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[MonarchJT]

Fifa's not going single-platform. Even if we assume that literally every person who buys Call of Duty regularly on PlayStation defects to Xbox that's only like what, 20 million people?

20 m on what number ? ..you calculate this in %.
Cod is from years number 1 game on PlayStation platform

 

[Papacheeks]

One thing I don’t get about these subscriptions numbers… Don’t they fluctuate immensely? I never leave any subscription running. I automatically cancel them after getting them. I use them for a month and then it might take me a year to come back to whatever I think it’s worth it. Am I alone in this?

No, Netflix goes up and down all the time depending on the content they have.

Same with recently Disney+. So thats why Microsoft is trying to own as much content as they can. It's SAME STRAT Disney had. They bought starwars, then marvel, then Fox. Now they have tons of share and Disney plus is anywhere from 80-90+ subscribers. When they launched they literally did half of Netflix's numbers in a year!!

It took netflix 10+ years to get to where they are. So content is king. Hence buying Acti/Blizzard. Now they basically have solidified people will associate Call of duty, Diablo, Hearthstone, Starcraft, warcraft with Gamepass when everything is said and done. Same with Bethesda.

Longevity is not an issue as they have the backing of a trillion dollar company so ups and downs which will happen over any subscription service will be weathered easily until the next year or quarter when they drop a big AAA game that sees the subs go up again.

The elephant in the room is how to manage all these, even when the houses like Bethesda and Blizzard will work autonomously. Their other internal studios are what I've more worried about. Those all come directly under Microsoft management. And when it comes specific teams thats where I worry. Call of duty and all those will keep doing what they are doing, and with free reign to be more creative without the Acti overlords probably will in the long run work out better than the current situation.

But Rare, 343,undead labs, even coalition in terms of gears direction is still got a big old ...? For the unknown in how future projects are going to pan out.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Out of this MS acquisitions how many games MS released as exclusive and how many of them did shut down on PS? Did they stop updating or shut down Minecraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Doom Eternal or CoD Warzone on PS? Did MS release Minecraft Dungeons, Psychonauts 2, Quake Remastered or Deathloop on PS?

We also have to remember that over 1700M gamess were sold for PS4, pretty likely not even 50M of them were from Zenimax, and if each recent CoD sells around 20M units on all 3 platforms and being generous around half of them are on PS, these ~10M users who buy each CoD on PS are a tiny part of the ~120M PS4 users. For each CoD, around over 90% of the PS4 users didn't buy it.

So even if MS stops supporting PS -they supported it until now- and as they said they will do both for Zenimax and Activision Blizzard PS communities but instead they turn everything Xbox exclusive not much will be lost. Sales of Zenimax games are a small portion of the PS4 ones and seems that under 10% of the PS users buy each CoD game.

And out of these players, we'd have to see if they give a crap about these exclusives or not: part of them may have in addition of PS an Xbox or PC and to play these games on GP while continue having a PS. And part of them if they don't have these on PS they'll simply play other games on PS, as could be the ones that will replace Zenimax and Activision in Sony's exclusive and marketing deals.

Out of this MS acquisitions how many games MS released as exclusive and how many of them did shut down on PS? Did they stop updating or shut down Minecraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Doom Eternal or CoD Warzone on PS? Did MS release Minecraft Dungeons, Psychonauts 2, Quake Remastered or Deathloop on PS?

Deathloop deal was done before MS deal, as was Psychonauts 2 and Quake.
Doom Eternal, Fallout 76, Cod Warzone, Elder Scrolls are all previously released games on PS.
Same as Minecraft.

They’ve only announced 2 new games since the acquisition Redfall and Starfield and neither got announced for Playstation. Unlike the last decade + of announcements from Bethesda and neither will the Indiana Jones game.

I agree with you on the rest. But my point is, if Sony just stay and do nothing, each of these “tiny” portions of games like Call of Duty will eventually mean alot more. Only 10% buy Call of Duty even though its there highest selling game on Playstation last year, cool, now take another 10/20% away when Fifa goes to Xbox. Another 10-20% when GTA becomes exclusive etc. And so on. PS3 was the hardcore fans at 50-60million, the PS4 install base of 110+ million wasnt all hardcore fans. They will go where Call of Duty, Fifa, GTA, Resident Evil, Skyrim go.

MS/Xbox will just slowly chip away at all the IP’s that Playstation sells and makes money from. EA next, Taketwo. Capcom and Sega etc.

Unless Playstation aquire some more IP’s that are beloved on the Playstation. They can’t do it just by themselves, especially if they lose the titles that made them what they are today.
The Tekkens, Resident Evil, MGS, GTA, DMC. When 360 used these titles vs the PS3 it shook up the industry. If MS takes them away permanently it will damage Playstation forever.

Personally I will never buy an xbox or gamepass, even If they end up owning Playstation or Nintendo.
I haven’t bought a Windows or MS product in 15 years, I loath them as a company so Id rather not play games if MS controls the market. But most people don’t give a shit and rightfully so, they will just go where the popular games go

 

[Techno_Inked]

No it's not for all of Sony only there entertainment groups of witch there are 3 film, gaming, music.
The film group has stated that they are done spending and their music group should be close to finishing which leaves most of the funds for playstation , as this money must be spent by 2023. Since after PlayStation has to start focusing on the financial target of 45 billion each quarter

You are absolutely right. Thanks for pointing out mate. We don't know how much the film and music divisions have used of the 18 billion right? If we do that would be pretty interesting. Maybe PlayStation can acquire Capcom after all.

This might be the longest op I've ever seen with no pictures. I need pictures.

