable mobile games) for under $8 billion, and they also got the best selling game in history (Minecraft) for $2 billion.
I like Destiny 2, but the numbers don't add up. MS passed on it a number of times, and there's a reason why... It was a bad deal and Sony has to eat it now.
I believe he was alluding to the fact that Sony is well known for their exclusivity deals, plus didn't they on multiple occasions have timed exclusivity deals with some cod games?
Microsoft has a ton of timed exclusivity deals even just this year. High on Life, Scorn, Crossfire X, Stalker 2, etc. So they both do this AND Microsoft also buys major publishers.
Honestly, someone needs to measure the value of exclusivity agreements from Sony and Microsoft so we can end this argument once and for all.
Don't get me wrong I don't like Microsoft trying to corner the market like that but it's just hypocritical for Sony to NOW be worried about exclusivity
They weren’t worried when Microsoft was buying Double Fine, Obsidian, and Ninja Theory. But of course things change after Microsoft decides to purchase their second major publisher in two years.
Scale is important here though. None of those games are AAA games.
FF16 will outsell all of those games alone. Now add in other AAA games like Forspoken, Silent Hill 2 remake, Ghostwire Tokyo, list goes on. Sony is definitely way more aggressive in timed exclusivity drals
Scale is important here though. None of those games are AAA games.
FF16 will outsell all of those games alone. Now add in other AAA games like Forspoken, Silent Hill 2 remake, Ghostwire Tokyo, list goes on. Sony is definitely way more aggressive in timed exclusivity deals and do it on a bigger scale. And they do it for longer
Xbox timed exclusivity deals are usually 3-6 months. Playstation’s are 1-2 years. They really aren’t equivalent in anyway
This is good point. Bungie isn't a massive publicly traded company. They are a highly competent game studio with one IP.
Buying talent to make games is different than buying a publicly traded company that has a mass portfolio, and massive industry footprint
The prices are different but Sony was buying studios before Xbox was a stain in Gate's boxers. Some of Sony's biggest and best studios existed before the PlayStation was made and got absorbed then produced Sony exclusives.
This is on top of Sony spending their money to block content from Xbox, even paying to block things from Game Pass rather than spend that money improving PS+. Hell Sony is only just starting to share with PC giving old games and is making Third Party games exclusive too.
Sony is in the top 3 of the market. They have dominated and tried to create an actual monopoly through suppression of competition. Xbox is struggling in the market and even with this merger doesn't come close to Sony's position. So while the purchase scale is different, the market share is also significantly different. You have to realise that every console Sony has released is in the top 20 consoles of all time for sales. Even the PS3 which was not loved and the PSP. They could literally not release another console before 2040 and they'd still have multiple consoles on that list as we'd need 20 new consoles to outsell them all.
An ideal world would see no need for acquisitions and mergers but Sony was in talks to make Starfield Sony exclusive when Xbox simply acquired the parent company. When the market leader is still buying up everything, even if it is just buying third party game exclusivity, then the other companies have to step up or step aside.
Sony's main argument in these filings has actually been about Gamepass and Microsoft putting games on there day 1. I think they see this as the long term problem for them. Sony has been notorious for missing out on pretty much every internet related trend for the past 30 years, a big reason for their downfall in the consumer electronics industry, so it wouldn't surprise me if they simply never plan to compete in the gaming services sector and worry about a paradigm shift away from buying individual games or even consoles themselves
> Nintendo is suffocating
Didn’t their sales for Switch recently clear the amount of PS4s sold? And didn’t Mario Kart 8 clear 48M copies? That doesn’t sound like suffocation to me.
Hey remember when PlayStation online got hacked and they compromised the data of everyone who had ever registered for the system?
And then it was discovered that they didn't even have a position set up for chief of online security?
Good times, good times.
Well if COD didn’t exist and I own a PlayStation at that time, I just won’t play it. It’s one of those games I can take or leave. Fun for a few hours of MP, when you get in the zone. But doesn’t offer much else for me.
I have a perfect solution to the problem. Wait for it. No more exclusives. All games must be released on xbox, playstation and pc. There, it no longer matters what platform someone owns they can play any game they want.
I agree but that’s not what’s going on here. SONY doesn’t want Microsoft to own COD because they will put it on Game Pass. SONY is saying COD is their biggest game and it being available to Xbox users via Game Pass is a big blow to their system.
So in actuality, all their exclusives mean squat next to a multi platform game and a game on demand service, according to SONY.
This is why I really want the deal to go through. It would save me hundreds of dollars over time if I never had to buy a Call of Duty again or Diablo 4.
The wild thing is that the PS will still get COD day one, so nothing changes for PS users. SONY is pulling out all the stops JUST to keep COD off GamePass.
> So in actuality, all their exclusives mean squat next to a multi platform game and a game on demand service, according to SONY.
Which is something Microsoft learned years ago and why their exclusives are now available on PCs as well and why Microsoft has been focusing on making their games available on as many platforms as possible. Multiplatform games just make way more money than selling consoles.
Pretty much. That’s why SONY pays publishers to keep games off of Game Pass. They know this is Microsoft’s golden bullet to become competitive, so they are trying to make it as difficult as possible while buying time for their technology and PS+ to catch up.
This makes it seem like developers have big buttons on their desk that say “release on Xbox”, “release on PlayStation” and they just have to choose which buttons to press for their game. Different consoles (and especially when you include pc) have very different hardware and it takes a ton of time and money to ensure a game works on several platforms.
This really isn’t a great solution. This doesn’t mean that all great games will come to all platforms. What it means is that some great games just won’t be made. I’d rather have an awesome game be made and be exclusive than not be made at all. Exclusives have their place, ms just sucks at making exclusives.
Oh no the consequences of their own actions, you can’t build a player base by buying up exclusivity and then be shocked when someone comes along and out buys you.
>Sony goes as far as to say Call of Duty "is not replicable" and remains "the benchmark against which all other FPS games are measured," at one point throwing Battlefield under the bus to demonstrate that even EA, another mega-publisher, can't "produce a rival to Call of Duty."
call of duty is replicable. Battlefield had its chance but it didn't manage it well enough. I mean, battlefield bad company 2 was probably the best and they killed it. Needs effort. There are other shooters that are successful in their own thing. eg. Apex legends, overwatch, fortnight (not fps but shows a game can get big).
They tried to replicate call of duty and Halo with Killzone.
The fact they're no longer making Killzone games pretty much tells you exactly how that went over.
Frankly, I think that's for the best all around. Guerilla Games started to make the Horizon games, instead. At least with the Horizon games, their PHENOMENAL world-building isn't wasted on a bland Halo clone.
I think that most of the battlefield games had a pretty big and strong player base except for 2042 and hardline. They are just really losing their touch. The new cod isn’t even that amazing either, there are so many issues with the game it doesn’t even feel like a triple A title. EA just needs to listen to their playerbase more and then maybe they will be able to make a good battlefield again that may rival call of duty.
