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Microsoft: ‘Even with Activision Blizzard, we’ll be number three’ - The Activision deal will help it ‘build the next internet’

kingfey

Banned
I think Microsoft has largely moved on from competing with Sony, to be honest. That fight is done and dusted. PlayStation beat Xbox. What we're seeing now isn't the precursor to arrogant Microsoft from the 90s, because these moves aren't all about Xbox. Ultimately, they're about Microsoft gearing up for a bigger fight - gaming is just the technological software and hardware foundation on which the future metaverses will be built. The allure of the best games in the world will establish their metaverse community, and Microsoft will spring board off it. Work, play, socialise, and game in Microsoft's metaverse. Xbox is, ultimately, just a small piece of that equation. Gaming gets you in the door, but everything else keeps you there. Sony, for all its success in gaming, isn't big enough to craft its own metaverse. It'll need Microsoft, Amazon, or Google's global infrastructure, and even then, Sony doesn't operate across as many vocations as Microsoft. You can game on PlayStation and watch movies, but Microsoft will offer the opportunity to work, play, socialise, and live in their world. If you're still viewing this as "Xbox vs PlayStation", then I suspect you're thinking too small, because Microsoft's stated goal is "the new internet", not "more consoles sold" or "more gamepass than ps+ subs".
I saw the metaverse just now, and that one seems to be the real future.

The fact that you can interact with real people, and have the ability to play games is great and scary at the same time.
 

kingfey

Banned
lol gotta love how they arent even hiding how they want a windows like monopoly in the console space.

no thanks.
consoles at this point dont matter.

Go look at the metaverse. That scary thing is the new reality gaming. Imagine playing mtgs2 through metaverse. or silent hill.
 
Personal anecdote: Microsoft's initial metaverse steps, due out later this year, are something my company is really looking in to. Integrating VR into Microsoft Teams is exciting, because thanks to COVID, we're basically decentralised now. Being able to be in the same room, with virtual white boards, diagrams, and the ability to move around, is a game changer for our teams.

More on topic, there's a reason Carmack left id Software and moved over to Facebook to work on VR. The metaverse future is coming, and gaming is the gateway drug that gets us there. Microsoft understand that, and so does Facebook. Now, is that a good future? We'll find out, I guess.
As someone who has had days where I was on Teams calls for 6+ hours, I think the use cases are pretty narrow - basically only project collaboration work. Which I guess for some jobs is a lot, but so many days consist of stuff like 1:1s or status meetings or informal small meetings that wouldn't really benefit. And do I really want to deal with VR shit just to talk to someone informally?

I think what they really need to do is have a meeting mode for Teams that let's multiple people speak simultaneously. That alone I think would bridge a lot of the gap between between a Teams meeting and real meeting - the problem though is one of the big roadblocks is latency. I don't think most corporate networks and VPN are set up to have near real time latency communication, which you kind of need in order to truly simulate an in person meeting. A VR meeting is kind of defeated when everyone still has to pause a second to make sure they aren't tripping over each other because they aren't sure if the other person has actually stopped talking.

I think the IT spend is gonna be massive and it will be interesting to see who actually bites, and how it works out for them.
 

EDMIX

Member

Speaking to the Financial Times, Microsoft’s Nadella was asked if Microsoft now has to convince regulators that it isn’t a tech platform to be wary of.

The exec argued that the games industry is highly fragmented, and claimed that even after its Activision Blizzard deal goes through, it would be the third-largest company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.

“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about,” Nadella answered.

“And what about the market structure? Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with sort of low teens [market] share, where even the highest player is also [in the] teens [for market] share.

“It shows how fragmented content creation platforms are. And so, that’s the fundamental category. Yes, we will be a big player in what is a highly fragmented place.

“Also, the analysis will have to extend to say ‘why are these content companies trying to become bigger?’ It’s because the place where the constraints really are is distribution.

“The only open distribution platform for any gaming content – guess what? – is Windows. The biggest store on Windows is Steam. It’s not ours. People can do any payment instrument, whereas all the other gaming distribution platforms are closed.

“To some degree, that’s why we are very hopeful that, by becoming stronger, even with low share, we can create more distribution for many small players, using things like xCloud.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In his first interview since the Activision deal was announced, Nadella discussed Microsoft’s vision for the metaverse.

“Metaverse is essentially about creating games,” he told the Financial Times. “It is about being able to put people, places, things [in] a physics engine and then having all the people, places, things in the physics engine relate to each other.

“You and I will be sitting on a conference room table soon with either our avatars or our holograms or even 2D surfaces with surround audio. Guess what? The place where we have been doing that forever . . . is gaming.

“And so, the way we will even approach the system side of what we’re going to build for the metaverse is, essentially, democratise the game building . . . and bring it to anybody who wants to build any space and have essentially, people, places, [and] things digitised and relating to each other with their body presence.”