Funny how hardly nobody is actually participating in this "fun" OP presents.

In general, I don't think it's possible to swing back with any amount of significant force to rival what Microsoft just did. Sony's gotta play the long game here.

I think they are starting to do the right thing when it comes to Project Spartacus and their PC releases. As far as acquisitions go, Square Enix is a sure bet. At 5.8 billion, it's still a significant amount and with what Sony's pulling in, I don't imagine it would break the bank.

I think Sony's more recent acquisitions have been excellent. Firesprite's getting into the mix, Insomniac was huge on the level that Microsoft initial acquisitions were. Blue Point, though unproven from an originality standpoint, now get a chance to prove their mettle by making a full game on their own.

I will say this whole ordeal has made me reconsider buying a PS5 right away (not that I have much of a choice). I'm interested to see how Spartacus plays out and see if the PC strategy more closely resembles Microsoft's. Maybe day 1 on PC release dates? That would be awesome.

Thanks for the feedback haha. I might just add some pictures to the opening post. Why choose Square Enix over Capcom though?

Can we make an exception and ban anyone that admits they read the OP?

Haha I bet 95% of the people didn't read the whole post. I admit it's a bit long, but I'd rather try to explain my thought process clearly than make another general post based on just hopes and wishes.

 

[Kagey K]

20 m on what number ? ..you calculate this in %.
Cod is from years number 1 game on PlayStation platform

Imagine pretending 20 million lost userbase is nothing, especially when every CoD player is going to be a PS+ subscriber.

So you lose the console sale, the yearly game sale, the PS+ subscription and whatever Battlepass/Microtransactions they would have bought, but meh it's only 20 mil.

Jesus.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Fifa's not going single-platform. Even if we assume that literally every person who buys Call of Duty regularly on PlayStation defects to Xbox that's only like what, 20 million people?

20 million is enough to make a dent.
Fifa barely sells on Nintendo anymore, Im sure if MS shows the money they wont mind dropping another console too.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Microsoft looking to make money back in 7-10 years via Microtransactions I guess. Probably only way Phil could sell it to the board I imagine.

Yep, the long game. MS has too much money.
They are out for the power and when they have control they can charge what they want and make what games they want and people will just have to accept it

 

[Vangellis]

Probably update my linkedin profile, and send resume to Microsoft.

 

[Jubenhimer]

The answer isn't simply to buy more publishers and studios. If I was Sony, I would have to get creative in combating Microsoft's aggressive spending approach. What would be the smarter, more long-term option is to simply grow their existing studios, and foster promising, high quality independent studios and games like with Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The answer for Sony is to create new gaming icons, not buy them.

 

[MurfHey]

Go straight to Xbox/Microsoft and cut a deal. Use the COD power on PS as fodder.

Cut a deal for GamePass on PlayStation. Ask for a % of sales of gamepass on playstation. Make it a special game pass that has zero of the third party deals, only first party xbox catalog (which is huge now). If they want some extra money on top, ask for that also. But this activision buyout is just to force gamepass into the limelight. Microsoft wants it everywhere and they might get that across now.

But, either way Sony should just get this over with and put gamepass on their platform.

They can brand it the best place to play all games - or whatever the heck they want to brand it. Either way, it is the best play in my eyes.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Guess which system doesn't have any current Call of Duty games. Now how many units does that console sell?

CoD does not shape the industry as a whole, and the reason Activision had the market value it does is because it's a multiplatform publisher. Make it exclusive to one platform and the value of those franchises also plummets, which seems to be something a lot of people are not understanding here. People aren't just going to switch en masse to Xbox because of CoD and leave an entire platform they like behind. I also doubt MS bought Activision to try and make it worth less by drastically reducing its customer base. I mean, maybe they will, I wouldn't put it past them, but it's just not going to be the force they think it is. Activision approached Microsoft and said "please buy us" because they saw no real future for themselves, MS didn't go seeking them out because they saw a great opportunity. Again, how is that "the future"? It doesn't add anything to the platform, the only thing some people here are excited about is the potential for games to be removed from some gamers. Now what does that say about those people exactly? Think about it.



Of course you're not alone, every entertainment platform with subs goes through this. The term for it is "churn." Wouldn't be surprised if that 25 mil number is post Christmas and incudes trials. That would certainly check out given their claims about growth. But again, they don't share regular numbers so there is no way to know.

Nintendo is an exception for now. No1 gave a shit about their games on Wii U, Gamecube, N64 lol. People liked the Wii because it was £180 and a motion control thing grand parents and kids could play. Nintendo‘s ride isnt gonna last forever, it never does.

The whole argument is, if Playstation sit back and do nothing, MS is gonna take those other IP‘s away. Not just Call of Duty, eventually more and more of the pie. Whether they got approached or not, if MS knocks on the door with that money publishers are gonna sell.

Will the commercial market buy a console/Sub that has Call of Duty, Fifa, GTA, Skyrim 2, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken or will they stick to Playstation Which wont have any of these?

If you want to play Sega, Capcom, Square, Namco games then pray Playstation isn’t so casual about this and secures some IP’s before MS buys more.

I couldnt care about Call of Duty, but it will suck if MS buys these Japanese studios and IP’s. And they will

 

[yurinka]

They are on PS for now, there is no evidence saying future Bethesda and Activision games will come to Playstation. Phi said support the communities, not bring over there games.

The evidence is that both the released before and after MS acquisition games from Mojang, Zenimax and ABK still are on PS and that MS said both for Minecraft, Zenimax and ABK that the acquisition wasn't about keeping games away from other consoles and that they will continue supporting them there, even if some games may be (we'll see if at least some timed) exclusive.

