Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard (UPDATE: CMA says NO!).

[JPL]

54 minutes ago, Petrousgyre said:

Let’s see what ChatGPT makes of this:

 

 

😂

[Stanley]

43 minutes ago, Majora said:

Isn't this all a bit doom and gloom when Redfall, Forza, Starfield and Minecraft Legends are all first party releases scheduled for this year? 

 

Without wanting to turn this into list wars, Sony have Spiderman 2 and literally nothing else so far. I guess they had the VR hardware launch they're definitely not going to stop making first party games for in 12 months.

 

Keeping up a consistent first party release schedule definitely seems to be getting harder and harder as games take longer to develop. Sony had a good 2022 for first party but it feels like they might have shot their load a bit and this will be a relatively quiet year by comparison.

Well yeah, apart from PSVR2 with over 40 launch titles including exclusives such as Horizon Call Of The Mountain, Switchback, GT7, Resident Evil Village, they have literally nothing. 
 

Well apart from Forspoken, Tchia, Final Fantasies XVI and VII Rebirth - but apart from those nothing 

 

Seriously though I think you’re right. We should see some decent games for Xbox Games Studios this year - Minecraft Legends, Starfield and Redfall look excellent to me, and two of them are brand new IP, so it’s not all bad.

 

The only thing to sully all that would be putting COD on Game Pass. 

[JPL]

48 minutes ago, Majora said:

Isn't this all a bit doom and gloom when Redfall, Forza, Starfield and Minecraft Legends are all first party releases scheduled for this year? 

 

Without wanting to turn this into list wars, Sony have Spiderman 2 and literally nothing else so far. I guess they had the VR hardware launch they're definitely not going to stop making first party games for in 12 months.

 

Keeping up a consistent first party release schedule definitely seems to be getting harder and harder as games take longer to develop. Sony had a good 2022 for first party but it feels like they might have shot their load a bit and this will be a relatively quiet year by comparison.

It’s always games that are coming though. I’m tired of waiting and just want them to deliver something amazing.

[Stanley]

1 minute ago, JPL said:

It’s always games that are coming though. I’m tired of waiting and just want them to deliver something amazing.

Redfall is two months away. People seem down on it, but it’s by Arkane who are in my estimation one of the best software houses in the world, like top 5 God tier. It’s going to be good. 

[JPL]

5 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Redfall is two months away. People seem down on it, but it’s by Arkane who are in my estimation one of the best software houses in the world, like top 5 God tier. It’s going to be good. 

Fingers crossed. Hopefully it’s the start of a good run.

[bear]

I'm wondering when the discussion about this deal will move beyond the affect it will have on Sony and start talking about PC and potentially mobile. 

 

I've been guilty of the same thing myself but it feels like in the short term at least the deal could do much more harm to the likes of Epic or GoG and their efforts to claw some bit of market share away from Steam. 

 

As of right now there isn't really an alternative to Gamepass on PC. EA and Ubisoft have their subscription offerings but have either of them reached a million subscribers? 

 

[rgraves]

40 minutes ago, JPL said:

It’s always games that are coming though. I’m tired of waiting and just want them to deliver something amazing.

 

So we're just forgetting or ignoring stuff like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment then?

 

I'm honestly currently drowning in stuff on GP, there's absolutely no lack of content to play IMO. YMMV obvs.

[thesnwmn]

3 minutes ago, rgraves said:

So we're just forgetting or ignoring stuff like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment then?

 

Both incredible. And I suspect for many of us more interesting than all the sequels to their well worn AAA franchises.

 

But when we talk about competing with Sony they're appealing to a different audience. Imagine seriously trying to get a large section of the gaming audience to engage with Pentiment. Just not going to happen.

 

Even here it would be a much harder sell if it wasn't for Game Pass.

[Talk Show Host]

2 hours ago, Broker said:

That’s just not true at all. Development changed massively between the PS2 and PS3, and it’s completely disingenuous to suggest that anything Sony we’re doing during the PS1 generation was in any way laying the groundwork for the development pipelines they have now. If things three generations ago were relevant then at the time Microsoft had a far better pipeline for getting out exclusives, yet that has no effect on their current output. 
 

