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Sony signs agreement with MS to keep COD on PS

Saber

Gold Member
Surprising to say the least.
I though they were very against this contract because MS would have 100% of the money from microtransactions. Maybe they remedy this, who knows. In any case, Sony definitivelly lose bad and will have to do something thinkering faster than they predicted. I believe even Ryan should be accountable for all this mess.
 
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Chiggs

Gold Member
Call Of Duty coming to Gamepass Day One is big. I wonder if Microsoft will continue using Battle.net

Yeah, I wonder what the long-term future of Battle.net is. It would be nuts to shut it down, but a rebranding is probably in order...maybe?
 
Damn. Good that this deal is finally going somewhere.

The thing that is a bummer for me that the next Doom / iD Software game isn't going to get release on Playstation I magine.
 
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deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
EhoDurdXkAMVsdI
The look at Phil with "either way I'm good"
 
I expect a much more aggressive sony after this and in the end all consumers will lose.
I expect the opposite; consumers will win.

- COD and Activision titles on more platforms.

- Old IP being revived (Phil has expressed a keen interest in reviving Hexen/Heretic and Spyro).

- Sony will be forced to improve its subscription services and content, which is great for PlayStation users, and would entice people who aren't on PS to get into the PS ecosystem.

- Sony's competitiveness will only drive MS to be more competitive as well. It is understood that users benefit when all big players (in any industry) are firing on all cylinders, which is what is happening now. Sony's muscle forcing MS to be more strategic and carve its own way, which in turn will push Sony to not rest on their laurels, and bolster their content, offerings and accessibility. And Sony's purchase of Bungee, bowing to Bungee's requirements to stay multiplat, while starring to release older titles on PC is proof of this!

And this is what so many don't seem to understand, or were blinded by their bias. This acquisition is good for the industry and for gamers. It's large enough to push greatly competition, while still not being big enough to automatically push MS into any lead (outside of Cloud, which they're already leading in). It keeps MS, still, at a distant 3rd, but better equips then to bolster their offerings, while pushing their competitors to compete on a higher level.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
Yeah, I wonder what the long-term future of Battle.net is. It would be nuts to shut it down, but a rebranding is probably in order...maybe?

I honestly don't see what's so great about it. They all pretty much do the same thing. It would be redundant to keep it, especially because we know Microsoft will most likely bring Call OF Duty to Steam.
 

TheMan

Member
I expect the opposite; consumers will win.

- COD and Activision titles on more platforms.

- Old IP being revived (Phil has expressed a keen interest in reviving Hexen/Heretic and Spyro).

- Sony will be forced to improve its subscription services and content, which is great for PlayStation users, and would entice people who aren't on PS to get into the PS ecosystem.

- Sony's competitiveness will only drive MS to be more competitive as well. It is understood that users benefit when all big players (in any industry) are firing on all cylinders, which is what is happening now. Sony's muscle forcing MS to be more strategic and carve its own way, which in turn will push Sony to not rest on their laurels, and bolster their content, offerings and accessibility. And Sony's purchase of Bungee, bowing to Bungee's requirements to stay multiplat, while starring to release older titles on PC is proof of this!

And this is what so many don't seem to understand, or were blinded by their bias. This acquisition is good for the industry and for gamers. It's large enough to push greatly competition, while still not being big enough to automatically push MS into any lead (outside of Cloud, which they're already leading in). It keeps MS, still, at a distant 3rd, but better equips then to bolster their offerings, while pushing their competitors to compete on a higher level.

Revive hexen and heretic? Hmm...*strokes chin with interest*
 

Dane

Member
Who cares anymore. Sony signed the agreement; they know what's in there and yet they've still signed it. So if it's one that cripples what they get out of COD, then that's just what it is. There's really no point going on about this ABK circus of BS any longer.

The real question is what is Sony going to do to prevent this from continuing to happen. Better question is what are going to do for their enthusiasts fans to show them the future of the brand is still strong. There's been more news about GaaS/live-service reveals, PC ports, GaaS-targeted little-known studio acquisitions and talent retiring than there has been anything regarding big new 1P traditional game reveals, 3P AAA exclusives that aren't Final Fantasy, or expansion back into 1P AA content, let alone any notable acquisition since Bungie in the face of what's been revealed the past year or so.

