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Yep by october we will already know the decision of all regulators.
I think we are not that far from hearing from the ftc too.
Meanwhile
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Letâs goooooo 
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Well thats a waste of $68B if they did. They could have paid $1B for marketing rights $10B on gamepass day 1 spent $10B on Ubisoft and Sega (which would be exclusive) for a saving of $48B.
Id take my chances. Sonys plainly admitted CoD is unreplicable and a huge loss to their platform that will be so significant they cant compete. I mean they might as well tell their fans to buy an Xbox with that pitch.
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I donât even care about CoD but I sure hope that the Xbox brass isnât buying into the âXbox needs PlayStationâ players propaganda.
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They are buying a combination of assets that consistently generate $billions each year long-term and with growth potential, which not only CoD is part of but also Blizzard and King. These assets will help across Xbox, PC, Game Pass and mobile growth, full ownership and control regardless of exclusivity is the more solid business long-term.
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Xbox isnt buying Activision-Blizzard to keep status quo. Thats a pretty safe assumption.
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I think CoD multiplat with exclusive perks for Xbox is the right move for this gen⌠because by the time the Sony deal ends, thereâd be one, maybe 2 CoDs max and enough of a base on PS5.
Next gen is different. Itâs a similar calculus to Bethesda. The PS5 base is not the PS4 base and Bethesda swayed some players to the ecosystem. Same principle.
Also, we will likely still see ABK exclusives this gen. Odyssey, for example, could be fucking massive. XBOX is quickly becoming THE ecosystem for survival between Grounded, Ark, Minecraft and State of Decay.
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Having $70 COD on PS and COD on gamepass day one with extra perks and marketing is gonna get the people who only care about COD to come to xbox, and the people who only want to play on PlayStation to hand over loads of money.
I can see the justification for both keeping the games multi platform and making them exclusive, but itâs not a bad thing for PS to keep getting ABK games after the acquisition. We shouldnât want to be taking games away from other platforms, we should want to ensure the content is there for xbox. After this goes through, thereâs no way Sony can take COD or other ABK franchises away from xbox or gamepass, like Sony have done with so many other things that weâre rightly upset about.
We shouldnât go down the same route, though. What happens on Playstation consoles shouldnât really matter to us when we know, for certain, then we will be getting those games for as long as they are released. Wanting Playstation players to not have access to games comes across as a bit petty.
Shooters, RPGs, survival (also Everwild could have survival elements btw), racing & simulation. The genre differentiation offering on Xbox could easily be the most diverse there is
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It is. Every $1 Billion ABK games make on Playstation is $300 million in Sonys pocket which we know they will put towards making Xbox and gamepass worse with timed exclusives and gamepass inhibit contracts.
That $300m isnt going to make better products to drive competition: its going into sabotage.
A noble sentiment that no-one else in the market will follow through on. So why should Xbox?
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If the deal goes through and regulators from each country approve the deal with no concessions then MW2 is coming to GP Day 1 IMO. They will renegotiate.
MS: We want Modern warfare 2 on GP Day 1
SONY: Well you cant have it, we have a marketing deal.
MS: Ok then. as you wish, but all future CoD games after the marketing deal expires will come to PS5 1 year after it launches on Xbox/Game Pass. Remember We only said all future CoD games will come to PS5, but we never said they would be Day 1 on PS5
SONY: Ok MW2 can come to GP Day 1 we were just kidding before
I really dont think Sony will choose violence in this scenario.
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Sony needs to realize Microsoft doesnât need them. They have cloud infrastructure now.
How many PS consoles are there ? Compared to the number of screens in the world with access to internet ? Lol
The plastic box is a thing of the past.
And I really donât see a world where MS needs to keep developing playstation versions of games. They will get the Xbox version over cloud and thatâs it.
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MS isnât trying to out Sony at being Sony by playing the exclusive game, they never really could to be fair. MS tried to play the traditional âconsole exclusivesâ angle, but they always had PC as another platform to take care of while Sony did not. MS has realized something really obvious and maybe some of the hardcore gaming community, and even Sony are still missing it. That is, games are bigger than the platform they are played on.
It used to be you created exclusive games so you could sell consoles and then memory cards, controllers, or other accessories. You also made money from licensing fees and maybe long term the actual console after a revision or two. This model is antiquated when now the money is in microtransactions, and it is A LOT more money.
We are talking about stealing away some users who will buy a console that is sold at cost or at a loss, a few games and maybe a few years of Game Pass Ultimate, vs leaving behind users that will spend hundreds or thousands on essentially digital nothingness.
Sure there are things like marketing and image to consider, but I imagine the big cash cows will be available everywhere.
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Theyâre buying ABK to generate mountains of filthy luchre. Scrooge McDuck levels of gaming industry revenue is the long term goal. ABK will contribute to the strengthening of the Xbox ecosystem but it is not a purchase geared exclusively, or even predominantly towards that.
Pushing more console sales with exclusive games is a goal theyâve already put a lot of money towards - we havenât seen the true payoff from 2/3 of their 2018 purchases yet, or from their Bethesda purchase. All that will strengthen Xbox exclusive slate and make it very desirable for the extreme hardcore supergamer who plays 30 games a year.
Pushing more subscriptions is something ABK will help a lot with. These subscriptions not being on Nintendo or Sony platforms also means, indirectly, Xbox will benefit as a piece of hardware. But while thatâs a nice synergistic effect, they are still very happy if you want to sub on PC and ignore the xbox hardware.
ABK as a whole, though, is a sign that they are now transcending the traditional console wars. Not that theyâre not going to compete anymore, but rather, they are now moving to a position whereby the Xbox vs Playstation vs Switch battlegrounds are just one pillar of their future gaming business, not the entire thing.
They want to be the company that is a leader in console hardware sales, but also sells shitloads of games on their competitors systems, and also sells shitloads of games on mobile, and also sells you the operating system you code your games on, and also wants to sells you the productivity tools you use to communicate and work, and also sells you the cloud infrastructure you host your games on and your workstation VMs⌠etc. âMaking money from gamesâ is an all encompassing goal that is not strictly just about selling the most boxes.
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Definitely not.
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Xbox ultimately does have a huge incentive for players to be in their ecosystem. They get a big cut of all transactions in their ecosystem so you can be assured that there will be plenty of exclusives and incentives to join the xbox ecosystem from this.
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I guarantee you Xbox would rather you subscribe to GamePass than buy any of their games at full price
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They factually, verifiably do want to, because theyâre already doing it.
2020:
2023:
And have stated that they plan to bring new games from ABK to Nintendo platforms that are not already there, via Brad Smith, the Vice President of Microsoft:
Microsoft intends to keep most of their content (by number) exclusive to Xbox, but has been and will continue to operate Minecraft as a non-exclusive franchise, both the core game and the spinoffs, and plans to bring at least some ABK titles that are not already out to entirely new platforms that they do not own, including future Nintendo platforms. Itâs extremely likely we will see one or more Call of Duty games (perhaps CoD mobile or Warzone) on Switch or Switch 2.
This is a dual track strategy, encouraging the Xbox, encouraging you to subscribe to Gamepass, but also operating beyond it and servicing you as a customer on some of their biggest games even if you are not in those two things. If you are a mobile gamer in particular they will have a lot to offer you via King, via Blizzard, and via other games not yet known to us.
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Xbox makes money by getting you to spend money in their ecosystem. They make much less if they sell you a game on Playstation
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