The difficulty Sony had was getting their first party content to connect with audiences. Guerrilla have been churning out polished, well designed games in reasonable timeframes since Killzone. The issue was that those games never became a critically and commercially successful mega franchise. Naughty Dog have been churning out huge hits since the PS1, but Jak and the first Uncharted didn’t get the level of profit they wanted for them. At the time, everyone agreed that Xbox had the better selection of exclusives. It’s nobody’s fault that they threw all that away except theirs, and believing that Phil is going to sort it all out when he was in a senior position during the period where they pissed it all away seems hopeful at best. 

 

I really do not agree with that. The fact that Sony was able to produce so many new AAA IPs in just one generation says a lot about the way they matured their production pipeline through the years. That was essentially Cerny’s dream, this unification of development (which has its negatives as well), and this is why it is almost impossible for Microsoft to replicate that. We are actually seeing in real time how difficult it is. 

 

I do not believe Spencer can correct that any time soon. This generation is a "new AAA IP investment" for Microsoft, in order to reap the rewards next gen. If they are half as lucky or half as good as Sony was last gen, they should be happy.

 

Sony is a well oiled machine in their productions, that is not something you simply have. It takes years and years of effort, planning and, of course, talent. 

[bear]

Some stories based on what MS have said to the CMA.

 

Microsoft: Ten years is plenty of time for Sony to make a Call of Duty rival.

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-says-10-years-is-sufficient-for-sony-to-develop-call-of-duty-alternatives/

 

Microsoft: After we buy Activision Call of Duty will be better on PS5 because their controller has haptics and shit while ours doesn't. 

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-suggests-call-of-duty-would-be-optimised-for-playstation-if-its-activision-deal-goes-through/

 

I feel like I should post a three hour YouTube analysis of these major stories next. 

[Stanley]

If ten years is enough to make a COD rival why haven’t they [Microsoft] done that 

[JPL]

37 minutes ago, rgraves said:

 

So we're just forgetting or ignoring stuff like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment then?

 

I'm honestly currently drowning in stuff on GP, there's absolutely no lack of content to play IMO. YMMV obvs.

Yeah, I’m not doubting they’re great games, but I’m talking about AAA IP they can spin a series out of. Sony have things like Spider-Man, God of War, Last of Us, Horizon, etc, whereas MS only really have Gears of War, which is feeling pretty tired these days and Halo, which they totally fucked. They need something that makes people take notice.

[JPL]

Just now, Stanley said:

If ten years is enough to make a COD rival why haven’t they done it 

Because they’ve had CoD.

[metallicfrodo]

2 minutes ago, JPL said:

Yeah, I’m not doubting they’re great games, 

This makes me sad as it seems to suggest that you haven’t even tried Hi-Fi Rush which is an utterly fantastic game and a new IP to boot.

[Stanley]

4 minutes ago, JPL said:

Because they’ve had CoD.

The point is that if it’s so easy then why hasn’t it been done already in the last ten years or so since it became so popular. 

[thesnwmn]

9 minutes ago, Stanley said:

The point is that if it’s so easy then why hasn’t it been done already in the last ten years or so since it became so popular. 

 

Why would MS, or any platform holder, have built a direct CoD competitor until now? They both had CoD. They didn't need to compete with the spending of a third-party because it wasn't a differentiator.

 

I'd agree entirely that 10 years is long enough to build a competitor. Whether it can actually compete with it is a different matter. You don't just have to build it but them win the players over.

 

I'd say the reality is the people best placed to build a CoD competitor for ten years time (assuming CoD were to actually go Xbox only) would be a third party. They can build something cross platform which can end up with a much bigger addressable market than either of Sony or MS's single platform titles.

[Flanders]

1 hour ago, Talk Show Host said:

 

I really do not agree with that. The fact that Sony was able to produce so many new AAA IPs in just one generation says a lot about the way they matured their production pipeline through the years. That was essentially Cerny’s dream, this unification of development (which has its negatives as well), and this is why it is almost impossible for Microsoft to replicate that. We are actually seeing in real time how difficult it is. 

 

I do not believe Spencer can correct that any time soon. This generation is a "new AAA IP investment" for Microsoft, in order to reap the rewards next gen. If they are half as lucky or half as good as Sony was last gen, they should be happy.

 

Sony is a well oiled machine in their productions, that is not something you simply have. It takes years and years of effort, planning and, of course, talent. 