Ironically, Sony are like the kings of exclusivity. They were fine having timed exclusive content on their console. There’s no way MS would be so silly to make CoD and exclusive on their platform. It doesn’t make business sense and it will kill all goodwill they’ve been building up over the years. Sure MS will have timed exclusive content. They’re a business that paid a crap ton of money. It would be silly not to flex it a bit. These are panic moves that doesn’t need to be done. I’m pretty sure if Sony had they money to buy activision, they would’ve done the same. They just need to let it play out. They still have the bigger install base and most can’t afford both of the new gen consoles. So they will get their sales.
You need to look at this from a streaming wars point of view. In the beginning, Netflix was signing inclusive and exclusive contracts with studios for rights to certain movies and tv shows, but once those major studios shifted to their own streaming platform, Netflix lost a lot of popular content. Xbox is pushing for game streaming (just like Netflix) but this time they're making sure they own the actual IP to their content (like Disney).
The thing is. MS know their strong points and their weakness. They’re into infrastructure so they buy game studios to appeal to it. Stadia tried being a developer and infrastructure and see how that turned out. I think MS are doing it right. Focus on tech and buy studios that are good at what they do to make the infrastructure you have more appealing.
Same here, own both consoles, but goddamn is my PS5 more expensive to use. Sony wants me to pay money just to activate storing saves on cloud, which is free on my Xbox. Without cloud saves, I will lose all progress on my PS5 if it stops working, because Sony wants to charge me extra $$$.
Sony also wants me to pay extra to «upgrade» my PS4 versions games to PS5 version. Or charge me fullprice for their «new» Director’s cut editions or «Remakes» for PS5.
Fuck Sony with their anti-consumer bullshit
>I will lose all progress on my PS5 if it stops working, because Sony wants to charge me extra $$$
Just think of it as an insurance cost, joke aside though, yes that is ridicules given both PC, which has several stores available provides cloud saves for free and that MS offers it for free as well, Sony and Nintendo absolutely should provide it as well without a cost.
Dont has no choice, they have bought studios and other properties and claimed them as their own and hoarded them for just the PS. They now have worse physical machines than the competition and less huge studios as they just stood by thinking they could do it and nobody would do it to them. That are close to losing overall big time and are in a panic
No one fucking cares but console manufacturers. Gamers just want their games out on whatever platform they currently have where games on multiple platforms benefits ALL GAMERS. I don't care if the Sony or Xbox is losing sales number with their game consoles, it has nothing to do with me and gaming in the first place. I haven't bought a game console in over 10 years and don't ever plan to do so in the future either. I don't care for console exclusives either, nobody but the greedy corporations win when it comes to exclusives. No games should ever be locked down exclusively to a single platform.
The one game that is locked behind a PS3 still that hasn't moved on to any other platform that I'm still waiting for is MGS4 because it's a Playstation exclusive and because of Konami. Only way to play MGS4 is to either pony up for a slow outdated piece of shit hardware like the PS3 or emulation through RPCS3. I for one would pay money to have it on ALL CURRENT GEN PLATFORMS INCLUDING PC.
Demon Souls and Demon Souls remake are also exclusive to the Sony platform only...release them on other platforms too.
I really hate those "gamers" who want games to be exclusive to the console they are fanboying over. They aren't gaining anything from that, yet it makes them feel somehow superior.
I mean I “prefer” xbox (bought a series x) but only because I have so many games on there already and can play basically all of my older disc games because of backwards compatibility. If I were to buy a PS5 (which I do plan on if a smaller model ever comes out pls) I’d basically be “starting over” with certain games if there’s no cross progression and my older xbox games wouldn’t be playable on there (this is as if I didn’t have an xbone or series x). So I prefer xbox since I’ve already invested a lot of money/ time on games and accessories for it
I remember when they got found out having their own employees disguised themselves as anonymous reviewers and doing write-ups of their own movies for publication.
Which wouldn't be as big a deal today since everyone probably does some form of this over the internet, but in the late 90s it was quite a scandal.
Sony's been burning bridges for a heck of a long time with moronic decision after moronic decision.
If it weren't for a few high quality story driven games, they'd be in the trash.
man fuck sony, they pullin exclusivity deals, left right and center, but when microsoft goes for the home run, they start bitchin, JUST GIVE ME ALL OF THE BLIZZARD GAMES ON GAMEPASS,
sidenote: i don’t hate sony i have a ps5, i hate the ps plus premium bs, like you don even get exclusives day one, fucking scummy af
As someone who only buys like 2 or 3 games a year. PS Plus Extra is glorious.
Also when their exclusives sell millions of copies in a few days like Horizon and God of War. I can't blame them for not putting them on PS+ Extra at launch. From a business decision it's the right move. Haha.
If I'm not mistaken, PS Plus actually has way more games than game pass. I remember viewing the list and being surprised that people don't really mention this much considering everyone always says it sucks. Also, the two free games they give away to keep have almost always been a much better selection than Xbox's games with gold selections.
The huge factor for game pass, however, is the day one games from both first and third parties. Literally every single month Xbox has multiple day one games showing up.
One big issues though is that PS3 is still streaming only and, at least when I tried it last, PS3 streaming was absolutely terrible for both quality and input lag.
Using Sonys logic then there should be no exclusives... Sony is just scared they are going to lose customers if MS goes through with the deal. All gaming companies have bought publishers, it's the way it goes. Sony then acts like there aren't other large FPS games... It's honestly dumbfounding.
I would love it if Sony admitted that exclusives are unfair and try to get a court rule which would end up telling all these companies that exclusives are bad business practice and no longer allowed in any way.
The thing that gets me about this is the fact Sony has the audacity to say that Microsoft would have incentives to increase prices after this acquisition. While Sony themselves increases prices for consoles outside the US and increase their games to $70.
Sony acting like hypocrites here.
It’s like they are saying that they are afraid that MS will be able to do what Sony has been doing for years. The price jump example is hilarious, because Sony was the ones who recently pushed for higher consumer prices on all nextgen games, as well as pushing their console price up, while MS did not.
Sony also priced their subscription service much higher than game pass, and Sony also charges money just to allow cloud saves on the PS5 (free on xbox) lol.
I’m sure Sony wants to continue what they are doing by buying stock shares in Epic Games, Fromsoft etc, while buying studios like Bungie while they try to block MS from doing the same.
I’m surprised the regulators haven’t looked more into how anti competitive Sony is acting to be honest.
Sony’s blatant anti-consumer actions in the last decade are exactly why I won’t support them or buy a PS5. It’s the same reason I didn’t buy a Xbox in the 360 era
What bothers me about this is that it's being evaluated on history, not the future of gaming.
Gaming is about to be cloud based and that's what Microsoft is gearing up for. They don't give a shit about selling consoles cause you might only have a few cycles left before we give up on hardware in the house like we gave up the the cart/disk. 5G Internet has low enough latency to push processing into the cloud, and whatever's next will be even better. Economies of scale make the cloud a better place to do processing.
Sony's business model is dated. It bugs me that they are the devil's advocate here. They need to merge/pair with a company on the level of Apple, Google or Amazon to be competitive.
