Amazon, Google and what it could mean in the next five years

Google released Stadia and it did nothing. Amazon released one game recently and it flopped. Nintendo makes gimmick consoles.

The only real competition is Sony.

Current competent. Xbox started their market target is the 2 billion gamers world wide. Amazon, Google, Apple and Nintendo are going to go after that, they are definitely competition. Just because they failed so far doesn’t mean they give up.

Honestly, Sony may get bought by one of them (Not Nintendo, just listed them as they are competing after that market).

My worst case scenario is Apple buying PlayStation. I can’t imagine what happens when you put two companies like that together. The end of days.

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There would be 0 customer friendly policies

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I will be beyond pissed if Madden got locked to Stadia lmao

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I don’t think PlayStation will be bought - at all. I really don’t see it happening.

Amazon is thriving on game streaming, but they are absolutely clueless about games and gaming development. Twitch is their only succesfull gaming venture.

Google is trying to enter the market through a “disruptive” platform/strategy as some people have already said above, but their service model is probably too disruptive for the gaming crowd, a bit similar to what Microsoft tried to do at the Xbox One launch (the problem was not only that, though). Yeah, gamers are people that love technology and such, but I don’t think a company will get the approval/interest of most of the gamers trying to take from them what they traditionally know as “gaming”.

That’s why I think Xbox strategy is so smart: give gamers MORE options, don’t take the options from them. xCloud as an optional/additional entry point/access to the Xbox platform is really a splendid idea: since the Eastern market will probably never adopt the Xbox platform through the traditional console, Microsoft is giving this market the option to try it in a less demanding way…if consumers like what they get through xCloud, there is even a chance they go beyond streaming games on the platform.

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Long rambling post, apologies.

Summary

Sony is in a very interesting position right now with Playstation. The gaming and network section of the company makes up about 40% of the company-wide sales, and almost half of income, but was down significantly in both hardware and software sales for the last year (ending in March). The company also saw a significant decrease in the entertainment business containing movies and music, which probably will continue to see losses this year with the problems of trying to launch movies with audiences either unable or unlikely to visit theaters in the near future. The smallest segment, about 20% of sales, which includes insurance and financial services, actually earned almost as much income as gaming.

Sony needs Playstation to be successful, needs to sell lots of hardware and software in the next year (and thereafter) which explains the focus on separation of generations, and probably the incompatibility of the PS5 controllers (as somewhat alluded to by Albert Panello).

In some ways, Sony has been using gaming as a way to support the rest of the company for the last while, which puts them in a very different position from Microsoft and the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. Sony almost seems to be approaching gaming as if it’s still the same business it has been, but all the others are coming at it with the view of it being a huge growth opportunity.

While Xbox is a mature company, it is coming to this generation with the idea of disruption, attempting to split the idea of a gaming console into the gaming platform it has been developing over the last few years, with the concept of playing games on whatever device is best for your circumstances. For some, that’s a premium console. Some may choose to go with a console that fits their existing setup at a lower cost, some play on PC, and many may choose to stream on phones or tablets to not have to buy a console.

Google has stated the goal of trying to get games to launch directly from YouTube via Stadia, though at the moment people seem to be resisting the business model o having to buy the game in addition to streaming it. This could change in time, or Google may be willing to try other options to see the platform succeed. I think that this platform depends on Google being able to get it to the scale they want, so they can use it either as an extension of serving ads or collecting user data to better target advertising. They are also device agnostic, in that you don’t have to buy a console in order to connect to their platform, which gives them a low barrier to entry.

Amazon hasn’t shown their full hand yet so far as I’m aware. I played a small section of their first game, based on The Grand Tour, and found it to not be particularly fun despite loving the source material. I believe their second game was out for a month or so before going back to beta, and the next delayed. I’m not sure though if they’re trying to launch as part of Twitch / prime gaming or content to make games for other platforms for now. They do have the ability to add their games to Kindle Fire devices and a web player if that’s their goal, and the success of Twitch gives them an easy place to launch games if they do find something that people want.