They didnt spent over 79 billion to let Sony have their titles Things like Minecraft and Call of Duty Warzone yes, but not brand new games. Just like the don’t allow Gears, Halo on Playstation. They’ve pretty much said Starfield is exclusive, just like Gears, Halo and HellBlade 2 are lol. So MS isnt really a 3rd party publisher for Sony apart from Minecraft and free to play games like COD Warzone.

They did it with the 10B they spent on Mojang, Zenimax and the others, and said they plan to do the same with ABK. Some new ones may be -sometimes total, timed- console exclusives, but other ones will keep on PS.

MS kept updating Minecraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Doom Eternal or CoD Warzone plus releasing Minecraft Dungeons, Quake Remastered, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop or Ghostwire Tokyo. While they could have shutted them down.

MS is turning into the biggest 3rd party publisher for PS.

Revenue? Playstation just lost a 3rd party publisher who brought them there biggest shit ton of money yearly. And they will lose more If they carry on not buying anything.

Yes, revenue. Sony's game division makes more revenue than MS game division+ABK combined. If Zenimax sold ~50M copies on PS, that's under 3% of the games sold there. If a new CoD sells (being pretty generous) 10M copies on PS it means under 10% of the PS4 bought it.

Out of the games released on PS, AB got a 70% and Sony a 30%. So if they don't release them on PS, the one who loses (or more exactly stops earning) more money is MS. And these PS players if don't have these games could buy other ones, like the ones that will replace them in the Sony exclusivity and marketing deals.

Yes Playstation makes way more money than Xbox game division but does that really mean anything when Xbox uses MS money outside of the game division? MS makes waaaay more money than Sony. Xbox is using MS money not just Xbox money to acquire what they want. Proof they just bought Activision, a publisher Xbox division cannot afford but Microsoft can. They have more money than Playstation can ever earn lol.

MS released Xbox over 20 years ago and already had a ton of money. PS outsold them all the generations. To had more game outside gaming didn't mean a shit.

If you think MS spent 70 billion and care or are worried about profits from Playstation then you are naive, just like you kept defending Sony not to do anything when Bethesda was bought. You do realise MS paid 70 billion? Thats more profit than Playsation has made probably ever….

Companies invest on stuff and expect to have a return on investment, expect to recoup this money plus extra one, turning it into profits. Obviously not tomorrow, but MS will want to have profit in the long term because they are a company, not a charity.

In recent years MS invested over $80B on IP & gamdev team acquisitions and their gaming division generates less revenue than the Sony one. Sony doubles their console install base and number of subs on their game subs, plus earn more awards and so on and has billions of profit without needing to recoup dozens of billions invested.

This is a technology war, MS is investing in the future, the only way they will have people playing gamepass is when they have everyones beloved IP’s. And at best maybe you can buy their games ( no evidence shown they will ) on Playstation. But Casuals will go to Xbox to get games like Call of Duty, GTA, Fifa day 1 for “free”. Are you gonna say the same thing when MS buys EA and Fifa? Which means most of Playstation’s weekly “revenue” will be gone, Call of Duty and Fifa. What about when MS buys Take2? And then a simple small purchase of Sega and Capcom? And what if they decide no, there games are only on Xbox which is what they are doing now?

In a future fantasy maybe. The reality is that now Sony has 2X the subs than MS and that most players play these games on PS, not on Xbox or Gamepass. And who said they will buy EA and Take 2 and why they would want to sell? Regarding EA and Take 2, they are smaller than ABK, so their impact would be smaller than tke ABK one. And Square or Capcom would be even smaller.

Remember there are over 1700M games sold on PS plus the F2P and the ones via PS Plus or Now. These companies sell a lot, but each one sell a small port of the total, becaue there are thousands of games released in these consoles and many big seller ones.

Playstation cannot survive with just 1st party games and Square titles lol.

PS does not only survive, but outperforms Xbox in all areas. Because they don't only have 1st party and Square, they have tons of ofter 3r party publishers, being MS one of them.

If Playstation lose the likes of Fifa, GTA, Resident Evil, Persona, they are not gonna be the same company they are now.

PS didn't lose none of them and nothing points that they will lose them.

Theres no proof MS is gonna support or allow these games on Playstation.

The proof is that they said that they will do when adquired Mojang, Zenimax and ABK and that they are doing it.

At best they will bring it gamepass day 1 and Playstation owners will spend £70a game, which will change the fanbase and market quick.

As of now the GP day one strategy isn't changing anything, Sony generates more revenue and profit (and subs) with their own strategy.

Either way, Playstation need to secure some 3rd party IP before the likes of MS, Tencent buy them all

The huge userbase of PS and amounts of games sold there is what secures the support of 3rd parties like Tencent, MS and tons more.

You also have to remember that Nintendo doesn't give a shit about 3rd party because their 1st party games sell a lot. They have 7 games that sold over 15M on Switch. Sony is improving the sales of their top 1st parties and this gen in PS4 they have around that number of games that will sell that and some of them even over 20M.

Sony keeps growing on all fronts, so pretty likely will improve the sales of their blockbusters on PS5 generation vs the PS4 generation. So maybe won't pass them, but they will get closer to Nintendo 1st party numbers.

So if desired they will care less about 3rd party, but they will care because PS is the top platform for 3rd parties, which means it's and will continue being Sony's top revenue (and profit) source.

 

[8BiTw0LF]

people understand those games are what they are because are multiplatform (or at least on PC)?

Sure. Sony needs first person shooters that can deliver on battle royale, arena and "MMO"/RPG (like Destiny). The PlayStation community doesn't need crossplay to fill the lobbies.

