Jimbob Posted July 19, 2023 Posted July 19, 2023 Strange how the deal between Microsoft and Sony doesn't specify a time compared to other deals agreed. Based on Monday, it would seem that there are some legal things left to tidy up only between CMA and Microsoft. CMA sort of has had enough of the mess they created.
Dcubed Posted July 19, 2023 Posted July 19, 2023 1 hour ago, Jimbob said: Strange how the deal between Microsoft and Sony doesn't specify a time compared to other deals agreed. Based on Monday, it would seem that there are some legal things left to tidy up only between CMA and Microsoft. CMA sort of has had enough of the mess they created. I imagine that Sony got a worse deal than Nintendo, given their position of weakness in negotiations here. CMA have really landed face first over this whole affair. That's what happens when you base your legal case on emotions and ideology over facts and figures though.
Happenstance Posted July 19, 2023 Posted July 19, 2023 1 hour ago, Jimbob said: Strange how the deal between Microsoft and Sony doesn't specify a time compared to other deals agreed. Based on Monday, it would seem that there are some legal things left to tidy up only between CMA and Microsoft. CMA sort of has had enough of the mess they created. I think it came out afterwards that it was just the same 10 year deal they'd been talking about from the beginning
Sheikah Posted July 19, 2023 Posted July 19, 2023 I imagine that Sony got a worse deal than Nintendo, given their position of weakness in negotiations here. CMA have really landed face first over this whole affair. That's what happens when you base your legal case on emotions and ideology over facts and figures though.The CMA were the only ones who did their job. Anyone who wants or cheers on huge industry mergers like this is sick, quite frankly.
Julius Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) Huge leaks coming out of this case with certain items astonishingly left unredacted. • Phil Spencer in 2020: getting Nintendo would be a career moment for me. Quote • Xbox mid-gen hardware refresh (digital Series X @ $499, haptics and quieter buttons controller @ $69.99) Quote • Phil Spencer: Game Pass at 25 million subscribers, no growth since Activision Blizzard acquisition announcement (note: this is from late 2022): Quote • Bethesda release schedule leak (from 2019?): Quote • next-gen version of Red Dead Redemption II: Quote • early plans for next-gen Xbox (2028, cloud-hybrid games, potential switch to ARM). Quote • Ninja Theory's Project Ara is based on an existing IP. Quote Holy. Hot. Damn. These are some spicy ass leaks! Edited September 19, 2023 by Julius 1
drahkon Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) Yeah, none of their plans are doing anything for me And the industry can only hope that Microsoft will never decide to just say "fuck it" and use their ridiculous spending power to buy pretty much everything... Phil Spencer saying buying Nintendo would be "a career moment"...it's actually a pretty sad thought...capitalism in full swing. And while they will (probably) never buy Nintendo, he really wishes to go for a monopoly...disgusting. Edited September 19, 2023 by drahkon
Dcubed Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) Potential switch to ARM for the next gen Xbox? Ohoho! Xbox does what Nintendoes! Speaking of which... looks like Xbox controllers are finally getting motion controls! Only took 'em 3 generations to catch up! Bethesda's lineup looks disappointingly dull though. Who asked for another Ghostwire Tokyo!? And while it's nice to see more Nu Doom, I would rather have seen ID do something a bit different like a new Quake or something. Edited September 19, 2023 by Dcubed
Julius Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 A further leak has also seemingly confirmed the existence of a planned Xbox handheld... ...which will not be getting funding. 1 hour ago, drahkon said: Yeah, none of their plans are doing anything for me And the industry can only hope that Microsoft will never decide to just say "fuck it" and use their ridiculous spending power to buy pretty much everything... Phil Spencer saying buying Nintendo would be "a career moment"...it's actually a pretty sad thought...capitalism in full swing. And while they will (probably) never buy Nintendo, he really wishes to go for a monopoly...disgusting. Yeah, totally agree – and I do wonder if it will have any impact at all on the Activision-Blizzard purchase, because seeing it stated like this (we are also planning on purchasing X developers and one of our only two rivals in the dedicated console space) is finally the phrasing that I think could put things in a new light in this case: Xbox do want a monopoly. It's something I would certainly be considering and taking a harsh look at, that's for sure. This also feels like the most casually unhinged thing I've ever heard/read Phil Spencer say. I can see what he's trying to get at - what greater jewel in the video game acquisition crown could there be than Nintendo? - but to suggest that it would be a career moment to have your bosses buy them? It sounds like a pretty sad career if the highlights are acquisitions. Also, for context, this was all said during perhaps the biggest mid-gen surge to date (2020, so the year COVID has massive tangible effects, and Animal Crossing and the Switch soared to new horizons), so it's even funnier reading him go on about Nintendo taking too long to adapt and bring their games to other consoles 27 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Bethesda's lineup looks disappointingly dull though. Who asked for another Ghostwire Tokyo!? And while it's nice to see more Nu Doom, I would rather have seen ID do something a bit different like a new Quake or something. Yeah, seems like an old doc based on it starting with FY20 (so probably 2019/early 2020?) and while COVID is a factor in potential delays, etc., boy oh boy are they super behind if all of this was the plan. Even before COVID, to slate Elder Scrolls VI for FY24 seems bold, genuinely to the point of outright stupidity. I do find it interesting that they at least acknowledge the weakness of the Zenimax purchase in it being more North American/European focused and not exactly diversifying their portfolio, which is what a lot of us have been saying since the acquisition was first announced. And I agree with you – the slide doesn't exactly invoke any confidence in them doing much interesting besides, well, remaining Bethesda, for both better and worse.