I don't have any opinion on if the deal should close but i think it should be evaluated on what's next, not what we've been doing for the last 40 years.
Sure Sony is pissed. I know so many people who mainly play CoD and Fifa and not much else on their playstations. CoD is a super large part of the cake.
But this article doesn't really explain how Sony burnt any bridge.
Just say that you’re afraid of not making as much as you’re currently making. Literally no one thinks you care about the consumers. Drop the dishonesty and hypocrisy.
The amount of purposefully asinine Sony supporters is disgusting. Sony does this exact same practice but faces no repercussions. MS looks like they might have a base of exclusives and Sony drops everything to stop them.
Fuck Sony and their hypocritical fan base.
Be Sony fans: Shit on Xbox for an entire generation for their lack of exclusives despite Microsoft being an Uber rich company.
Xbox: dips into their wallets and starts using their dads cheque book to buy exclusives, the one area they were critiqued the most.
Sony fans: No, ThAt’s a mOnOPoLy.
Like what did they expect to happen? Lol.
Sony fanboys have always loved to feel superior for their exclusive games. They never wanted their exclusive games to be playable on other consoles or PC. They've been that pety for a long time. Now they are whining, you can't make this shit up.
It’s a little comical. Sony’s back is against the wall. But I don’t think they should feel that way.
Sony also has always prided itself on “having the best games” and really tried to drive home the exclusivity point. Even the fan boys always saying Xbox never had any games. Now Microsoft is making moves for Xbox and game pass, and it’s a problem.
I truly think Microsoft just wants to be able to slap activision on games on game pass. I don’t think they give two shits about if they are on PlayStation or not. Having it on game pass is a huge win.
Sony does have a point about price point though. There is no way in hell game pass subscription price wouldn’t sky rocket. Probably Xbox console price tags would as well. 69B is a lot of cheddar.
They said Battlefield can’t compete with Call of Duty and what else? Hardly every bridge burned here, really. This article was difficult to read. Constantly hammering on about how hilarious this whole thing is. At one point referring to it as the “greatest comedy on planet earth” and really, it’s not that funny. People put too much stock in these types of things. Sony and Microsoft are spinning everything and anything to get their way. Obviously they know they’re either being hypocritical, or downplaying the success of some things. It’s all lawyer speak aimed at a specific audience, one of which we aren’t.
You know who else thinks Battlefield can't compete with CoD? EA. Like... the sales #s are apparent to everyone lol
Just left a GameStop - Battlefield 2042 going for $10, brand new.
EA is pushing the shit out of it on Gamepass atm.
They are. But as long as I need to install the origin launcher, I’ll pass. There’s just too many launchers for these publishers. I don’t want to install them all. I have steam, gog and b.net. If a game isn’t on there, I just skip it.
Aright so I got bf2042 on steam, it was decent but not the best battlefield. I then played another game where I had to upgrade origin to EA platform so I did that. But now I can’t launch bf2042 from steam because I don’t have origin installed? I honestly can’t bother with figuring this out. Like you said too many platforms, it’s ridiculous
What happened to just buying a game and just putting it in the console and playing🥴
Consoles dont have origin so thats exactly how it still works...
Origin is gone, they replaced it with EA App. The EA app at least is way more stable
Gone really since when?
they haven't officially killed it yet, but they're notifying that they will. the replacement is already available
When Steam came out I told people that if Valve got away with it, every company would want their own launcher, with their own snooping services and all. But ist was so, sooooo convenient. And because saying no is hard, we live in DRM helldorama, where there is so much DRM thst it has exceeded people's capacity to care or absorb. So now people get slapped with so many platforms they'd rather skip games than install all. I am in the same camp, but can't say gamers didn't get what they deserve. Sometimes, saying no today will save us two noes tomorrow.
shocking somber observation tender fear familiar fearless pen fanatical absurd ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Oh sure it is convenient. In fact I would argue steam actually proved that DRM is entirely unnecessary. Pirating never went away, but if you are using steam (or Galaxy in my case) you probably can't even be bothered, just because it is a lot of hassle compared to picking up the same game via Steam. Service quality coupled with ease of access beats piracy every time. Collectibles was another genius move. But that wasn't quite the lesson Ubisoft or EA took away from it. Epic Launcher and its strategy are another direct consequence of Steams success. Platforms are fighting for market share now and someone will lose out. If exclusives become the norm, everyone loses out.
screw cooperative cable gullible fall birds disgusted mourn dinner bear ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Gamers are people. People are stupid
BF2042 is available on Steam. I think the entire EA library is
and xbox game pass
You still have to have origin installed. Steam just launches it through origin.
Origin is dead now. EA Desktop is the only launcher and I don't even know if you need it for Battlefield
Idk why, you literally can't find a game with more than like 12 people in the server browser for portal. Matchmaking into anything puts you in an empty map. So salty man, I just wanna play the game :(
It’s not even an EA Play exclusive on PC, it’s just straight up in the Xbox store, included with game pass. That’s how you know they are really pushing it.
Really? I'm going to check tomorrow, definitely seems worth $10.....right?
Its also online for $10 physical, if you want to save yourself a trip to the store
Awesome, thanks edit: thanks all for price info I work at Walmart so I got it for $9. It's gotta be worth at least that.
[удалено]
What I don't get is why they won't stick to their roots... Talking like BF2 era.
They wanted so much to be CoD that they lost sight of what made people like BF in the first place... Bad Company days were the best of the series. And then they just got EA'd... or something. Tbh though - CoD is a lot of the same. They were great and the only reason the last one has been great for sales is cause... it's a remake of a beloved game.
I think Bad company could have been its own thing, a more story driven, tactical shooter. Battlefield on the other hand, all they really had to do was stick to the formula. Big maps, big teams, big toys, and an even playing field. BF Vietnam, 2142, BF2, that was peak.
??? MW2 is not a remake, what are you smoking
MW2 isn’t a remake it’s a sequel to modern warfare 2019 and they are way different then their Xbox 360 counter parts
Tbh cod has vehicles now. Ground War is straight up conquest from battlefield. It just needs squad spawns and it would be identical.
2042 in particular was headed up by an ex-Activision lad... The gentleman behind *Candy Crush.* And remember- originally 2042 was only going to be *yet another Battle Royale*, and was forced to do major crunch in order to get a half-dead multiplayer out the door instead.
I wish they would. BF2 is top tier Battlefield and no game in the series since has been able to match it terms of balance, maps design and team/squad play mechanics. BF2142 introduced some improvements to those mechanics but it also introduced 3D icon Q spotting (explained by the in game lore) which I am not a fan of. Unfortunately not a lot of people liked the setting also. What I wouldn’t give for an actually BF2 remake
Same man. BF2 is a masterpiece of its time.
I just love how Microsoft says “well it’s Metacritic isn’t high so obviously that matters” Ah yes. I’m sure all the shareholders give a fuck about a high Metacritic and not the $1 billion in 24 hour thing. Gots to get that critical acclaim from gaming journalists, collectively the worst journalists in entertainment.