He told the FT: “To me, just being great at game building gives us the permission to build this next platform, which is essentially the next internet: the embodied presence. Today, I play a game, but I’m not in the game.

“Now, we can start dreaming [that] through these metaverses: I can literally be in the game, just like I can be in a conference room with you in a meeting. That metaphor and the technology . . . will manifest itself in different contexts.

“Another one would be in the context of a very different business process. If you look at retail or construction, that’s also like when you create a digital twin: you have a factory and you are trying to visualise how to simulate its operation. That’s also a game-playing exercise, except you’re not game playing. You’re trying to simulate how a factory functions.”

A solid read.

I lolz about that whole Metaverse shit, but who knows, that could be a massive thing in the future for MS, Facebook etc.

PS Home was deep ahead of its time.

I also agree with the points made about distribution, that seems to be the name of the game right now.
 

kingfey

Banned
A solid read.

I lolz about that whole Metaverse shit, but who knows, that could be a massive thing in the future for MS, Facebook etc.

PS Home was deep ahead of its time.

I also agree with the points made about distribution, that seems to be the name of the game right now.

Watch the videos in this post. Especially Guilty_AI video. It should explain it to you what the metaverse.
 
I love how misleading they are.

Activision represents a meaningful percentage of Sony‘s revenue.
But Nadella suggested that Microsoft should not need to make any formal concessions to win regulatory approval for the deal, because it would still be too small to have an anti-competitive impact.
It’s like Regal buying Disney, they going we may or may not make Disney movies exclusive to our movies theater.

But I also dont expect any formal concessions. Besides a warning.

Ill be suprised if they made them sell a part of Acti-Blizz.
 

dotnotbot

Member
Apple would (and likely could) step in, to great fanfare. Do you want that?
I want

Btw I'm tired of this forgivness towards Microsoft and everything they do because Apple/Amazon/whoever else could step in and do something bad while they're not even in the game yet. Seems like nothing more than creating imaginary threat to excuse predatory actions. Pure CCCP propaganda.
 
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Neofire

Member
More like the deal will help them force people to accept the GAAS/subscription model they are pushing.....at this one they are hoping people will buy the bs narrative they are selling.
 
rats GIF

😂😭💀
 

jaysius

Banned
Candor is very seldom seen in the industry, but Microsoft is being honest here.

I've always said they're not in the same game as Sony, and it's true, they're in the thinking ahead game, it'll take probably a decade to see if that pays off.

Hopefully Sony is a better first place this gen than it was last gen.
 

bender

What time is it?
Hopefully Sony is a better first place this gen than it was last gen.

If you love their blockbusters, you'll be fine. That's not a knock. If you love unique Japanese games you are going to have to hope for 3rd parties or remasters of old games.
 

T0minator

Member


If anyone is interested in making a post about this.

Phil coworkers told him gamepass wont work.


That's an interesting article. We usually hear how about console warriors bringing up how PlayStation fans were the ones doubting Gamepass. It's interesting to know some Xbox employees were doubters from the vet beginning. But there will always be doubters to anything and everything 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

kingfey

Banned
That's an interesting article. We usually hear how about console warriors bringing up how PlayStation fans were the ones doubting Gamepass. It's interesting to know some Xbox employees were doubters from the vet beginning. But there will always be doubters to anything and everything 🤷🏻‍♂️
people are afraid of what they dont understand. Its human nature.
Gamepass was a force of nature. Same for streaming movies. Both brought distrust to their industry. But once people warmed to it, it boomed.
 

kingfey

Banned
Pretty much, and yet millions of green soldiers are echoing the same MS approved message, day in, day out: "Competition is good! MS can buy a couple more publishers, it's not a monopoly...In fact, they can go for the rest of them, indiscriminantly. You don't know what monopoly means!"...
Well, it's called Windows, though it has never been legally identified as such. Go figure!
both companies arent even the same level. $2.8t vs $147b. If ms were so serious, they would have dropped the bag long time ago. Instead they drag out this worthless saga for years. And we have kids fighting over these consoles. It was never fair fight. Everyone knew what would happen, If MS were so serious about gaming industry. We discovered that last month.
 
both companies arent even the same level. $2.8t vs $147b. If ms were so serious, they would have dropped the bag long time ago. Instead they drag out this worthless saga for years. And we have kids fighting over these consoles. It was never fair fight. Everyone knew what would happen, If MS were so serious about gaming industry. We discovered that last month.

Yep -though market cap is not one of the relevant criteria here, rather the annual profits and cash flow; MS generates almost 8 times as much profit per year as Sony-, which is good for MS and bad for Sony, since the former can sustain losing money for years to establish total domination...
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Crazy to think even with Activision, Playstation still beats Xbox in terms of revenue.


This is why It'll pass FTC easily and still leave room for MS to pick up more.

Anyone crying monopoly is delusional. (For now)

If Sonys production issues keep up and MS is still pumping consoles at a regular rate, they are going to need this deal to close quickly so they can get more before they close the gap too much.
 