Apple is one of the most successful in gaming currently, thanks to the 30% cut on all games on their platform, and are looking for success in the Apple Arcade. Its hard at the moment to see them going for core gamers, since they have easy access to the large casual market and a large user base. I’m very interested in what happens with all of the recent focus on their policies, with Microsoft, Facebook and Epic all drawing attention to them in the last couple weeks.

While I think the PS5 will probably sell fairly well for the first couple of years, I think the generational success for Sony really will come down to how much success the newcomers find, how successful “Xbox as a service” is for Microsoft, and how willing Sony is to be flexible. There are some good signs here, with them exploring launching games on PC, with MLB launching on rival platforms in the future (I’m curious if MLB required this as a condition of renewing the license, or if the cost required selling more copies in order to make financial sense for Sony, or if it was something else).

Not sure if I really had a point here, but I think this generation will be fascinating. (also, I haven’t forgotten Nintendo, just who can really say what they’ll do? :smirk:) I also think the concept of a generation may be lost with the ability to to just continually update server side hardware over time, it will allow more of a morphing into new experiences over time with revisions of hardware to offer new features, not hard cutoffs. In that, I really admire Xbox for recognizing that people want to be able to play whatever they like with whatever they have. There likely will be new Xbox devices that offer new features, but I wonder if the name would change in the way they have between previous generations.

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A bit of a thread bump, but I think MS buying Beth could well force Google or Amazon to buy a similar sized company as Zenimax.

As big as we know this deal is, it’s actually bigger. Sony would be rattled, but they are already in the game with a group of amazing studios.

Watch this space.

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Yep, agree. I think it’s put up or shut up time for Amazon and Google.

Google especially with a live service and their 2 first party studios needs to decide if they’re going to make a real charge or whether they need to cut losses. Before today I was confident they’d stick around and see where a few Stadia exclusives might take them, but now… what’s the point, unless they know they have something huge (like Halo CE level) or are willing to buy an entire stable of studios?

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Its either that or they close stadia. Thinking about stadia honestly gets me angry, how can a company with alphabets resources make such wrong choices?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Google acquired Sony or Nintendo in the future.

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Disney had a gaming presence and shuttered their studios in 2016. What’s going to make them decide to invest billions in gaming now when they weren’t even willing to keep a handful of studios going?

Lol, if they bought sony the meltdowns that would cause would be legendary.

Please everyone, let’s not give Google any ideas on acquisitions lol. I very much rather they drop out of the industry and scare Amazon away while they are at it. I don’t think either would be good or healthy for gaming.

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I agree wholeheartedly with this take; Google, Amazon, and even Apple are getting into gaming to chase a trend without understanding the diversity but relatively common drives of gamers. These companies also have no identity with gaming and nothing to bring to the table that’s wholly unique. Say what you will about Microsoft but they were involved in, and making games, even before Sony was with PlayStation (not a knock on anyone, just that the big three have been in gaming for decades).

I just don’t see Amazon, Google, or Apple as doing anything other than trying to expand their service offerings without the understanding of the market.

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New ceo /evp who wants to prove themselves by making a push because they can make tons of money in a growth industry. Not saying it will happen, but sure could if management changed. Also for the record, not saying they would necessarily be successful, just that that’s the logic they would use to get funding for a go at it if they did.

I think there’s a strong chance that were gonna see a big acquisition from Google or Amazon in the next few years. EA market cap is 37 billion, Activision is 63 billion

Take 2 is 19 billion which seems like the most realistic target if Google wants Stadia to be relevant. Google apparently has 120 billion cash on hand so this could be a hail mary for them.

Agreed. The thing is that if they do spend billions buying T2 or Activision, and their game streaming service doesn’t take off, being a third party game developer and publisher without the hardware side of it still fits 100% with their buisness models. They may decide to do that and not release the hardware side of it at all.

I will quote my own comment above about Google from August 19, since it fits exactly with your thoughts:

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Well said, fully agree.