I think it’s also overlooked that the relative weakness of Sony’s first party offerings on the PS3 meant they were enormously liberated in what they could do on PS4.
 

There wasn’t a huge financial risk in letting Guerrilla jettison Killzone or Sucker Punch bin off Infamous because those were fundamentally not massively successful franchises. Whereas it was a lot more difficult for MS to make the call that Gears and Halo were past their prime.

[JPL]

38 minutes ago, metallicfrodo said:

This makes me sad as it seems to suggest that you haven’t even tried Hi-Fi Rush which is an utterly fantastic game and a new IP to boot.

I haven’t yet. I’m having a bit of a gaming lull since Elden Ring to be honest. Nothing appeals at the minute, but I’m sure Zelda will rectify that soon enough.

[Broker]

2 hours ago, Majora said:

Isn't this all a bit doom and gloom when Redfall, Forza, Starfield and Minecraft Legends are all first party releases scheduled for this year? 

 

I guess along with the concern that those games have mostly already been delayed and may be again, I think the issue is that they might not be the kind of system sellers people are missing on Xbox. I know that not all games need to be third person cinematic heavy single player stuff, but I don’t think they really fill any of the gaps for me as an Xbox player. Well, Starfield does and I’m incredibly excited about it. Along with FFXVI it’s my most anticipated game of the year, and I think it could be a massive, exclusive smash hit triple A game. 
 

Forza isn’t my thing, and I don’t know if they’re lacking in driving games, but I think there’s already a Forza game? It’s one of their franchises like gears that reached the point of repetition and stagnation where I lost interest years ago. Minecraft spin-offs are the kind of thing that Gamepass already serves up for me regularly, and I can’t see it appealing to people much because minecraft fans seem to hate the idea of it. Maybe it’s for kids? Redfall looks shite. 

 

2 hours ago, Stanley said:

Redfall is two months away. People seem down on it, but it’s by Arkane who are in my estimation one of the best software houses in the world, like top 5 God tier. It’s going to be good. 

My problem with Redfall is that it looks so far from what I like about Arkane. I’ve got watched the subsequent trailers, but the first one was a degree of cringe I couldn’t handle, the Fortnite graphics are intensely offputting and I’m worried that it’s going to be all skins and battle passes. Similar to that Suicide Squad game, it looks like focus tested garbage that is being given to a developer whose games I genuinely love. 

[Giddas]

31 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

Why would MS, or any platform holder, have built a direct CoD competitor until now? They both had CoD. They didn't need to compete with the spending of a third-party because it wasn't a differentiator.

 

I'd agree entirely that 10 years is long enough to build a competitor. Whether it can actually compete with it is a different matter. You don't just have to build it but them win the players over.

 

I'd say the reality is the people best placed to build a CoD competitor for ten years time (assuming CoD were to actually go Xbox only) would be a third party. They can build something cross platform which can end up with a much bigger addressable market than either of Sony or MS's single platform titles.

 

Yes,  Epic immediately springs to mind

[Haribokart]

1 hour ago, JPL said:

I haven’t yet. I’m having a bit of a gaming lull since Elden Ring to be honest. Nothing appeals at the minute, but I’m sure Zelda will rectify that soon enough.

 

Dude, you are a huge Xbox fan and have spent the best part of a decade pretending that their shit brand and substandard games are brilliant to much ridicule... then when something genuinely excellent is finally released by them you don't even play it? Get HiFi Rush downloaded now!

[Stanley]

3 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

 

Why would MS, or any platform holder, have built a direct CoD competitor until now? They both had CoD. They didn't need to compete with the spending of a third-party because it wasn't a differentiator.

 

I'd agree entirely that 10 years is long enough to build a competitor. Whether it can actually compete with it is a different matter. You don't just have to build it but them win the players over.

 

I'd say the reality is the people best placed to build a CoD competitor for ten years time (assuming CoD were to actually go Xbox only) would be a third party. They can build something cross platform which can end up with a much bigger addressable market than either of Sony or MS's single platform titles.

Yeah you’re probably right, I suppose I’m just thinking about any FPS games, or military themed ones, and only really Battledield springs to mind as it’s main competitor. 
 

The thing I found really bizarre from those statements though is MS basically saying the rival (PS5) version will be better because their controller is superior. I understand why they are saying that but it’s reverse marketing of their own product. So odd. 