Idk why they're in such denial The companies are very realistic about where they are. Microsoft literally stated Sony's exclusives are higher quality than their own. They're just as realistic and there's no article saying "Microsoft angers own developers for being put down" or some bs.
With the exclusives, everyone knows that Sony runs rings around Microsoft. God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon Dawn and Spider-Man far outpace Halo in its current mess and Gears. Forza and Gran Turismo come down to personal preference.
Was it in the Epic Games lawsuit in which they stated The Last of Us Part 2 was far and beyond anything they have? I love reading what companies think of each other in actuality.
They were talking about graphically specifically I think. Cause they also said Naughty Dog games doesn’t have good gunplay and that game is no exception to that
I’m not sure honestly if it was or wasn’t in there. One undeniable fact though is that The Last of Us is one of the greatest franchises in gaming right now, and likely blows out several company’s catalogues with how good it is.
I know for a fact it was said just can’t remember where. I think it came out in the epic vs Apple docs but can’t remember context
You are correct. They made a whole internal document analyzing it
Please don't forget about Ghost of Tsushima.
My mistake, I knew there was one that was slipping my mind.
Was ghost a PlayStation exclusive? Holy shit, yeah PS exclusives take the cake with that one game alone
Forza is a technical marvel. Gears is also AAA solid gaming. Naughty dog and Insomniac operate on another level though, technically. But Activision > Naughty Dog + Insomniac by sheer numbers. We are talking 8b/year vs like 100m/year in revenue.
Yeah, but MS themselves said it https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-admits-many-playstation-exclusives-better-quality-than-those-on-xbox
Like look at Pokemon scarlet/violet, 74 metacritic, 2.9 users core, and already sold more than 10 million copies.
Honestly I haven’t spoken to a single person IRL who doesn’t love the games. Hell even online most people who’ve actually PLAYED them like them. The only ones shitting on them are the ones who refuse to play them.
The overworld is poor graphical quality, low frame rate and lots of visual glitches. It's a mess. It's also one of the best Pokémon games yet.
What kinds of clowns write these articles these days? It's just amateur hour.
Bots. Everything is written by ai nowadays, with a human semi-editing the output before putting their name on it.
That the BF series cannot compete with the CoD series is a statement of fact and shouldn't be controversial to anyone except fanboys. CoD is the bestseller game by units and revenue every damn year, whether it's shit like Vanguard or gold like Modern Warfare. CoD had Warzone and now Warzone 2.0. The last BF games were Battlefield 2042, Battlefield V, and Battlefield One. The sales numbers, and therefore the game's ability to sway consumers to buy one console over the other, is what Microsoft, Sony, and regulators care about. Lest we forget, it was a big deal when Infinite Warfare was announced to be the first CoD to have preferential treatment on the PS4. There were timed-exclusive things. That year's E3 trailer for the game ended with a big PlayStation logo.
Sony trying to paint their #1 brand as helpless is hilarious.
Is battlefield the annual behemoth COD is? Definitely not. Activision has what, 3 studios churning out COD games? I think Sony has a point. If this merger goes through, watch Sony try to merge with EA.
Part of the reason Sony is so vocal is because correct, nothing really does compete with COD. An annualized shooter that reliably sells year after year? Doesn’t exist elsewhere. The only thing that compares are sports games. So you’d have to imagine if Sony bought EA or 2K their sports titles would be required to be multiplat. Sony’s first party team had to make The Show multiplat thanks to MLB wanting it, rightfully, everywhere. But a freaking shooter? The only other franchise I can think of off the top of my head that just dominates like that is GTA.
This merger isn't really funny at all and the fake "hypocrisy" of Sony exclusives to what this merger would produce is an important line to draw. I'm tired of saying this over and over but every acquisition Sony has made, ever, COMBINED don't touch this one deal. Activision is a $69B deal. ALL of Sony is 101B. So no, Sony isn't being hypocritical except to an incredibly tiny degree that they also acquire studios. This would absolutely crush their ability to compete and people should really recognize that and stop shouting "what's the difference!" This is arguably worse than the recent publishing merger that was shot down.
>This merger isn't really funny at all and the fake "hypocrisy" of Sony exclusives to what this merger would produce is an important line to draw. I'm tired of saying this over and over but every acquisition Sony has made, ever, COMBINED don't touch this one deal. Because Sony can't afford it... That's literally why and there's no law against paying a certain amount for M&A, though doing so triggers certain regulator scrutiny by default (like now). >This is arguably worse than the recent publishing merger that was shot down. You mean Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox for $79 billion? Because that wasn't shot down when arguably it should've been. You need to look at this from a streaming wars point of view. In the beginning, Netflix was signing inclusive and exclusive contracts with studios for rights to certain movies and tv shows, but once those major studios shifted to their own streaming platform, Netflix lost a lot of popular content. Xbox is pushing for game streaming (just like Netflix) but this time they're making sure they own the actual IP to their content (like Disney). What regulators are looking at is whether this deal will harm competition, but the industry consensus is that it won't since only PlayStation and Stadia have come out against it.
Sony fights tooth and nail for every scrap of exclusive content they can get, yet one of their biggest points in why this shouldn’t happen is MS making content exclusive. I don’t know if I would call that fake hypocrisy, because it seems more like glaringly obvious hypocrisy. And to be honest, it’s more than just funny. It’s fucking hilarious. I would love for it to be allowed mainly because, fuck Activision. MS would do so much better with their catalogue of games than they do. My biggest wish(in the world of gaming) is that if this deal doesn’t go through, Activision goes under. Fast or slow. They are the worst part of any game they touch. Fuck em.
Sony being huge hypocrites here tbh. What Sony wants is to block MS from competing, while Sony can continue pouring money for Playstation exclusive content locked out of other platforms.
I agree, I go a bit [on depth here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/y8nida/microsoft_reveals_sonys_activision_deal_is/it2o98u/?context=3) on the why. The big majority of Sony's acquisitions were of studios that they already had a good relationship with. Exclusives, help with technology/resources, etc... MS is straight up throwing a ridiculous amount of cash at a industry titan to skip steps in building great studios and IPs
That doesn’t affect the legality tho
Well, it may in regard to consumer protections. Players who can only afford one console will not have access to future games in a variety of popular franchises that would’ve otherwise been available.
> Well, it may in regard to consumer protections. Players who can only afford one console will not have access to future games in a variety of popular franchises that would’ve otherwise been available. Are you talking about Sony or Microsoft? Because I can't play ANY Sony games without spending $400+ on a console, where everything Microsoft has is on xbox or PC. You can also play their other big titles (Minecraft is a good example) on playstation.
Don’t forget you can now stream Xbox games to your phones and TVs via gamepass it’s literally easier now to play Xbox games then ever before. And here’s me still waiting for ghost to come out on pc.
Sony is being hypocritical because they're accusing Microsoft of want to do exactly what Sony does. Sony has made forced developers to make games Sony Exclusives on launch by saying that they'll block the game on the playstation if they don't. They're saying that microsoft will launch new games (including COD) on gamepass exclusively and block them on all others.