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Dream-Knife

Banned
I want

Btw I'm tired of this forgivness towards Microsoft and everything they do because Apple/Amazon/whoever else could step in and do something bad while they're not even in the game yet. Seems like nothing more than creating imaginary threat to excuse predatory actions. Pure CCCP propaganda.
Apple would be very very bad for gaming.

Not that MS and Sony are good for it either.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Can someone explain to me the green rat joke/thing?

The funniest part is he thought he had the disposition to be a moderator on GAF and that joke is lost upon many here.

 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
pure business man doing pure business talk. Glad Phil got the promotion because they have someone genuinely into gaming running that area of MS with plenty of his protégés working up the ranks.

Nadella is purely a businessman running the whole of MS and it shows. He’s saying the right things to make sure this deal goes through.
 

TonyK

Member
“You and I will be sitting on a conference room table soon with either our avatars or our holograms or even 2D surfaces with surround audio.
And people want this? Somebody has asked for it? Working remotely trough VR seems a fucking nightmare. I don't understand this trend to isolate us.
 
pure business man doing pure business talk. Glad Phil got the promotion because they have someone genuinely into gaming running that area of MS with plenty of his protégés working up the ranks.

Nadella is purely a businessman running the whole of MS and it shows. He’s saying the right things to make sure this deal goes through.
They seem to be working great together. Nadella framed it well when he said it will help them build the next internet. Nobody wants to be the guy that didn't want the internet to happen. "You're making Internet 2? Proceed to Go, collect $200" - FTC probably
 

Kagey K

Banned
They seem to be working great together. Nadella framed it well when he said it will help them build the next internet. Nobody wants to be the guy that didn't want the internet to happen. "You're making Internet 2? Proceed to Go, collect $200" - FTC probably
Hasn't internet 2.0 and 3.0 already happened?

Or is this internet 2: Electric Boogaloo?
 

Goalus

Member
And people want this? Somebody has asked for it? Working remotely trough VR seems a fucking nightmare. I don't understand this trend to isolate us.
It's more about having the option to work like this with seamless integration into Teams/Outlook or whatever their communication hub will be called by then. I think it could be fun, even though I go to the office every day because I don't like sitting at home all day.
 

assurdum

Banned

Speaking to the Financial Times, Microsoft’s Nadella was asked if Microsoft now has to convince regulators that it isn’t a tech platform to be wary of.

The exec argued that the games industry is highly fragmented, and claimed that even after its Activision Blizzard deal goes through, it would be the third-largest company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.

“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about,” Nadella answered.

“And what about the market structure? Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with sort of low teens [market] share, where even the highest player is also [in the] teens [for market] share.

“It shows how fragmented content creation platforms are. And so, that’s the fundamental category. Yes, we will be a big player in what is a highly fragmented place.

“Also, the analysis will have to extend to say ‘why are these content companies trying to become bigger?’ It’s because the place where the constraints really are is distribution.

“The only open distribution platform for any gaming content – guess what? – is Windows. The biggest store on Windows is Steam. It’s not ours. People can do any payment instrument, whereas all the other gaming distribution platforms are closed.

“To some degree, that’s why we are very hopeful that, by becoming stronger, even with low share, we can create more distribution for many small players, using things like xCloud.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In his first interview since the Activision deal was announced, Nadella discussed Microsoft’s vision for the metaverse.

“Metaverse is essentially about creating games,” he told the Financial Times. “It is about being able to put people, places, things [in] a physics engine and then having all the people, places, things in the physics engine relate to each other.

“You and I will be sitting on a conference room table soon with either our avatars or our holograms or even 2D surfaces with surround audio. Guess what? The place where we have been doing that forever . . . is gaming.

“And so, the way we will even approach the system side of what we’re going to build for the metaverse is, essentially, democratise the game building . . . and bring it to anybody who wants to build any space and have essentially, people, places, [and] things digitised and relating to each other with their body presence.”

He told the FT: “To me, just being great at game building gives us the permission to build this next platform, which is essentially the next internet: the embodied presence. Today, I play a game, but I’m not in the game.

“Now, we can start dreaming [that] through these metaverses: I can literally be in the game, just like I can be in a conference room with you in a meeting. That metaphor and the technology . . . will manifest itself in different contexts.

“Another one would be in the context of a very different business process. If you look at retail or construction, that’s also like when you create a digital twin: you have a factory and you are trying to visualise how to simulate its operation. That’s also a game-playing exercise, except you’re not game playing. You’re trying to simulate how a factory functions.”
Lol. Yeah sure because MS are third it means the others competitors can spend easily 63 billions and potentially acquire all the publishers as them, how not.
 
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And people want this? Somebody has asked for it? Working remotely trough VR seems a fucking nightmare. I don't understand this trend to isolate us.
I want this. I live in low wage Germany, but if I worked the same job in Switzerland or Murica, I'd make almost double the money. Remote work would make it possible.
 
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