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[WSJ] Sony Expects Microsoft to Keep Activision's Existing Contractual Agreements
- Thread starter 3liteDragon
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oldergamer
Member
They have had people like that in the past, but they didn't stick around as long.
DavJay
Member
I loved Shawn Layden and they did well with him and that showed with ps4 success. Yet, they demoted him. I just don’t get putting a guy that clearly doesn’t understand the industry in charge.
tmlDan
Member
he's not genuine at all - do you have amnesia? the guy lies left right and center and people gobble it up lol
PropellerEar
Member
MSFT was bamboozled by Bobby.
It's not just Jim Ryan though. Shortly after Layden left, Hermen was promoted to head of PS Worldwide Studios. Hermen's had a great career as Director at Guerrilla, but I feel like he's been a major factor in a lot of the AAA first party games having a similar 'feel' to them in terms of presentation just by going off the Glassdoor reviews such as this:
There's a few more that talk about art and presentation being a key focal point over gameplay/technical aspects, and I think that mindset of pushing that envelope directly will translate into his preferences on all the other studios within Sony. It's something Jim obviously values a lot as that's become their bread and butter of making very presentable, high quality (esp visually) AAA games for the mass market. The two share that vision it seems.
Negotiator101
Member
A seed? So like that acorn that grows into a tree from the Fable reveal
Barakov
Member
Wouldn't be surprised if the red headed step child bounce before 2023. He's probably more than happy to let MS deal with the fallout of the frat boys and the 'me as well' people.
DavJay
Member
What lies? Phil is such a good guy and MS is so lucky to have him. I’d put him up there with Reggie as most likable gaming executives.
Papacheeks
Banned
Shawn made a lot of mistakes while he was lead. He had a great mindset for developers, but not great at looking 5 years into the future. Jim has been with Sony and knows tech industry in terms of growth sectors. He knows puttin games on sub with how much they spend in making them is not the way for them. But knows residuals on Multiplayer games is something they continually need. Why do you think Herman is doing such a amazing job recruiting? He's kind of both the go to person for interviews because he is a phil spencer in terms of what Phil use to do before he was CEO. Jim ryan if he can will let Herman do more of the interviews when talking projects and what they see future wise. Notice he specifically talks tech sectors? Like Jim was at 2022 CES talking about PSVR2. He knows they have the best headset for premium VR currently and that they have the software to make it more attractive.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
This is how I know the Bethesda and Activision acquisition worked.
tmlDan
Member
Xbox's Phil Spencer to Bloomberg: "I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that."
that's a straight up lie, they did the same with Bethesda, they did the same with many other things and pivoted. They will pull communities away and they know that.
Transparency and truth are non-existent in the corporate world, it's what money you make is all that matters and manipulation to make you think they have your intentions in mind and they're "for gamers" it's all bullshit kid
tmlDan
Member
explain, people not seeing things as they are is making you realize that the acquisition worked? this has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with actions speaking louder than words.
I have no dog in whatever fight you want to create, i play everything - we know where you stand.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
DavJay
Member
How I interrupted that? They are doing this to get CoD on game pass and grow the subscription base. Will most of these titles be exclusive? Probably but it’s not their intentions.
Lognor
Banned
And he didn't lie. Elder scrolls online and fallout 76 are still on ps4 and still supported. Warzone will remain on ps4 and will continue to be supported. Not a lie.
custardbun01
Member
New IPs, Ghost of Tsushima was a breath of fresh air in a sea of sequels, third, fourth or more instalments in well trodden franchises. I don’t mind if that gets a sequel because it’s a new IP, get more studios working on new stuff.
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The_Mike
I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
That's not how it works.
Just because you buy something doesn't mean the existing contracts gets invalid. When you buy a company, you get everything.
Microsoft could cancel the deal in acceptance with Sony, where Microsoft could pay Sony an amount they wanted.
But call of duty is more important than a few millions in cash right now.
Starts the post about "Xbox fanboys" and continue his free market advertisement for Sony about sold hardware.
Microsoft doesn't care if you play on pc or Xbox. Most games can be played between xbox and pc through game pass /Microsoft store, so for them every pc out there has the potential of being a xbox machine.
Which means there's way more users than on the walled garden PlayStation has.
Sony relies on selling PlayStations, Microsoft doesn't rely on selling Xbox. If there were only one person using xbox, 95 percent of the games can be played between pc and Xbox, and every pc player can emulate an Xbox by game pass ultimate and stream many xbox games with a controller.