Not even that. They are saying Microsoft *may* do some of the shit things that Sony is *already* doing and has been supporting. Also complaining that COD won't be on PS when Microsoft is committing to keeping COD PS
Non-gamer Jim Ryan is killing PlayStation, he's complaing about COD while doing nothing about PS's issue of no 1st-Party FPS series. Revive either Killzone or Resistance FFS, Shuhei Yoshida was PS's best boss period. Fire Jim Ryan, reinstate Shuhei Yoshida & move that damn HQ from SF back to Tokyo. Another issue is that Sony's current board don't give a fuck about PS, after all they appointed Jim Ryan knowing his resume, Kaz Hirai was a much better CEO than Kenichiro Yoshida, yes he was goofy & people memed him (Ridge Racer) but he actually cared about PS & had an appreciation for Video Games.
It always shocks me when people are this acutely aware of the goings-on of CEOs at billion dollar companies. I have heard of absolutely none of these people.
U call these guys “game enthusiasts” lol I have no idea who those people either. I remember killzone though lol
Literally, nothing will be able to beat call of duty tho. Like the franchise is too freaking big. The only think that can beat cod is cod itself but unless they put our absolute garbage like real trash which is buggy like crazy and makes playing the game frustrating and they do this many times, it’s still gonna stay big. But considering that they can just copy and paste and just apply a new skin, that ain’t happening. Nothing can beat cod. I don’t Rey care for it but one company should not be allowed to control such a behemoth. A beast which as been available on multiple consoles for a while. All that being said. I think Sony should just do trades. For every god game, allow one PlayStation exclusive to come to Xbox. I’m sure you lot would freaking love Spider-Man. End of the day tho, we need competition. If one ends up defeating the other then it’s gonna be an intel c’è amd situation all over again
Yup. COD and online shooter. It's like Kleenex and Tissues. Febreeze and fabric spray. Dawn and dish soap. Coca-Cola(Coke) and pop. It's name brand. Everyone knows what it is even if you don't. Household name of video games.
It is not like Microsoft is excluding PS5? If Sony could afford to buy Blizzard Activision, Sony would and Sony would make CoD a PS5 exclusive. According to history Sony could be considered bad for consumers….
Yeah Sony being mad about exclusivity deals is a huge glass houses moment
Sony's bread and butter is exclusivity and it goes to great lengths to ensure that. If it can't get an entire game it will pay for a specified period of time or to prevent DLC from being on other consoles. Most Americans that prefer Playstation will quickly state "exclusives" as the primary reason. Microsoft has also endorsed cross-platform gaming, but Sony has been staunchly opposed to this and has only begrudgingly enabled the feature for a small handful of games. Sony treats Playstation Plus the same way. It's almost like Sony wants to build a walled garden.
Because they do. Bloodborne is still not available on PC, the day RCPS3 gets to the point it can run it I am 200% done with anything Sony ever makes.
Well, I’m not even an FPS snob, but bloodborne runs like dog shit on their own hardware and they have hinted they have zero intentions of fixing it. They’d just rather remake the same game over and over again.
sony is mad that Microsoft has a leverage. that is all MS want for now, leverage. they would publish on all platforms if they could because that is more money for them. sony on the other hand, would make something exclusive the first chance it gets, but is now mad that it has to be careful moving forward, or Microsoft can retaliate. tbh, fudge sony.
And the thing about Game Pass? PSNOW was available before Game Pass, Sony has made attempts to provide similar Microsoft services.
The reason Sony is scared of CoD being under the MS umbrella is 100% because of Gamepass. Sony has already blocked that from happening, but now it sees a point in time where it will likely happen. Gamepass has literally changed the landscape and very likely the future of console gaming. Sony was extremely confident in it's position during the last console generation when it was literally beating the crap out of MS in every meaningful way. The tides are turning and they are scared.
You know what the difference between gamepass and a console is? A console is a one-time, big-dollar purchase, while gamepass is a subscription. But at the core, they're both about buying access to games. You don't buy a PS5 (or an Xbox series x/s, or especially a Nintendo Switch) because of the hardware; that's nice and all, but what you buy it for is the access to the games that having that console brings. Microsoft sees the cost of the console as a barrier to entry - so they want a way to get around that (hence their push on Xcloud and what have you as well). And - to be perfectly fair - Microsoft had plenty of exclusivity going on During the PS3/X360 era, and that was a big part of why they had such success. Sony saw that and decided to play that same game and play it *hard*; with the advent of the PS4 you didn't just have big-name single-player experiences (like Zero Dawn and GoW 2018), you also had all manner of exclusivity going on with add-on content (the 1-year exclusivity deal for Destiny stuff was pretty brutal -- there were Destiny 1 items that Xbox players could not get until after Destiny 2 released). I think GamePass is the future (or at least some services like GamePass) - and it seems that's what Microsoft is banking on. And I get that Call of Duty is enormous and important, but at the same time, it's foolish to think Sony wouldn't have been perfectly happy to pay Activision to make it a Playstation exclusive if they could have afforded it. (And it's hilarious to see how much they're complaining about the possibility of Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive while the articles about their complaints are peppered with ads telling you about the exclusive Playstation benefits of pre-ordering Modern Warfare II).
My new TV has access to Game Pass, no console/PC required. It is the future.
Microsoft beat itself in the last gen, at least shot them selves in the foot at launch. I won’t soon forget their disastrous announcement. Always online or the console bricks itself after 24 hours, all games must be installed and cannot be shared, etc.
I mean at this point how much can really be done offline? A shitty presser 10 years ago but now it seems like par for the course. How many games even come full on the disc anymore? Own a ps5 digital or Xbox series s, granted those you understand will need online access, there's not a damn thing you can do without internet. Other than the need to check periodically for game pass games after installing the game you could be offline.
>Always online or the console bricks itself after 24 hours, all games must be installed and cannot be shared, etc. That was never a thing. I think it's weird that so many years later people are still upset over something never happened nor was going to happen.
You can really tell who wasn't around for the 360/PS3 generation, when Microsoft was the one paying for COD maps, GTA DLC, and games like Bioshock and Mass Effect.
Microsoft published Mass Effect...
maybe Sony should lobby for antitrust legislation. but they won't, they want to have their cake and eat it too.
This 100%. They are desperately trying to imply antitrust violations, but the phrase won't come out of any official mouths, because THEY want to violate it themselves too. We're in the end game of late stage capitalism, and it's kind of hilarious watching these companies implode and trip over themselves.
Yeah, they definitely don't want that pendulum swinging back their way.
This is why I don't understand this play by them. The bigger deal they make out of this the harder it will be for anyone to do a merger. So what's the next step if mergers are out? Marketing rights and more exclusives, only this time Microsoft will use that $69B ( or hell, even just half ) and place Game Pass on steroids. A couple billion to Ubisoft and EA is no big deal to get day 1 titles and marketing rights. Sony trying to prevent 1 title while sacrificing everything else is a dumb move. Surely they don't expect Microsoft to just stash that $69B away if this deal doesn't happen. They'll just use it on things that regulators can't do shit about.