Just look at Deep Rock Galactic after it came out on PlayStation:

Deep Rock Galactic doubles player count to 10m

Co-op sci-fi mining shooter Deep Rock Galactic has trumpeted a new player milestone of 10 million users, following its …

www.eurogamer.net

 

[BabyfaceRe]

Sony should have done that a long time ago. It's too late now. They abandoned the Japanese market. Nintendo literally stomps on Sony.

Definitely not too late. Claims of Sony abandoning Japan are pretty over blown tbf they are clearly pushing more towards western audiences which makes sense for them as Japan is almost entirely mobile at this point. They still sold a million units last year and that's with stock issues. Xbox sold under 100k and Nintendo sold over 5mill.

They have plenty of time, IP and good will to cut out a nice piece of the market for themselves.

 

[Perrott]

Ahh the usual "sources".

The report has since been backed by Bloomberg and several other websites and individual journalists, on top of CNBS already being a serious news site with actual connections and not some random blog making up rumors.

So I don't know what you're trying to suggest here by saying "sources". Let me remind you that minutes before the news became official, the Xbox/Activision deal was also said to be happening "according to sources".

 

[Wulfer]

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment + Square Enix
Arc System Works + Arrowhead Game Studios + Camouflaj + Climax Studios + Creative Vault Studios + Impulse Gear
+ Kojima Productions + Lucid Games + Polyarc + Supermassive Games + WhiteMoon Dreams + Wushu Studios

That should be within their budget.

Careful, Sony doesn't share its IPs. You want to give MS the green light to pull Activision/Blizzard/Bethesda titles from Playstation? Tread careful with your next decisions.... MS really has Sony by the balls right now and Sony's just now realizing it. If MS really got pissed they could pull Minecraft. Anyway you look at this Sony just lost the drivers seat and they better get comfy in the passenger seat. The only real answer would be for Sony and Nintendo to merge. Thing is they really hate each other for good reason....

 

[Halo is Back]

The news has really brought the inner drama queens out of people. They seem to believe that if Xbox pulls ahead of Sony's gaming division in profits that Playstation is doomed and dead.

They could never make another acquisition again and still be a profitable business.

This assertion is false. In the world of business, everything is competitive; for Sony to just sit on thier ass and do nothing would be a terrible idea. Hell, the Xbox was created to directly compete with Sony because Bill gates felt threatened by the console talking over the living room electronic market.

Sony does not necessarily need to copy MS (even though they have before with trophies and PS+). They have to come up with something because MS just bought out the biggest game in the industry, COD. That is a direct threat to Sony's profits.

 

[Kokoloko85]

The evidence is that both the released before and after MS acquisition games from Mojang, Zenimax and ABK still are on PS and that MS said both for Minecraft, Zenimax and ABK that the acquisition wasn't about keeping games away from other consoles and that they will continue supporting them there, even if some games may be (we'll see if at least some timed) exclusive.


They did it with the 10B they spent on Mojang, Zenimax and the others, and said they plan to do the same with ABK. Some new ones may be -sometimes total, timed- console exclusives, but other ones will keep on PS.

MS kept updating Minecraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Doom Eternal or CoD Warzone plus releasing Minecraft Dungeons, Quake Remastered, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop or Ghostwire Tokyo. While they could have shutted them down.

MS is turning into the biggest 3rd party publisher for PS.


Yes, revenue. Sony's game division makes more revenue than MS game division+ABK combined. If Zenimax sold ~50M copies on PS, that's under 3% of the games sold there. If a new CoD sells (being pretty generous) 10M copies on PS it means under 10% of the PS4 bought it.

Out of the games released on PS, AB got a 70% and Sony a 30%. So if they don't release them on PS, the one who loses (or more exactly stops earning) more money is MS. And these PS players if don't have these games could buy other ones, like the ones that will replace them in the Sony exclusivity and marketing deals.


MS released Xbox over 20 years ago and already had a ton of money. PS outsold them all the generations. To had more game outside gaming didn't mean a shit.


Companies invest on stuff and expect to have a return on investment, expect to recoup this money plus extra one, turning it into profits. Obviously not tomorrow, but MS will want to have profit in the long term because they are a company, not a charity.

In recent years MS invested over $80B on IP & gamdev team acquisitions and their gaming division generates less revenue than the Sony one. Sony doubles their console install base and number of subs on their game subs, plus earn more awards and so on and has billions of profit without needing to recoup dozens of billions invested.


In a future fantasy maybe. The reality is that now Sony has 2X the subs than MS and that most players play these games on PS, not on Xbox or Gamepass. And who said they will buy EA and Take 2 and why they would want to sell? Regarding EA and Take 2, they are smaller than ABK, so their impact would be smaller than tke ABK one. And Square or Capcom would be even smaller.

Remember there are over 1700M games sold on PS plus the F2P and the ones via PS Plus or Now. These companies sell a lot, but each one sell a small port of the total, becaue there are thousands of games released in these consoles and many big seller ones.


PS does not only survive, but outperforms Xbox in all areas. Because they don't only have 1st party and Square, they have tons of ofter 3r party publishers, being MS one of them.


PS didn't lose none of them and nothing points that they will lose them.


The proof is that they said that they will do when adquired Mojang, Zenimax and ABK and that they are doing it.


As of now the GP day one strategy isn't changing anything, Sony generates more revenue and profit (and subs) with their own strategy.


The huge userbase of PS and amounts of games sold there is what secures the support of 3rd parties like Tencent, MS and tons more.

I dont know what i find funnier, you thinking MS is a 3rd party publisher because they carried on having games they previously agreed to on Playstation and thinking that means new games will be on Playstation.