If this is the outcome of what Sony were going to do, why be so against the deal? Like others have said, why weren't Sony making moves for a 3P publisher or two of their own during the meantime? Why weren't they making investments and buying shares into AAA and AA 3P publishers and developers while Microsoft were busy trying to clear over this ABK acquisition? Just Microsoft going for ABK right after Zenimax should've signaled that something foul was afoot; the redacted evidence that's come out was great for us gamers & enthusiasts, but Sony's people should already know that stuff or have seriously considered those intentions without leaks to confirm them. This is Microsoft we're talking about here, after all.

In light of all the opposition they provided, to just cave in days before the deadline, yes it makes Sony look stupid and weak. Hate to say that but it's true. This is an L for them. But is it just a small stain they can wash off, or one that's going to never go away and could lead to messing up the whole outfit? I think we'll be able to see which of those is true before the end of the year, easily.
Keep doing what they are good at. Sony can't complain of what they have been doing for decades, and please don't come with the "it was 94" argument, Microsoft back then was just 3x bigger and not in the console market, just like people here love to chime at Xbox incompetent mess from 2011 to 2014 as a means to say they are "unworthy of owning any studio", I wonder if they also chime at how one of the largest companies in the world back then lost a lot to its competitors, dropping out of segments they were the massive leaders like TV, Music Players and media formats, to Samsung, LG, Apple and and portable storage companies, because it was that money that helped to prop up Playstation alongside its easy to do business and competitors hurting themselves while never having that amount of money.

It is absurd how that company went from one of the biggest brand for everything in a household, to just Playstation and in a far distant second with TVs, they could have been in a far better place with enough cash to buy ABK or EA. While Microsoft made sure that their core products would get the attention and market retention and new ones would expand its market participation such as Azure.
 
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Calverz

Member
I honestly don't see what's so great about it. They all pretty much do the same thing. It would be redundant to keep it, especially because we know Microsoft will most likely bring Call OF Duty to Steam.
hopefully one less launcher long term but I imagine it will take a bit of work for that to happen.
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
I honestly don't see what's so great about it. They all pretty much do the same thing. It would be redundant to keep it, especially because we know Microsoft will most likely bring Call OF Duty to Steam.

It's just been a fixture for Blizzard forever. But you're right: it is redundant.
 

Antwix

Member
Sony has some great shooters they've abandoned that now would be a good time to potentially revive them:

-SOCOM
-MAG
-Resistance
-Killzone

Edit: I'm genuinely confused at the people laughing, this isn't even a "console war" comment. It's okay though, puberty will reach you at some point.
The other games (multiplayer-wise) nah, but SOCOM, yes. I guarantee it would be a success if they marketed it correctly and captured the essence of what made SOCOM 2 great. After 2, the series became increasingly clunkier. When 4 came out, the game was shell of its former self in its chasing of cinematic/CoD style play.
 

Fabieter

Member
I expect the opposite; consumers will win.

- COD and Activision titles on more platforms.

- Old IP being revived (Phil has expressed a keen interest in reviving Hexen/Heretic and Spyro).

- Sony will be forced to improve its subscription services and content, which is great for PlayStation users, and would entice people who aren't on PS to get into the PS ecosystem.

- Sony's competitiveness will only drive MS to be more competitive as well. It is understood that users benefit when all big players (in any industry) are firing on all cylinders, which is what is happening now. Sony's muscle forcing MS to be more strategic and carve its own way, which in turn will push Sony to not rest on their laurels, and bolster their content, offerings and accessibility. And Sony's purchase of Bungee, bowing to Bungee's requirements to stay multiplat, while starring to release older titles on PC is proof of this!

And this is what so many don't seem to understand, or were blinded by their bias. This acquisition is good for the industry and for gamers. It's large enough to push greatly competition, while still not being big enough to automatically push MS into any lead (outside of Cloud, which they're already leading in). It keeps MS, still, at a distant 3rd, but better equips then to bolster their offerings, while pushing their competitors to compete on a higher level.

Yea let agree to disagree. If you like where this industry is heading that's fine.
 
Well I guess there goes any kind of revival of Sony first party shooters. As much as I don’t really care for the MS/Activision deal in the first place, part of me was eager to see Sony’s reaction and whether they would try to bring a first party MP game to the table.

Good for those who give a shit about CoD though and obviously great for MS.
 
I don't expect future COD games to be available day one on Xbox Game Pass, but I do think they will be made available at a modest discount if you have GP, discounted or free DLC, and probably the whole game made free after approximately 6 months.