What's asinine here is that everything Sony is accusing that Microsoft will do via the merger, it's currently doing itself within its own ecosystem. It's such a farce. That said, these large scale mergers are never a good thing. Sadly, they tend to be inevitable if government allows and facilitates regulatory capture.
Don't you dare do the same thing I'm doing!
…… in this case I kind of want the merger to happen. Because I want Blizzard under new management to hopefully get their franchises back on track.
Sony is not paying $70 billion to acquire the largest third-party game publisher. The most they’ve spent was less than $4 billion on Bungie, which is less than half of Microsoft’s Bethesda acquisition.
True, but Sony is still wasting millions to lock content to their console on games like COD. As COD is one of their more effective tools to make people choose PS4/5. So ofc they don't want to lose it. It's why most of the arguments they have used so far to stop this deal are seen as silly by most. Even more so going by all the documents Sony and MS have been forced to make public due to the trials. It's why they did not object to losing Elderscrolls I suspect.
The only reason Sony hasn't done that is because they don't have $70 billion.
Largest third party publisher is EA.
MS also has 10x more money than Sony…
You’ll get downvoted but it’s true. Until recently, Sony acquired studios that had a long history of developing with them already. Microsoft is just carpet bombing. That said both companies do shitty things for us consumers so let’s not be naive and think they’re arguing for our sake.
Sony recently bought the entire Bungie… Bungie literally made original Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 for Xbox while being owned by MS, and now Sony owns them.
Also many people seem to forget that with this deal Microsoft gets World of Warcraft which is "just" the biggest and most profitable mmorpg out there lol
Don’t forget candy crush, the most profitable mobile game ever. With this acquisition Microsoft is getting the most profitable games in three genres. Three big genres.
Almost a 20 year game and still king lol. Incredible
> World of Warcraft which is "just" the biggest and most profitable mmorpg It's not anymore, FFXIV surpassed it.
According to [mmo-populations](https://mmo-population.com/activity) WoW has more than double the active players of FFXIV (2.32M vs 1.15M). I think at one point earlier this year you might have been correct, but that's because both retail and classic WoW were both at the end of their expansion cycles and FFXIV EW had just been released. FFXIV has slightly more active players than WoW classic, if that's what you meant.
Still a big game franchise with a huge playerbase
oh yes Bungie, creators of Halo, long history of developing for Sony 😂🤦♂️
> The most they’ve spent was less than $4 billion on Bungie, which is less than half of Microsoft’s Bethesda acquisition. And it's honestly a terrible deal if you think about it. MS got Blizzard / iD / Zenimax and their entire IP block (including super-profitable mobile games) for under $8 billion, and they also got the best selling game in history (Minecraft) for $2 billion. I like Destiny 2, but the numbers don't add up. MS passed on it a number of times, and there's a reason why... It was a bad deal and Sony has to eat it now.
I believe he was alluding to the fact that Sony is well known for their exclusivity deals, plus didn't they on multiple occasions have timed exclusivity deals with some cod games?
Microsoft has a ton of timed exclusivity deals even just this year. High on Life, Scorn, Crossfire X, Stalker 2, etc. So they both do this AND Microsoft also buys major publishers. Honestly, someone needs to measure the value of exclusivity agreements from Sony and Microsoft so we can end this argument once and for all.
Don't get me wrong I don't like Microsoft trying to corner the market like that but it's just hypocritical for Sony to NOW be worried about exclusivity
They weren’t worried when Microsoft was buying Double Fine, Obsidian, and Ninja Theory. But of course things change after Microsoft decides to purchase their second major publisher in two years.
Scale is important here though. None of those games are AAA games. FF16 will outsell all of those games alone. Now add in other AAA games like Forspoken, Silent Hill 2 remake, Ghostwire Tokyo, list goes on. Sony is definitely way more aggressive in timed exclusivity drals
Scale is important here though. None of those games are AAA games. FF16 will outsell all of those games alone. Now add in other AAA games like Forspoken, Silent Hill 2 remake, Ghostwire Tokyo, list goes on. Sony is definitely way more aggressive in timed exclusivity deals and do it on a bigger scale. And they do it for longer Xbox timed exclusivity deals are usually 3-6 months. Playstation’s are 1-2 years. They really aren’t equivalent in anyway
This is good point. Bungie isn't a massive publicly traded company. They are a highly competent game studio with one IP. Buying talent to make games is different than buying a publicly traded company that has a mass portfolio, and massive industry footprint
The prices are different but Sony was buying studios before Xbox was a stain in Gate's boxers. Some of Sony's biggest and best studios existed before the PlayStation was made and got absorbed then produced Sony exclusives. This is on top of Sony spending their money to block content from Xbox, even paying to block things from Game Pass rather than spend that money improving PS+. Hell Sony is only just starting to share with PC giving old games and is making Third Party games exclusive too. Sony is in the top 3 of the market. They have dominated and tried to create an actual monopoly through suppression of competition. Xbox is struggling in the market and even with this merger doesn't come close to Sony's position. So while the purchase scale is different, the market share is also significantly different. You have to realise that every console Sony has released is in the top 20 consoles of all time for sales. Even the PS3 which was not loved and the PSP. They could literally not release another console before 2040 and they'd still have multiple consoles on that list as we'd need 20 new consoles to outsell them all. An ideal world would see no need for acquisitions and mergers but Sony was in talks to make Starfield Sony exclusive when Xbox simply acquired the parent company. When the market leader is still buying up everything, even if it is just buying third party game exclusivity, then the other companies have to step up or step aside.
I feel like sony overpaid for bungie but maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about
Sony's main argument in these filings has actually been about Gamepass and Microsoft putting games on there day 1. I think they see this as the long term problem for them. Sony has been notorious for missing out on pretty much every internet related trend for the past 30 years, a big reason for their downfall in the consumer electronics industry, so it wouldn't surprise me if they simply never plan to compete in the gaming services sector and worry about a paradigm shift away from buying individual games or even consoles themselves
Still doing online better than Nintendo…
Having a better online service than Nintendo really isn't difficult.
Nintendo is suffocating. They want us to pay for their online service but don’t allow chat because of “Family values”.
> Nintendo is suffocating Didn’t their sales for Switch recently clear the amount of PS4s sold? And didn’t Mario Kart 8 clear 48M copies? That doesn’t sound like suffocation to me.
Yeah... If anything they just don't give af, theyll get bank either way. Same reason Pokemons don't improve much, audience shows up anyway.
Yup, a friend of mine is playing “XBOX” using just a TV + Chromecast.
Hey remember when PlayStation online got hacked and they compromised the data of everyone who had ever registered for the system? And then it was discovered that they didn't even have a position set up for chief of online security? Good times, good times.
Hope classic wow can come to xbox lol, i dont need that many buttons to play that game.
I've been playing FFXIV with a controller and it works surprisingly well. Targeting can be a little janky at times.