Dcubed Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 Xbox wanting to buy Nintendo isn't a revelation in the slightest, hell; they tried to buy them multiple times before, as far back as 2000. This is fully public info, even appearing in the Xbox 20th anniversary documentary and museum website! I bet Jim Ryan would also love to buy Nintendo... it's never gonna happen though
Dcubed Posted September 19, 2023 Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) Xbox hardware roadmap from 2022 - 2029 There it is. So the decision about ARM vs x86 should already have happened by now. OHOHOHO! Next console should be launching in November 2028 in this case. Edited September 19, 2023 by Dcubed
Ashley Posted September 20, 2023 Posted September 20, 2023 Yeah I've seen some people say Microsoft considering buying Nintendo is just a standard part of market research. Obviously they want to buy companies so they'd look into all the big ones and Nintendo would be within that, but I doubt they thought it was really going to happen.
Glen-i Posted October 12, 2023 Posted October 12, 2023 Yeah, that's a very thinly veiled, and racist, "America should own everything" article. Just the title alone says that.
Jimbob Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) CMA finally approves the deal Nice news to wake up to. Edit: And......it is done. Edited October 13, 2023 by Jimbob 1
Glen-i Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 It was inevtiable, really. Capitilism marches on if there's money to be made.
drahkon Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 Sad day for gaming. Terrible, terrible precedent. Now MS can do literally anything with their spending power. And other big companies will follow and make acquisitions of their own. 1 1
Glen-i Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 8 minutes ago, drahkon said: Terrible, terrible precedent. Now MS can do literally anything with their spending power. And other big companies will follow and make acquisitions of their own. Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing. 1
drahkon Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing. Of course, but MS has the most spending power by far and as is evident they are not afraid to use it to phase out the competition. And they will keep doing so. It's gonna be a shitshow in the next months/years. Edited October 13, 2023 by drahkon
darksnowman Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 They're right about one thing: it's a good day to play.
Julius Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 Not a surprise to see it go through at all, as unfortunately this is just the state that entertainment industries - for any medium - are in at the moment. Just have a look at what's been going on with football over the last few years in particular (never mind the rest of the last three decades) - these companies are inevitably going to end up owned by a tech giant or some state with ass-backwards QoL and trigger (knife?) happy rulers. Anyways, what strikes me about this deal at the time of typing is simply that it doesn't feel nearly as big a purchase as it was when it first got announced back at the start of last year. Don't get me wrong, it's obviously still massive and a big blow to the idea of any fair competition in the industry that you can buy big names and make them exclusive - and that goes for anyone buying people up, not just MS - but while CoD is still huge, it hasn't actually grown its player base in any notable way in years, and things like Warzone seem to be only having a cannabilisation effect which we've also seen over with the Hoyoverse games, where they bring out a new game and their players/spenders don't double, they just move across to the hot new things. Overwatch 2 launched into a quiet state of virtual nothingness - I know people are playing the game, but it's not part of the conversation in the same way that the first game was at launch and thereafter. There's very little growth potential for the foreseeable future in these big AAA IP as they are now, and while the impacts of that might be minimised somewhat by trying to view it as a player count vs sales as part of Game Pass and most likely - eventually - platform exclusive, I'm curious to see how MS react when, inevitably, this purchase doesn't have the impact they forecasted, and doesn't bring people over. In a very strange way it actually provides impetus for PlayStation to get off their arse and create a competitor, potentially in the form of a new IP, with all but guaranteed growth in contrast (because, y'know, starting from nothing). I think my biggest (realistic - the actual hope is that this deal sets such a bad precedent that the buyouts stop, but that's pure fantasy at this point) hope for this purchase is that Xbox eventually realise this and that the actual growth potential in this purchase is in the smaller projects...but it's also been over half a decade now since they came out and announced a plethora of smaller studio pick-ups which we've still seen virtually nothing from. Their Game Pass curation and IP management so far has been simply embarrassing - the fact that we're halfway through the generation and after so many pick-ups that they're still struggling to get decent enough first party content speaks volumes. . 