Considering all these perks, it would make it difficult to justify purchasing any COD on Playstation consoles going forward. Not to mention Sony will never have marketing rights ever again.

Oh No Dancing GIF by NBC
 

ComputerBlue

Gold Member
Still amazes me that Sony couldn't find a studio to create a game to seriously compete with CoD.
Just make a functionally competent arcade military themed shooter and not include bullshit fortnite-esque skins and mictrotransactions.
Please :(

Still amazes me that Microsoft couldn’t build a studio to create a game to seriously compete with CoD. Just make a functionally competent arcade military themed shooter and not include bullshit Fortnite-esque skins and microtransactions
Please 🙁

ie; if only it were so simple.
 
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Orbital2060

Member
Yes but the finer details of the agreement needs to be known. Is Call of Duty staying on it with all content is the key because I believe Xbox will make exclusive modes exclusive maps etc down the line. This will happen 3 or more years from now. Could even get worse where they bring out a weapon that's completely op but it's only available on Xbox.
«The Portable Nuke 9000 - only on Xbox»
 

Robbinhood

Banned
I can guarantee you Sony got significantly worse terms in this deal than the 10 year deal MS offered before. MS did not need to offer Sony a deal at this point as none of the agency considered exclusivity a deal breaker, if anything Sony got strong armed into a shitty deal which would be better than no deal.
That's not true, all of the regulators that passed were based on the remedies MS had, such as the 10 year plan. imagine getting approved, and then MS says oh ya we aren't doing the 10 year plan after all. Good luck.
 

mortal

Member
The fact we don't know the details of the deal is more worrying than not.

MS is petty and hates Sony. I cam almost guarantee you they are trying to leverage the hell out of Sony (even though they ironically need Sony to sell the IP).

MS' ultimate goal is Gamepass, not Xbox. They could easily make a deal that's now only 5 years guaranteed without changes and by year 6 draft a new deal that technically keeps COD on PS albeit only through Gamepass and Gamepass only.

By then they expect ppl to just accept COD as a MS IP and if Sony wants to keep it they need to just "play ball". Never put anything past MS.
True, lacking more details much of this is speculation. However, I just don't see such a pivotal decision being made based on emotion.
Some individuals may feel how they feel about it because of ego, but for the sake of Xbox wouldn't be foolish enough to allow it to fall through after getting this far and investing this much money.

Ideally, I'm sure Microsoft would much rather dictate the terms of their COD management without compromise.
It would be counterproductive after spending so much capital acquiring this extremely valuable IP, only to kneecap its sales potential by limiting its releases out of spite.
The winning position is to be the owner of that IP so even when your competition does well, you do well.
 
So let’s say that Sony gets $800M (they’re own words) from CoD every year, that would mean that Activision gets $3.2 billion annually from CoD on PS alone.

Yeah, good luck making up that lost revenue.

There is no world where it makes any financial sense to take CoD off of Playstaion.
Microsoft can afford to take a hit like that for a decade or more if their true goal, as many on this forum seemed to believe, was to spend Sony out of business.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I don't expect future COD games to be available day one on Xbox Game Pass, but I do think they will be made available at a modest discount if you have GP, discounted or free DLC, and probably the whole game made free after approximately 6 months.

Considering all these perks, it would make it difficult to justify purchasing any COD on Playstation consoles going forward. Not to mention Sony will never have marketing rights ever again.

Oh No Dancing GIF by NBC


It won't happen in 2023, but 2024 onward there's nothing stopping this as Sony's marketing agreement lapses in 2024.
 

Pop

Member
So Microsoft really only does care about the KING money from mobile after all.

I don't see Cod coming to GP on day 1 so all these wasted months for nothing
 

Zok310

Banned
Still amazes me that Microsoft couldn’t build a studio to create a game to seriously compete with CoD. Just make a functionally competent arcade military themed shooter and not include bullshit Fortnite-esque skins and microtransactions
Please 🙁

ie; if only it were so simple.
Be funny if Sony actually pulls off their own COD studio in the next 10 years, while a $2 trillion company could not. All MS did with $69 billion was get marketing rights for COD.
 
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dem

Member
Be funny if Sony actually pulls off their own COD studio in the next 10 years, while a $2 trillion company could not. All MS did with $69 billion was get marketing rights for COD.

And you know.. all the other things that aren’t Call of Duty.

And the Call of Duty cash flow..
 
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