Or still arguing about game revnue when MS doesnt play by those rules. They spend 70BILLION. Its shows whether playstation makes “more” money than xbox it doesnt matter. They are investing for the future.

I just said, games like Deathloop, Pychonauts, Quake had deals before the MS purchase, Ms couldnt shut those deals down for any money, its a contract lol.
Is that seriously giving you hope that Starfield and Skyrim are coming to Playstation? Carry on services like Elder scrolls online is not the same as a new Elder Scroll coming. You literally just repeated what you said and I answered you. There not coming Playstation. MS doesnt need that money

Your also delusion if you think Starield is coming to Playstation because Minecraft and a bunch older, already agreed games were on the system.
Because if it was, it would of got announced.

If you think Playstation can survive if Xbox carries on buying more popular IP and Playstation centric titles like GTA, Tekken, Resident Evil than good luck. I dont. And thats why I want them to buy.

 

[Jetpac]

Create a Call of Doody of your own, they don't need to do anything else.

Oh they tried.

Haze, Resistance and Killzone failed immensely with the MP crowd.

 

[Techno_Inked]

I put this in another thread, but:

This may sound crazy, but imo Sony may need to go back to their roots. The one advantage Sony and Nintendo still has is Japanese games, niche or quirky stuff do not sell well on XBOX. It’s really working for Nintendo and gives them an identity and advantage. Maybe it will work for Sony as well. Of course they should build up their first party with more diverse content.

Acquisitions might be pushing it, but form a very close partnership with Japanese companies and get genuine exclusives from TecmoKoei, Konami, Capcom, SquareEnix, From Software, Kojima, Namco-Bandai, Sega, etc. Provide extra funding if possible or necessary to give these games bigger budgets. Sure, these won’t upstage acquiring Activision, but there is still a big following for games from these companies. I know most of these games have the biggest player base on PlayStation anyway, but I think it could create some positive buzz for Sony.

Snagging games like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Dark Souls, Dragonquest, Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Dragon-Ball, Naruto, Yakuza, Chrono Cross, Monster Hunter, Ninja Gaiden, Tekken, etc exclusively could give Sony a boost and give gamers another reason to invest into a PlayStation besides the first party games. For example, an exclusive Tekken 8 would probably turn heads especially since Tekken 7 hit over 8 million copies worldwide. Genres like JRPG, action, cinematic and fighting game fans are on PlayStation. Sony could and should take advantage of that.

I don't think this works too well. Especially in the long run. Both Xbox and PlayStation should be thinking about this too.

These exclusive partnership deals cost a lot. Tomb Raider was a timed exclusive and that cost Xbox 100 million dollars.

Doing this will not only make you shell out massive amounts of money, but you would also own nothing. You won't be taking anything away from Xbox. As soon as the contract is over, they will get on Xbox.

People who love Xbox right now already have tons to play, as the style of games already speaks to them. Waiting out the deals to get these games wouldn't be much of a problem. People who don't love Xbox right now would be the only ones staying on PlayStation's side, which PlayStation has already secured anyways.

Young kids now who grow older in 5-10 years would still be compelled to get on Xbox's side due to the massive amount of games on Gamepass. By then Xbox would also probably have even more studios under its wings and studios that recently got acquired would be able to establish a stronger base. This will therefore hurt PlayStation's position in the long run.

 

[Jetpac]

Buy square and Capcom maybe Sega if you can. Shore up the Japanese market. Make Sony the place to go for that kind of gaming experience. Port all games day and date to pc to recoup lost casuals.

Sega hasn't made a game worth anything since it sold off Visual concepts to take two.
Capcom has.... Street Fighter and Resident Evil.... that's about it.
Square releases a noteworthy game every 8 years. So....

 

[BrentonB]

The strategy is, keep making the best games in the industry. Simple.

 

[Markio128]

Two wrongs don’t make a right, so Sony should continue what they are doing. No need for knee jerk reactions. They have the talent to fill any void left by the recent acquisitions.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Capcom has.... Street Fighter and Resident Evil.... that's about it.

It's not like they have Monster Hunter which sells in 10-20 million copies every release

 

[Bombolone]

Dig into that IP treasure box in the attic.
If anything the MCU/Star Wars has taught us, is that people love nostalgia.
Also maybe chill on the singleplayer, cinematic experiences. Well not chill, but maybe tackle another (multiplayer) genre.

 

[TLZ]

Fuck no to sega aquisition. You cannot fight these swarms of rats with a retarded hedgehog

At least he's blue.

 

[Jigsaah]

You are absolutely right. Thanks for pointing out mate. We don't know how much the film and music divisions have used of the 18 billion right? If we do that would be pretty interesting. Maybe PlayStation can acquire Capcom after all.

Thanks for the feedback haha. I might just add some pictures to the opening post. Why choose Square Enix over Capcom though?

Haha I bet 95% of the people didn't read the whole post. I admit it's a bit long, but I'd rather try to explain my thought process clearly than make another general post based on just hopes and wishes.

I think when it comes to Capcom I think Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil. That's off the top of my head.

Square Enix, I think Final Fantasy, I think Tomb Raider, I think Deus Ex and Drakengard (Nier). I just don't think a fighting game can stand up to Final Fantasy. I personally enjoy Nier more than DMC, Resident Evil is kinda stand alone. Tomb Raider I'm kinda meh on honestly because you know...Nathan Drake exists.

From a publisher's perspective. I would love to have one of the most successful MMOs of all time under my belt( Final Fantasy XIV). Especially since Microsoft just took World of Warcraft.