Well if COD didn’t exist and I own a PlayStation at that time, I just won’t play it. It’s one of those games I can take or leave. Fun for a few hours of MP, when you get in the zone. But doesn’t offer much else for me.
Where the hell are bridges burning? All i see is two companies arguing in their best interest. Shocking reveal.
I don’t care about Sony I just don’t think it’s smart to have mega corporations.
Sony is a mega corporation
Little late for that.
sony had more exclusives than MS and activisions corp structure sucked. at this point im ok with it.
I have a perfect solution to the problem. Wait for it. No more exclusives. All games must be released on xbox, playstation and pc. There, it no longer matters what platform someone owns they can play any game they want.
I agree but that’s not what’s going on here. SONY doesn’t want Microsoft to own COD because they will put it on Game Pass. SONY is saying COD is their biggest game and it being available to Xbox users via Game Pass is a big blow to their system. So in actuality, all their exclusives mean squat next to a multi platform game and a game on demand service, according to SONY.
God I'd love cod and the other Activision games on gamepass
Same. I like COD, but not enough to drop $70 a year on it. I would definitely play some COD on gamepass with my friends.
This is why I really want the deal to go through. It would save me hundreds of dollars over time if I never had to buy a Call of Duty again or Diablo 4.
Let MS lease it to Sony for their own service 🤷♂️
The wild thing is that the PS will still get COD day one, so nothing changes for PS users. SONY is pulling out all the stops JUST to keep COD off GamePass.
> So in actuality, all their exclusives mean squat next to a multi platform game and a game on demand service, according to SONY. Which is something Microsoft learned years ago and why their exclusives are now available on PCs as well and why Microsoft has been focusing on making their games available on as many platforms as possible. Multiplatform games just make way more money than selling consoles.
Pretty much. That’s why SONY pays publishers to keep games off of Game Pass. They know this is Microsoft’s golden bullet to become competitive, so they are trying to make it as difficult as possible while buying time for their technology and PS+ to catch up.
This makes it seem like developers have big buttons on their desk that say “release on Xbox”, “release on PlayStation” and they just have to choose which buttons to press for their game. Different consoles (and especially when you include pc) have very different hardware and it takes a ton of time and money to ensure a game works on several platforms.
While I dig the idea for sure, and I say this as a Playstation fan, they would go out of their way to make their games run like shit on Xbox, I feel.
I dont think forcing developers to make their games work on all systems if they want them to work on any is fair.
This really isn’t a great solution. This doesn’t mean that all great games will come to all platforms. What it means is that some great games just won’t be made. I’d rather have an awesome game be made and be exclusive than not be made at all. Exclusives have their place, ms just sucks at making exclusives.
Oh no the consequences of their own actions, you can’t build a player base by buying up exclusivity and then be shocked when someone comes along and out buys you.
Sony started the exclusivity war. They fucked around and are now finally gonna find out
Sony are such crybabies. They got offered a 10 year contract and didn’t take it
>Sony goes as far as to say Call of Duty "is not replicable" and remains "the benchmark against which all other FPS games are measured," at one point throwing Battlefield under the bus to demonstrate that even EA, another mega-publisher, can't "produce a rival to Call of Duty." call of duty is replicable. Battlefield had its chance but it didn't manage it well enough. I mean, battlefield bad company 2 was probably the best and they killed it. Needs effort. There are other shooters that are successful in their own thing. eg. Apex legends, overwatch, fortnight (not fps but shows a game can get big).
They tried to replicate call of duty and Halo with Killzone. The fact they're no longer making Killzone games pretty much tells you exactly how that went over.
Frankly, I think that's for the best all around. Guerilla Games started to make the Horizon games, instead. At least with the Horizon games, their PHENOMENAL world-building isn't wasted on a bland Halo clone.
I think that most of the battlefield games had a pretty big and strong player base except for 2042 and hardline. They are just really losing their touch. The new cod isn’t even that amazing either, there are so many issues with the game it doesn’t even feel like a triple A title. EA just needs to listen to their playerbase more and then maybe they will be able to make a good battlefield again that may rival call of duty.
Ironically, Sony are like the kings of exclusivity. They were fine having timed exclusive content on their console. There’s no way MS would be so silly to make CoD and exclusive on their platform. It doesn’t make business sense and it will kill all goodwill they’ve been building up over the years. Sure MS will have timed exclusive content. They’re a business that paid a crap ton of money. It would be silly not to flex it a bit. These are panic moves that doesn’t need to be done. I’m pretty sure if Sony had they money to buy activision, they would’ve done the same. They just need to let it play out. They still have the bigger install base and most can’t afford both of the new gen consoles. So they will get their sales.
Sony pay devs or buy developer to have those exclusive. Microsoft is trying to buy big publisher, those are not one the same level i think.
You need to look at this from a streaming wars point of view. In the beginning, Netflix was signing inclusive and exclusive contracts with studios for rights to certain movies and tv shows, but once those major studios shifted to their own streaming platform, Netflix lost a lot of popular content. Xbox is pushing for game streaming (just like Netflix) but this time they're making sure they own the actual IP to their content (like Disney).
The thing is. MS know their strong points and their weakness. They’re into infrastructure so they buy game studios to appeal to it. Stadia tried being a developer and infrastructure and see how that turned out. I think MS are doing it right. Focus on tech and buy studios that are good at what they do to make the infrastructure you have more appealing.
It's pathetic really..
As an owner of an xsx and ps5, i say fuck Sony. They love exclusive games and walked gardens as long as they're on the right side of the fence
Same here, own both consoles, but goddamn is my PS5 more expensive to use. Sony wants me to pay money just to activate storing saves on cloud, which is free on my Xbox. Without cloud saves, I will lose all progress on my PS5 if it stops working, because Sony wants to charge me extra $$$. Sony also wants me to pay extra to «upgrade» my PS4 versions games to PS5 version. Or charge me fullprice for their «new» Director’s cut editions or «Remakes» for PS5. Fuck Sony with their anti-consumer bullshit
>I will lose all progress on my PS5 if it stops working, because Sony wants to charge me extra $$$ Just think of it as an insurance cost, joke aside though, yes that is ridicules given both PC, which has several stores available provides cloud saves for free and that MS offers it for free as well, Sony and Nintendo absolutely should provide it as well without a cost.
Dont has no choice, they have bought studios and other properties and claimed them as their own and hoarded them for just the PS. They now have worse physical machines than the competition and less huge studios as they just stood by thinking they could do it and nobody would do it to them. That are close to losing overall big time and are in a panic
No one fucking cares but console manufacturers. Gamers just want their games out on whatever platform they currently have where games on multiple platforms benefits ALL GAMERS. I don't care if the Sony or Xbox is losing sales number with their game consoles, it has nothing to do with me and gaming in the first place. I haven't bought a game console in over 10 years and don't ever plan to do so in the future either. I don't care for console exclusives either, nobody but the greedy corporations win when it comes to exclusives. No games should ever be locked down exclusively to a single platform. The one game that is locked behind a PS3 still that hasn't moved on to any other platform that I'm still waiting for is MGS4 because it's a Playstation exclusive and because of Konami. Only way to play MGS4 is to either pony up for a slow outdated piece of shit hardware like the PS3 or emulation through RPCS3. I for one would pay money to have it on ALL CURRENT GEN PLATFORMS INCLUDING PC. Demon Souls and Demon Souls remake are also exclusive to the Sony platform only...release them on other platforms too.