I got carried away... How was any of this relevant to call of duty again?
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Max Payne’s Baretta
Banned
Wouldn’t hold my breath lol.
Zok310
Banned
Successful managers/CEO’s/ presidents don’t get demoted.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
Honestly, I lean towards Playstation getting that and Overwatch 2 for all the money Microsoft would get it from it, and because of the fact the Blizzard team went on stage and made specific promises to their fanbase in 2019 Blizzcon. Then again, they had no way of knowing they would end up being purchased, so I suppose you can also say business is business.
And then perhaps because we would have zero doubt about what Sony would do were they in a similar position, Microsoft might just need to go ahead and make that and Overwatch 2 exclusives to make up for the fact that Sony likely has deals locking up COD for this year and the next, and likely also has a similar clause preventing the newer COD games from going into game pass right away.
Edit: Actually nope - doesn't matter, blizzard has had a rough relationship with their fanbase recently and no sense punishing those fans that have stuck with them right out of the gate. So keep the commitments for Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, all the while making crazy bank in the process. They'll still be game pass drivers, just not as big as they would have been as exclusives, but then it's easy to forget that Microsoft still has Redfall and especially Starfield. Starfield is all the exclusive push Microsoft will need this year to push many more into game pass, and Redfall will have an impact there also.
It makes all the sense in the world top have Microsoft's fiscal 2024 start out with a bang of collecting micro-transaction money and sales money for Diablo IV, COD, Warzone/Warzone 2, Overwatch 2 across all platforms, and then start making newer titles exclusive going forward having allowed blizzard to reward their non xbox/pc fans with a nice send off that doesn't give any of them a middle finger. That's the better route short term as well as long term. Don't disappoint people who were waiting for Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 on PS consoles. If Microsoft does make them exclusive, however, it will demonstrate that Microsoft is being a lot more cut throat than I anticipated lol.
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yurinka
Member
Spencer and Layden always felt to me salesmen like those who appear on tv selling to you random gym stuff or some weird sofa, constantly throwing PR bullshit and showing some fake excitement for their product. Ryan feels like an executive businessman, but at least it's what he is, like the other two. He doesn't show fake interest for old small IPs, posing to appeal the fans baiting with dead niche IPs that later they never resurrect (now I remember Shawn shirts or pins, or Spencer talking about things like Hexen).
Sony has charismatic and genuine people like Shuhei Yoshida but he barely speaks English, subtitles are needed with him at least for the people like me who aren't English native speakers. I think Hermen does the job, but he isn't specially charismatic.
In any case, I think all these guys are executives and what they have to do well is to manage their businesses and teams. Being charismatic at PR/marketing events is something very secondary and unneeded and in fact it would be better to avoid including them there throwing PR bullshit. To do that it's better to use instead a proper presenter or voice actor to read the PR bullshit. Or to cut the bullshit and show the product instead.
According to Jimbo and Hermen they have over two dozen 1st (some of them 2nd) party games under development, and about half of them are new IPs. So yes, they will continue having sequels/ports/remakes/remasters but also a huge amount of new IPs providing fresh air.
On top of that, they have been (and still are) highly growing all their gamedev teams and acquiring new ones, and plan to continue acquiring. So in the following years we'll see them increasing their game output both from existing and new IPs.
All the big Mojang & Zenimax communities/franchises they already had on PS when adquired got all the new console games, dlcs and updates on PS post acquisitions.
Notice that these sentences go for franchises that were already there, didn't include future new IPs like Starfield. That since they still don't exist on Sony's platform they aren't removing it from there.
And also remember that the XBOX CFO said their strategy with Zenimax is 'first or best on Xbox', meaning they will have timed console exclusives. So who knows if -at least some of the- Zenimax games originally announced as Xbox console exclusive some time after release they are revealed to be a timed console exclusive.
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anothertech
Member
Sure they don't lol. I got 70 billion reasons that say they do care.
And yet in 5 years, Sony will maintain their 2:1 hardware lead. And cod sales will be hidden from the world in shame lol.
The_Mike
I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
What are you trying to pull on me here?
That the reason Call of Duty is the second most sold game on playstation is because Sony allows it to be?
And the amount of hardware sales will destroy software sales, and bring the "world in shame" ?
What the fuck is this, are you some kind of a villain in a Bollywood movie or something?
God damn heavy amounts of copium and tunnel vision on a plastic box can really damage a person.
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