Got to be honest and say it’s no point getting in a pissing match with Microsoft. They have clearly shown they can out do anything Sony can do when it comes to acquisitions and henceforth sheer amount of content. They need to come at it from another angle and carve out their own niche.
This is why I think WB makes an intense amount of sense for them. They already have Evo, so getting Netherelm would reinforce their position with fighters, they’d be doubling down on superheroes and 3rd person action, they have great IP and no issue licensing IP, it would broaden their scope a bit by adding RPG studios in Monolith and Avalanche.
However, I do wonder if this does happen and Sony gets the licenses for the DC IP, does this put their relationship with Marvel on shaky ground? Suddenly Wolverine and Spider-Man 2 are not the only Superhero Crown Jewels anymore and could outshown do a competitor.
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Ever since those rumors I’ve been hoping Xbox would actually acquire them. In time it could mean having superhero games exclusive, so that problem would be no longer there. They’d have Batman, WW, HP, Lego and so on. But I don’t know, maybe Xbox doesn’t see it as worth it? Kinda hard to imagine that, tons of talented studios and those licences are nothing to sneeze at.
Could Sony actually make the acquisition of WB plus its licenses? I mean… in terms of money.
Yeah this is basically it. I empathize with that pov since it often is bad and there are typically more ways for it to end badly than for it to go well, plus it’s early days after the acquisition announcement and nobody rly knows what’s happening yet.
That said, skepticism doesn’t make a pov thoughtful. In this case, it happens to be Activision who had consolidated all of its teams to be on a production line, lacking creative freedom of any kind, treated badly by management, etc. Giving those teams more funding, more tech resources, more access to internal support teams from other studios, a better working environment, the dev time they need to make great games and creative freedom results in more games from more enthused dev teams stretching their legs.
In terms of competition, instead of there just being a single dominant military shooter every year, CoD is likely to get more time in the oven so other shooters can have space to shine if they are good enough. This is true generically for any major MP game, in fact. Also, there is going to be more competition in other genres courtesy of these teams being able to make platformers, rhythm games, action adventure games, RTS games, etc, etc, etc again. More broadly, the games will NOT be less accessible than today, but rather MORE accessible. The games would have been $70 each on Xbox/PC/PSX.
By the time the deal closes, they will be in GP for Xbox/PC and can be streamed to TV’s, streaming sticks, mobile, Xbox consoles and PC’s. Gamers looking to get competing platforms have lots of entry points to access the games for cheaper than they would have been otherwise! Instead of buying a $500 PS5 and $70 games and the cost of PSN, they could now spend $15/mo to GPU and stream it to their TV or PC. Hell, they could even buy an X1 on the cheap and in a few yrs I bet all these games will be playable on that too via streaming. the bottom line is the games will now be available to more audiences, for cheaper, across more devices.
It’s just that some in the press have not actually thought through the details of this specific situation at all. When you do, the claims it stifles competition becomes comical. If the work conditions significantly improve under MS, and MS gives dev teams the time they want without crunch (since they will have 6+ games a year they won’t need to force anything out on a strict timeline), it could genuinely lead a radical shift in AAA game dev too in the right direction.
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Each acquistion is different and you can’t just lump everything into a good or bad category basically.
Better games and a better working environment for devs is better for everyone no matter where you play
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Yeah I think so and I also believe the impact is greater for them than Capcom would be because tlit would be the bigger effect on the west.
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Hope not man.
Because I can’t help but wonder, will Sony at least honor contractual obligations for Suicide Squad, WW, and so on?
Not sure WW even has platforms announced.
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Guess Consolidation isn’t a bad thing anymore. That was quick.
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But for Xbox it would strengthen their fighters, which not much is happening with right now. They’d have Lego for family friendly games, superheroes etc. Honestly hope if Sony tries it, MS outbids them.
Consolidation only bad if Americans or Chinese do it.
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Destin and Paul Tassi
TL:DW?
After reading the reactions to this acquisition since the announcement, I can’t help but laugh at the hypocrisy. Granted, no platform holder has ever done something of this magnitude, given the reach Activision has in this industry (regardless of the current turmoil at the company).
People seem to forget, Sony was downright VICIOUS during the PS4/Xbox One era. Besides the shady deals that were made for exclusive content, Sony pounced on Microsoft every chance it got and the press was right along for the ride (I truly believe that Sony had some backdoor dealings with the press as well but that’s a whole different topic - everyone remember how the press took the 1080p/900p debate and ran with it for years).
One of the most prominent examples I could think of from early on last gen was the Destiny deal. People were not even allowed to acknowledge the existence of the game on Xbox. IMO this was an attempt to highlight the start of Microsofts downfall with Xbox One and gloat over its most prominent developer now making games for Sony, with marketing lines like “From the Makers of Halo” Then there was the DLC deal, where gamers who purchased the Destiny DLC had content locked for an entire year. I don’t recall anyone in the press calling Sony out for this tactic. This is just one of many many examples of what took place last gen
Microsoft took a beating from Sony in many aspects, and it was only a matter of time that Microsoft would respond. I don’t think anyone could have predicted the scale of the Xbox turnaround and now that it actually happened, all of Sony’s champions in the industry are losing their shit.
Lets be realistic, if Sony purchased Bethesda or Activision there would be an entirely different narrative now.
We just need to see how this new order in the industry plays out now.
If anything at least the PS5 has that blazingly fast hard drive that Sony could fall back on
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Underrated comment
Yep, shows how very little they are worried about the “health” of the industry,
Dudes just want an answer to the activation’s acquisition, but the problem…SONY hasn’t really answered the Zenimax one 
I love seeing them this nervous not gonna lie.
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I like how people who bring up the “I’m worried about consolidation, Just look at what the film industry has turned into where it’s only Disney and Wb” don’t realise the film industry actually has more studios than ever with the likes of Paramount, Universal. A24, Netflix, WB, Disney and Apple
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Or “I’m worried about cons- SONY DA HECK ARE YOU DOING ACQUIRE SEGA, SQUEENIX, WB, TECMO AND MY GRANMA ASAP”
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I’ll do that but can’t right now. Later this evening. Going for some Nobody saves the World with a buddy.
I think it’s more so a theatre thing when they talk about film industry. Disney legit bullies small theatres into removing screenings of other smaller movies if they want to show a Disney movie at their theatre.