Forspoken is already exclusive...left to be seen how much of a boon that is. FF16 also exclusive...so it makes sense in the way Sony has already been acquiring developers.

So yea, I think Square is the move.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I think when it comes to Capcom I think Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil. That's off the top of my head.

Square Enix, I think Final Fantasy, I think Tomb Raider, I think Deus Ex and Drakengard (Nier). I just don't think a fighting game can stand up to Final Fantasy. I personally enjoy Nier more than DMC, Resident Evil is kinda stand alone. Tomb Raider I'm kinda meh on honestly because you know...Drake exists.

From a publisher's perspective. I would love to have one of the most successful MMOs of all time under my belt( Final Fantasy XIV). Especially since Microsoft just took World of Warcraft.

Don't forget Monster Hunter. It's probably Capcom's strongest IP right now. I'd put that above having FF tbh

 

[Jetpac]

It's not like they have Monster Hunter which sells in 10-20 million copies every release

I'm sorry outside of Monster Hunter World which it an astounding 25M. No other Monster hunter cracked 10M

Monster Hunter World

PS4/XB1/PC

25,500,000

Hardly worth the acquisition. In my opinion. But it seems like I offended you. You ok?

 

[Mr Hyde]

. But it seems like I offended you. You ok?

Yes, your worthless hot takes offends me.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

OP I genuinely admire your passion in that write-up and how well-formed it is on a technical level. Too bad the foundation of the premise is like a stack of cards.

The Acti/Blizzard purchase is not targeted at Sony, even if they might end up a collateral out of unwillingness to work with Microsoft on some level. It's not like 100% of Acti/Blizzard (or Zenimax for that matter) games will disappear from Sony platforms, either. That would be dumb.

However, could you really say the same for Sony if they made the acquisitions you suggest? Keep in mind Sony and Nintendo are more at competition with each other than Nintendo and Microsoft; Sony acquiring a Capcom, SEGA or Bandai Namco hurts Nintendo as much or in some cases more than it does Microsoft. For example, the Sonic games easily sell the most on Nintendo systems. Sony is very clearly PS-orientated and even their PC strategy has been slow to embrace release parity with 1P content. Insofar as them providing any games on rival platforms, that's just flat-out not happened nor will happen. Nintendo loses Bandai-Namco as a potential developer for the Smash Bros. series if Sony ends up acquiring them, too. You think they'll make Sunset Overdrive 2 for Xbox Series even if there's a niche fanbase for it on those platforms? Nope! The most you've ever seen from Sony in that regard was when they purchased Psygnosis, all the way back in the mid '90s, and that was an extreme outlier.

I don't know if you realized how your dream Sony acquisitions actually also hurt Nintendo (in some cases even more than they would Microsoft), but I guess that just goes to show how short-sighted this idea of "OMG Sony haves to respond BIGUH!!" really is. It also ignores the reality that every single company you listed...if Sony were interested in buying them, you can bet OTHER companies would be too. Not just Microsoft, but potentially Amazon, Tencent, Embracer Group etc. and many of them have a lot more money and resources to outbid Sony in such a deal. Realistically the only way Sony gets most of those companies in your list is if NO ONE else wants them, which would be more an indication of those companies holding little worth in the market.

Yes it may upset some people when Microsoft makes these types of acquisitions but, at least they have demonstrated willingness to support other platform ecosystems like Steam with Day 1 release parity alongside Xbox and GamePass, and willingness to provide software rights to companies like Nintendo well after acquiring developers they once owned (i.e the Banjo Kazooie Switch release today, various MS characters in Smash, the upcoming Goldeneye 007 remaster coming to Xbox/PC/GamePass and Switch, etc.). Sony's displayed none of these tendencies, at least not yet, and until they do then for gamers as a whole who are in other ecosystems besides just PlayStation, they make a worst suitor.

 

[swaffles23]

Jim Ryan needs to unspool his dick like a water hose and do what needs to be done and that's acquire Square and Capcom.

A lot of big games between those 2

 

[Jigsaah]

Don't forget Monster Hunter. It's probably Capcom's strongest IP right now

Touche.

I don't think Xbox fans would miss MHW though...especially since it already has a presence on PC pretty well established. Never having another Final Fantasy though? That hurts. Taking a once timed exclusive like Tomb Raider and bringing Lara Croft back home? Stings a bit. Nier won't have as much of an impact because Xbox got that wayyy later. I mean you can throw Just Cause on there if you want. I

 

[Techno_Inked]

I think when it comes to Capcom I think Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil. That's off the top of my head.

Square Enix, I think Final Fantasy, I think Tomb Raider, I think Deus Ex and Drakengard (Nier). I just don't think a fighting game can stand up to Final Fantasy. I personally enjoy Nier more than DMC, Resident Evil is kinda stand alone. Tomb Raider I'm kinda meh on honestly because you know...Nathan Drake exists.

From a publisher's perspective. I would love to have one of the most successful MMOs of all time under my belt( Final Fantasy XIV). Especially since Microsoft just took World of Warcraft.

Forspoken is already exclusive...left to be seen how much of a boon that is. FF16 also exclusive...so it makes sense in the way Sony has already been acquiring developers.

So yea, I think Square is the move.

It's a bit weird to quote myself but I'll do it down below as I feel this explains why Capcom would probably be a better match for Sony the best. BUT I absolutely agree with you with the FF XIV point. That definitely makes it a compelling buy.

