Around yes, to which platform is another story.
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Thatās true
Yes, but the same threat is already messing their dreams: Google, Amazon, Apple are just baby-stepping on this business with the same huge dream of reaching billions of gamers and Phil and Microsoft have already acquired A LOT of content that wonāt be available on the platforms they are just starting.
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baby steppin they are but each of those companies have billions to compete in a studio or publisher aquistion war.
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As Microsoft also has billions and has already used them to acquire many studios and even an entire gaming conglomerate. Microsoft is well aware of everything that is happening - the same canāt be said about Google, Amazon and Apple, because I doubt they werenāt caught by surprise when Microsoft announced Bethesda acquisition some days ago.
I think it entirely depends on how much money the megacorps start throwing out there. They could throw more than Sony is able to and outstrip their studios. I could see them teaming up with Google or Amazon. But there are a TON of ifs in that scenario
This is exactly what I think. Apple Arcade is so obviously a Switch and Nintendo competitor. Remember the game The Pathless from Abzu devs that Sony advertised recently as a launch title? Yeah that shit is dropping straight into Apple Arcade day 1.
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They are setting up to get to that level based on their own production and ip.
Not unlike Netflix that while still makes deals and work on other peopleās ip all the time the biggest ones are the ones they created.
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yeah but they are so far away from that, they cant afford to sit around after the Zenimax aquistion.
I dunno about they being that far, the investments have been going for a while internally as well.
But I doubt they will et complacent after Bethesda. Thereās a reason Satya immediately told us there are more acquisitions coming.
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Suddenly everyone in panicked over Apple Arcade. 
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Totally agree, thatās why they need to snatch up Sega at least in terms of viable publisher acquisitions, and grab Asobo, Frontier, Crytek, DONTNOD, Interior Night, Iron Galaxy, Supermassive Games, IOI, Remedy, Bungie, Techland, Bloober, and 11-Bit Studios. Iām sure Iām missing one or two on my wishlist but that isnāt a ton when you consider how many studios are out there that are likely being looked at by the other trillion-dollar companies, and, more importantly, all of these studios would further fill a genre/style gap and provide extended reach globally for gamers and developers.
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Antitrust will not allow Microsoft to buy ALL of those studios.
The only thing that still keeping Apple from entering the market I think is the price tag, and potential losses, to get going and compete with the big boys.
Thatās why google deeped their toe with Stadia, to gauge the interest of the market. And it is not going well right now. But it would probably have been an even bigger flop if they built and sold the hardware equivalent of a console.
You need more than techs, good engineers and developpers. You need infrastures and servers, an interface and a controller that can be as good as the ones already available. THEN you need games (third party games and mostly exclusives). It is not pocket change.
MS has lost a lot of money just to get going against Nintendo and Playstation. Thatās not a small investment. AND they are only accepted as a serious gaming platform by the public eye since not so long ago.
I bet Apple will go slow, use what they already have available (OS and hardware) and make a lot of deals with some small developpers and see what sticks.
Even if they bought a publisher or a few studios, they still would have to prove themselves to developpers. We saw how Xbox had trouble getting their studios to get creative and bring talent in.
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Antitrust wouldnāt even come into play here; we exist in a world where Nintendo and Sony have over two dozen studios between them, third-party publishers still exist, and thatās all before you consider Amazon, Google, and Apple. I see that word thrown around a lot in the gaming space without an understanding of when and how itās applicable.
Ngl actually excited for this. Unlike some others here I donāt think Apple is going the route of streaming at all, they want to bank hard in on their mobile SoCs that are supposedly pretty powerful and shall only get better. Apple still cares about gaming locally, thatās why they even stupidly had a clause in the recent revision asking for Xcloud games to have small demos that can be installed on the device itself, at least thatās what I read.
Itād be great if mobile got a second golden age of gaming (the first one imo happened and died off around six to seven years ago) and finally we will start seeing AAA grade premium mobile games. Nintendo is the one that should be worried about this to a greater extent than the others imo.
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Yeah I just dont think people realize the domino effect this Zenimax deal, Microsoft made a statement and I expect the competition is gearing up for a shopping spree.
No mobile SoC can compete with MS/Sony APUs. This is about AAA gaming, not photography and f-en Instagram.
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And why do they need to compete with MS or Sony? Also, AAA is a bit of a stretch I must admit but they can easily achieve AA level games. There are some PS5 games coming that shall also release on Apple Arcade like The Pathless than Apple themselves funded on some level and that game looks gorgeous, made by the same devs as Abzu, that was easily among the most visually impressive games of the generation. Nintendo Switch doesnāt have MS Sony level hardware either yet it matters fuck all cuz of the first party pull, something Apple needs to figure out and probably shall try hard to.
Ubisoft and Embracer both have around 40 studios so I think MS should be fine until they reach 40. Then who knows.
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