48 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing. Totally agree, but like @drahkon says, Microsoft are simply peerless when it comes to their spending power in the gaming space. If Apple, Google, or Amazon step up and actually pull their fingers out to get their own gaming platforms properly off the ground? Then yeah, we'll some competition; but the absolute worst kind. Like you say, it's going to be a bunch of consolidation plays to react to this almost out of necessity, and it could easily get ugly, and because of their relative buying power, Nintendo, PlayStation and others will likely need to play to their cards wirth teams that they're already buddy-buddy with. It blows my mind that I've seen people around the internet dare to compare Microsoft's level of acquisitions to what we've seen from PlayStation and Nintendo so far - at the end of the day, while these are corporations, good lord do some people need to learn to read the room. We're all losing and now everyone's playing catch-up to the big spenders. 59 minutes ago, drahkon said: It's gonna be a shitshow in the next months/years. I genuinely hate it as someone who wants to play games...but it is super interesting to follow from a business case study POV. Either way, thank goodness I've got a backlog longer than the sun is blinding and that the indie space continues to produce bangers.
Glen-i Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Julius said: I genuinely hate it as someone who wants to play games... If there's one very thin silver lining to this, is that maybe Vicarious Visions could be rescued from their Call of Duty assistance prison, along with other similar developers that Activision banished there. Those guys injected some much needed revitilisation to Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with some high quality remakes, effectively reviving them from the dead, only to then get taken apart by Activision. Some thanks, huh? Of course, that all depends on whether MS actually care enough about the other IP's they just got, which I'm not super confident about. Edited October 13, 2023 by Glen-i
killthenet Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 You'd think they would want to do something with the likes of Tony Hawk, Crash and Spyro though - reviving those series with new entries will add some much needed variety to their software lineup (and would also hopefully come to other platforms, even if not at launch) Definitely worrying news in general though, the audacity of them to say its going to offer consumers more options going forward, when the endgame is obviously to restrict new game releases to only being available on Game Pass (at which point they'll jack up the price for a monthly subscription) 1
Glen-i Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 13 minutes ago, killthenet said: You'd think they would want to do something with the likes of Tony Hawk, Crash and Spyro though - reviving those series with new entries will add some much needed variety to their software lineup (and would also hopefully come to other platforms, even if not at launch) I can only hope, but I look at the likes of Banjo and Conker, and it doesn't fill me with confidence. Now granted, Perfect Dark is getting another shot, and I can only hope that Microsoft capitilise on Banjo's incredibly well received Smash Ultimate appearence, so I'm hoping it's a sign of MS being more experimental. There's also the factor of Tony Hawk himself, the guy is absolutely passionate about skateboarding, and after THPS 1+2, he went back to Vicarious Visions to ask them to make a THPS 3+4, it actually got off the ground, but got cancelled once Vicarious Visions were disbanded. Tony has stated in an interview that he was very upset about that. Hopefully, he gets wind of it, and tries again with Microsoft. 1
Ashley Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 5 minutes ago, Glen-i said: There's also the factor of Tony Hawk himself, the guy is absolutely passionate about skateboarding, and after THPS 1+2, he went back to Vicarious Visions to ask them to make a THPS 3+4, it actually got off the ground, but wiped out once Vicarious Visions were disbanded. Fixed 1 2
Dcubed Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) ABK has been so poorly run that this is nothing but a good thing for everyone involved. When your employee union is celebrating that you're being acquired? You know that the company was in seriously dire straits. This acquisition actually gives hope that we might see ABK's studios finally be released from the COD dungeon, and gives hope that the likes of THPS and Crash Bandicoot might yet live again. It also means that Nintendo platforms will finally stop being left out of major ABK releases like COD. This is a good thing... and the fact that it's taken a $70 billion acquisition for Kotick's head to get out of his company's arse is the real travesty here. Edited October 13, 2023 by Dcubed
Recommended Posts