• Capcom has a vast amount of IPs. These IPs are also multimillion-dollar games when it comes to the revenue they bring in. These include Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Mega Man, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Monster Hunter, Sengoku Basara, Onimusha, and Ace Attorney.
• Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom would provide Sony 2 fighting games that Sony desperately needs.
• Marvel vs. Capcom might also strengthen Sony's relationship with Marvel. It's far-fetched, but at least there's a possibility.
• What's most important though, is that this gives Sony the talent needed to create a new fighter IP that will hopefully have a wider audience while using Evo to organize events and garner attention for this new IP as well as for Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom.
• Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Monster Hunter, and Onimusha all have Western appeal. But it also strengthens Sony's appeal in the East. Which is another weakness of Sony.
• Mega Man, Sengoku Basara, and Ace Attorney would further solidify Sony's position in the East.
• Many of these titles have heavy ties with Nintendo. Owning Capcom would sever these ties and would not only damage Microsoft but also Nintendo in the process. Making Sony have a stronger position all around.
• IPs like Pragmata, Dragon's Dogma, Dino Crisis, Lost Planet, etc. might also be able to provide Sony with extra value in the future.

 

[John Wick]

looking at the two opposite first party boards today and reading what you just wrote....make me laugh hard. is this a joke post?

Bloodborne is not a playstation first party game they moneyhatted fromsoft to have an exclusive soulslike. ok you have no idea of what you talking about

Bloodborne was co-developed with PS Japan studio. They didn't moneyhat it at all. Fromsoftware were paid to co-develop the game for Sony. It was never intended to be a multiplatform game.

 

[Dee Dah Dave]

Hire the SAS to snipe Phil and his chequebook.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Touche.

I don't think Xbox fans would miss MHW though...especially since it already has a presence on PC pretty well established. Never having another Final Fantasy though? That hurts. Taking a once timed exclusive like Tomb Raider and bringing Lara Croft back home? Stings a bit. Nier won't have as much of an impact because Xbox got that wayyy later. I mean you can throw Just Cause on there if you want. I

It's a bit of a tough one. Right now Sony needs reliable IPs with continuity. Stuff like Ghosts of Tsushima and The Last of Us are great, but I don't see them maintaining relevancy beyond a couple more main installments. I could probably stomach 2 more Ghost games before I get fed up with the IP. Same with Tomb Raider, DMC and Deus Ex.

The important ones are Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy. They're the types of games that can go on for a long time and still be selling 10+ million with every installment. (provided they're not mishandled)

 

[Lunarorbit]

Do what Shawn layden wanted to do with aa games and increase their output.

Bring back the indie developer loans and funding that was around during the ps3.

Create a Rpg centric studio like Nintendo did several years ago.

Explore old IP that everyone always talks about and sign strategic agreements to make those games as a 2nd party developer. Soul reaver, mgs, sidesrcolling castlevania etc

Update the ps collection before the launch of Spartacus.

 

[yurinka]

Deathloop deal was done before MS deal, as was Psychonauts 2 and Quake.

And Starfield too.

They’ve only announced 2 new games since the acquisition Redfall and Starfield and neither got announced for Playstation.

Minecraft Dungeons and Quake Remastered were announced after being acquired.

Unlike the last decade + of announcements from Bethesda and neither will the Indiana Jones game.

They didn't announce the platforms where they are going to release the Indiana Jones game (licensed IP, deal made before the acquisition). I think Starfield and smaller games like Redfall pretty likely will be exclusive, but Indiana Jones pretty likely will be multi (maybe after a timed exclusive).

Only 10% buy Call of Duty even though its there highest selling game on Playstation last year, cool, now take another 10/20% away when Fifa goes to Xbox. Another 10-20% when GTA becomes exclusive etc. And so on. PS3 was the hardcore fans at 50-60million, the PS4 install base of 110+ million wasnt all hardcore fans. They will go where Call of Duty, Fifa, GTA, Resident Evil, Skyrim go.

As of now both the players, CoD, FIFA, GTA, RE and Skyrim are on PS. Future CoD and Elder Scrolls games (and a portion of their fans) may or may not leave PS. We'll have to wait and see. FIFA, GTA and RE leaving PS right now is only a fantasy.

MS/Xbox will just slowly chip away at all the IP’s that Playstation sells and makes money from. EA next, Taketwo. Capcom and Sega etc.

Until now MS didn't move their Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls or Doom chips out of PS. Let's wait the moment where they shut down or don't release the new entry for some of these big multiplatform IPs on PS.

Regarding the fantasy of MS buying EA, Take 2, Capcom, Sega, Square Enix etc. having money to buy them doesn't mean they will want to sell them, and doesn't mean MS will buy them in case they are interested on selling. And even if they acquire them, MS until now didn't shut down and didn't make console exclusive a single game of a multiplatform IP from Mojang, Zenimax and ABK.

Let's wait to see if this ever happens.

Unless Playstation aquire some more IP’s that are beloved on the Playstation. They can’t do it just by themselves, especially if they lose the titles that made them what they are today.
The Tekkens, Resident Evil, MGS, GTA, DMC. When 360 used these titles vs the PS3 it shook up the industry. If MS takes them away permanently it will damage Playstation forever.

PS doesn't need to acquire these IPs. They need to make sure that the biggest platform for these IPs continues being PS. By doing this, plus getting from time to time marketing deals or exclusivity deals, they will continue there.

AAA budgets every generation get way more expensive, so they need to find revenue sources. Some needed to go multiplatform on the 360/PS3 generation, specially because since PS3 was releaset too late, too expensive and too weird to program for, 360 got a good amount of market share during the first half of the generation. During the PS4 gen more 3rd party games went multi, and PS5 there will be more. Plus many also debuted on PC if weren't already there.