[thesnwmn]

26 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Yeah you’re probably right, I suppose I’m just thinking about any FPS games, or military themed ones, and only really Battledield springs to mind as it’s main competitor. 
 

The thing I found really bizarre from those statements though is MS basically saying the rival (PS5) version will be better because their controller is superior. I understand why they are saying that but it’s reverse marketing of their own product. So odd. 

 

All posturing. In 10 years neither will be on exactly the same controller.

[Major Britten]

4 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

 

Why would MS, or any platform holder, have built a direct CoD competitor until now? They both had CoD. They didn't need to compete with the spending of a third-party because it wasn't a differentiator.

 

I'd agree entirely that 10 years is long enough to build a competitor. Whether it can actually compete with it is a different matter. You don't just have to build it but them win the players over.

 

I'd say the reality is the people best placed to build a CoD competitor for ten years time (assuming CoD were to actually go Xbox only) would be a third party. They can build something cross platform which can end up with a much bigger addressable market than either of Sony or MS's single platform titles.

Battlefield is already a pretty good CoD competitor and could easily take its place if EA doesn’t mess it up. But I’d say games like Fortnite and Apex have already overtaken CoD anyway, and that gap will be even bigger in 10 years.

[thesnwmn]

Fortnite I'm sure is beating Warzone. Not so sure about Apex. But neither game offers the range of content CoD does. The pretty much yearly single player entries are massive sellers I think (did I bear rightly the best seller in the US and second best in the UK in a recent year?)

 

Anyway, yes I think there are some tiles and IPs capable of stepping in but none of them have proved able yet. Although I accept that most developers are going to be skirting taking them on directly. CoD franchise development is a juggernaut of multiple studios that I don't think anyone else is really competing with. And it's probably not worth it whilst CoD is what it is. Too much investment required to take on its breadth.

[Talk Show Host]

7 hours ago, Stanley said:

Yeah you’re probably right, I suppose I’m just thinking about any FPS games, or military themed ones, and only really Battledield springs to mind as it’s main competitor. 
 

The thing I found really bizarre from those statements though is MS basically saying the rival (PS5) version will be better because their controller is superior. I understand why they are saying that but it’s reverse marketing of their own product. So odd. 

More odd than Sony claiming they won’t survive without CoD or that Microsoft will intentionally sabotage the PS5 release?

 

Sony has been the clown in all of this and it’s sad to see Microsoft follow suit. 

[Stanley]

What I find particularly galling about their statement, telling Sony they have ten years to come with a COD beater, is that they’ve spent the last ten years since the start of the Xbox One generation, not coming up with games to rival Sony’s output. And now they need COD to be competitive 

[JPL]

12 hours ago, Haribokart said:

 

Dude, you are a huge Xbox fan and have spent the best part of a decade pretending that their shit brand and substandard games are brilliant to much ridicule... then when something genuinely excellent is finally released by them you don't even play it? Get HiFi Rush downloaded now!

You’re still banging this drum? 😂

 

I appreciate all of them equally for different things, hence the reason I always end up with all 3 consoles every generation.

 

I will give Hi-fi Rush a go at some point, but I’m struggling for both time and motivation at the moment. I’ve also got back into mixing, which I’m finding far more rewarding and productive as a hobby these days. I still love the forum though, so I’m hoping reading about games might reignite my passion. As I said, I’m sure Zelda will sort that out.

 

It’s good to see you championing an Xbox game though. I never thought I’d see the day!

[moosegrinder]

Dude, you've spent the last few pages (rightly) saying how fucking useless Microsoft are at managing their games. That's your answer. If they can't get something out that's a standalone system seller in their own right there's no way in hell Microsoft can get a CoD Killer out. At least Sony have the management and talent to possibly do it.

 

Edit: fucksake, JPL. @Stanley

[Stanley]

20 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

Dude, you've spent the last few pages (rightly) saying how fucking useless Microsoft are at managing their games. That's your answer. If they can't get something out that's a standalone system seller in their own right there's no way in hell Microsoft can get a CoD Killer out. At least Sony have the management and talent to possibly do it.

 

Edit: fucksake, JPL. @Stanley

Oh yeah you’re right, I’m just sounding off. Just saddens me a little that they don’t appear to have the confidence anymore when they’ve already got heaps of talent there.