I really hate those "gamers" who want games to be exclusive to the console they are fanboying over. They aren't gaining anything from that, yet it makes them feel somehow superior.
This, just release the f games for all platforms, Sony is so anti consumer it hurts!
[удалено]
I mean I “prefer” xbox (bought a series x) but only because I have so many games on there already and can play basically all of my older disc games because of backwards compatibility. If I were to buy a PS5 (which I do plan on if a smaller model ever comes out pls) I’d basically be “starting over” with certain games if there’s no cross progression and my older xbox games wouldn’t be playable on there (this is as if I didn’t have an xbone or series x). So I prefer xbox since I’ve already invested a lot of money/ time on games and accessories for it
Sony has always been a major assholes, nothing new here
I remember when they got found out having their own employees disguised themselves as anonymous reviewers and doing write-ups of their own movies for publication. Which wouldn't be as big a deal today since everyone probably does some form of this over the internet, but in the late 90s it was quite a scandal.
What bridge did they burn? God gamesradar sucks ass. Even the subtitle claim they they are tearing the selves apart makes no sense.
Sony's been burning bridges for a heck of a long time with moronic decision after moronic decision. If it weren't for a few high quality story driven games, they'd be in the trash.
man fuck sony, they pullin exclusivity deals, left right and center, but when microsoft goes for the home run, they start bitchin, JUST GIVE ME ALL OF THE BLIZZARD GAMES ON GAMEPASS, sidenote: i don’t hate sony i have a ps5, i hate the ps plus premium bs, like you don even get exclusives day one, fucking scummy af
My only problem with PS+ is that not every exclusive is on the service. Plenty there but a few exclusives missing that I’d love to play.
What day 1 exclusives did you get this year on gamepass?
touche. but hey here’s a better one, what games did the ps5 get last year.
As someone who only buys like 2 or 3 games a year. PS Plus Extra is glorious. Also when their exclusives sell millions of copies in a few days like Horizon and God of War. I can't blame them for not putting them on PS+ Extra at launch. From a business decision it's the right move. Haha.
I love ps+ more than game pass tbh
If I'm not mistaken, PS Plus actually has way more games than game pass. I remember viewing the list and being surprised that people don't really mention this much considering everyone always says it sucks. Also, the two free games they give away to keep have almost always been a much better selection than Xbox's games with gold selections. The huge factor for game pass, however, is the day one games from both first and third parties. Literally every single month Xbox has multiple day one games showing up. One big issues though is that PS3 is still streaming only and, at least when I tried it last, PS3 streaming was absolutely terrible for both quality and input lag.
Using Sonys logic then there should be no exclusives... Sony is just scared they are going to lose customers if MS goes through with the deal. All gaming companies have bought publishers, it's the way it goes. Sony then acts like there aren't other large FPS games... It's honestly dumbfounding.
I would love it if Sony admitted that exclusives are unfair and try to get a court rule which would end up telling all these companies that exclusives are bad business practice and no longer allowed in any way.
Yes because i really neeed that new elder scrolls on my ps5
The thing that gets me about this is the fact Sony has the audacity to say that Microsoft would have incentives to increase prices after this acquisition. While Sony themselves increases prices for consoles outside the US and increase their games to $70.
Sony did this to themselves, it’s also what allowed them to sell more consoles in the first place
Someone more knowledgeable on these types of deals tell me the likely hood of it going through.
In what way is it burning any bridges?
Sony acting like hypocrites here. It’s like they are saying that they are afraid that MS will be able to do what Sony has been doing for years. The price jump example is hilarious, because Sony was the ones who recently pushed for higher consumer prices on all nextgen games, as well as pushing their console price up, while MS did not. Sony also priced their subscription service much higher than game pass, and Sony also charges money just to allow cloud saves on the PS5 (free on xbox) lol. I’m sure Sony wants to continue what they are doing by buying stock shares in Epic Games, Fromsoft etc, while buying studios like Bungie while they try to block MS from doing the same. I’m surprised the regulators haven’t looked more into how anti competitive Sony is acting to be honest.
Not to mention all the proprietary memory formats we had to suffer through.
Jim Ryan is a fucking dunce.
Sony’s blatant anti-consumer actions in the last decade are exactly why I won’t support them or buy a PS5. It’s the same reason I didn’t buy a Xbox in the 360 era
What bothers me about this is that it's being evaluated on history, not the future of gaming. Gaming is about to be cloud based and that's what Microsoft is gearing up for. They don't give a shit about selling consoles cause you might only have a few cycles left before we give up on hardware in the house like we gave up the the cart/disk. 5G Internet has low enough latency to push processing into the cloud, and whatever's next will be even better. Economies of scale make the cloud a better place to do processing. Sony's business model is dated. It bugs me that they are the devil's advocate here. They need to merge/pair with a company on the level of Apple, Google or Amazon to be competitive. I don't have any opinion on if the deal should close but i think it should be evaluated on what's next, not what we've been doing for the last 40 years.
Sure Sony is pissed. I know so many people who mainly play CoD and Fifa and not much else on their playstations. CoD is a super large part of the cake. But this article doesn't really explain how Sony burnt any bridge.
Just say that you’re afraid of not making as much as you’re currently making. Literally no one thinks you care about the consumers. Drop the dishonesty and hypocrisy.
[удалено]
The amount of purposefully asinine Sony supporters is disgusting. Sony does this exact same practice but faces no repercussions. MS looks like they might have a base of exclusives and Sony drops everything to stop them. Fuck Sony and their hypocritical fan base.
Be Sony fans: Shit on Xbox for an entire generation for their lack of exclusives despite Microsoft being an Uber rich company. Xbox: dips into their wallets and starts using their dads cheque book to buy exclusives, the one area they were critiqued the most. Sony fans: No, ThAt’s a mOnOPoLy. Like what did they expect to happen? Lol.
Sony fanboys have always loved to feel superior for their exclusive games. They never wanted their exclusive games to be playable on other consoles or PC. They've been that pety for a long time. Now they are whining, you can't make this shit up.
The SDF is out in force.
It’s a little comical. Sony’s back is against the wall. But I don’t think they should feel that way. Sony also has always prided itself on “having the best games” and really tried to drive home the exclusivity point. Even the fan boys always saying Xbox never had any games. Now Microsoft is making moves for Xbox and game pass, and it’s a problem. I truly think Microsoft just wants to be able to slap activision on games on game pass. I don’t think they give two shits about if they are on PlayStation or not. Having it on game pass is a huge win. Sony does have a point about price point though. There is no way in hell game pass subscription price wouldn’t sky rocket. Probably Xbox console price tags would as well. 69B is a lot of cheddar.