This is one of the reasons of why MS, Sony and Nintendo now offer them timed console exclusives instead of full exclusives as they did before. They noticed timed console exclusive helps the dev, it's way cheaper for the platorm holder so with the same amount of money can get more games, and regarding the PR & marketing impact is barely the same.

Plus MS bought zero of these IPs. And all the other big multiplatform ones they bought still are on PS and still didn't see an Xbox exclusive game since acquired.

Personally I will never buy an xbox or gamepass, even If they end up owning Playstation or Nintendo. I haven’t bought a Windows or MS product in 15 years, I loath them as a company so Id rather not play games if MS controls the market. But most people don’t give a shit and rightfully so, they will just go where the popular games go

I got 3 months free with Discord Nitro and played some games but not much because I don't have a lot of time to play and did play there some pending Halo and Gears games I had. I planned to get at least a month again for Halo Infinite and Horizon 5 but I've been so busy with other things and games so couldn't get it.

I have PS, Switch and a gaming laptop. But mostly play on PS (I did play a lot on Switch on it launch year with the main games released there but not much since then). I don't have time to play all the games I get for my platforms, and there are many I'd like to play but I don't get because I don't have time and have a huge backlog.

Until some years ago I did buy all games day one, but now I'm more busy so I end buying most games several months after release when cheap. The next MS game that interests me is Hellblade 2. The last Cod I played was CoD2 probably in Win98, and the last Blizzard gam I played was Heartstone during some days and before that Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2 when released. The last FIFA game I played I think it was FIFA 98.

My type of games are mostly the Sony, Capcom, Nintendo ones plus some action adventures, arcades and indie ones. I'm not a fan of FPS, RPG or sports. So I don't care about MS, ABK, EA, Take 2 or Square. MS could buy them and I wouldn't give a shit, maybe out of them I'd play GTA on PC if not released on PS. I'd continue playing mostly on PS.

 

[WitchHunter]

Phil Spencer is already cloned and armed. Nothing to do .

 

[Jetpac]

Yes, your worthless hot takes offends me.

Oh yea you’re big mad. Over some video games no less . Wow.

 

[Chris_Rivera]

How are these threads not veiled console warring? Anyway I think Sony should continue to cultivate great unique single player experiences and add several multiplayer options like they had in the PS3 generation. Not much else they need.

 

[Craig of War]

Hope and Prayers there nothing else they can do

 

[John Wick]

20 million is enough to make a dent.
Fifa barely sells on Nintendo anymore, Im sure if MS shows the money they wont mind dropping another console too.

It's not about dropping the money. The license is sold by Fifa that it stay multiplatform. So it doesn't matter what MS offer.

 

[uncleslappy]

Please just buy Konami's IP and make new games.

 

[yurinka]

I dont know what i find funnier, you thinking MS is a 3rd party publisher because they carried on having games they previously agreed to on Playstation and thinking that means new games will be on Playstation. I just said, games like Deathloop, Pychonauts, Quake had deals before the MS purchase, Ms couldnt shut those deals down for any money, its a contract lol.
Is that seriously giving you hope that Starfield and Skyrim are coming to Playstation? Carry on services like Elder scrolls online is not the same as a new Elder Scroll coming. You literally just repeated what you said and I answered you. There not coming Playstation. MS doesnt need that money

3rd party publisher is the one who publishes games on a platform that doesn't own. MS published games on PS and Switch, so for PS and Switch MS is a 3rd party publisher. Released both before and after their acquisitions. And some planned to be multi both before and after the acquisition.

Microsoft bought Minecraft in 2014 and 6 years later released Minecraft Dungeons on PS and Switch. Was that game agreed before the acquisition too? Didn't MS published the Ori games? Who let the Cuphead devs port their game to the other consoles even if it was originally planned to be exclusive?

Or still arguing about game revnue when MS doesnt play by those rules. They spend 70BILLION. Its shows whether playstation makes “more” money than xbox it doesnt matter. They are investing for the future.

Even if we ignore MS pend these $70B plus the previous $10B, even with the acquired companies the MS division Sony makes more revenue and profit than them. It's a fact that Sony makes more money from games, and also that MS invested these $80B for the future and not to give them profit soon.

If you think Playstation can survive if Xbox carries on buying more popular IP and Playstation centric titles like GTA, Tekken, Resident Evil than good luck. I dont. And thats why I want them to buy.

Until now the amount of popular IPs and PlayStation centric titles that MS bought and removed from PS or released as Xbox (console) exclusive is zero, they said that will continue supporting these IPs where they are and MS didn't buy GTA, Tekken or Resident Evil. And if Nintendo or MS did survive without them, PS would too.

More now that the console market is bigger than it has ever been, and specifically PS is breaking gaming history records of amount of games for their console and amount of consoles sold.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

20 million is enough to make a dent.
Fifa barely sells on Nintendo anymore, Im sure if MS shows the money they wont mind dropping another console too.

EA doesn't control the Fifa license. Fifa does. It's not going single platform.

 

[MonarchJT]

Bloodborne was co-developed with PS Japan studio. They didn't moneyhat it at all. Fromsoftware were paid to co-develop the game for Sony. It was never intended to be a multiplatform game.

yeah i mean they payed fromsoft to keep a game like their souls exclusive for their platform ...(and is okay) isn't like fromsoft have problem selling their souls type of game and Sony gave them a great opportunity ahahah
And as i said isnt a Sony first party

 

[Boss Man]

Start publishing everything on Xbox and then gaslight/complain about exclusives being anti-competitive to congress.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

1. Allow GamePass on PlayStation
2. Create Sony GamePass and allow on Xbox
3. Invest heavily in world class studios and sell everywhere

These wars always come down to content. Platforms are becoming less relevant