Oh god please don’t post this dipshits stuff here, he is literally a console warrior lmao.
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› We’re worried about next-gen
‹ There isn’t going to be next-gen you dumb bitch
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Would be ironic if Sony were to be segaed.
Before Bethesda, there was the conversation that Xbox was gonna get Segaed 
Well if we consider the talk before Xbox Series launch, a lot of people believed that. And in 2014 it was a real possibility even. Sony would have won again.
But thanks to Phil the gaming was saved from Sony’s tyranny.
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I know this is not news to anyone here, but I feel compelled to say it anyway. Regulators are supposed to protect consumers, not competing firms. The problem is, from the regulators point of view protecting competing firms in the short run may actually protect consumers in the long run. Since regulators don’t have crystal balls it is not always clear when this is the case.
With that said, it sure looks like the CMA is more concerned with protecting Sony than consumers (right now, based on imperfect information).
Imagine what the world would look like today if regulators had stopped Netflix from streaming because it would have hurt Blockbuster. Or imagine if regulators had stopped Sony, Steam, and Xbox from making digital storefronts because that would hurt Game Stop, Best Buy, and Wal-mart. The idea is completely absurd, yet many are taking it seriously. (And yes, I’m old enough to remember buying boxed PC games at Wal-mart…)
Neither of the examples above is a perfect analogy because obviously we have an acquisition involved with the current situation, and that has drawn regulatory scrutiny. But they still illustrate the basic idea that regulators are not supposed to stop innovation - even if that innovation harms other firms.
One of the basic ideas of capitalism (love it or hate it) is “creative destruction.” New ideas, business models, products, and services are continuously being developed by those who want to profit from them. But, if successful, the new can easily “destroy” the old - either literally or figuratively.
Creative destruction is central to the whole idea of innovation. If you take away the ability for the new and improved to replace the old then you end up with stagnation.
Under capitalism, it isn’t up to the state to decide what old ideas get destroyed. That is the market’s job. The market, not the state, decided that Netflix should thrive and Blockbuster should die. Time will tell if the market makes the same decision about subscription models vs the old business model for gaming.
Clearly, Sony is worried about Xbox’s new business model “destroying” their old one. They were probably not that worried pre-Bethesda acquisition because they didn’t really view Xbox’s games as a serious threat and thought their “quality” would still win out. (You still hear this argument frequently from Sony fans.) But the Bethesda, and especially Activision, acquisitions have changed that. Now the concern is real.
I am still confident the deal will go through with no major concessions (that Microsoft wasn’t prepared to make anyway). But time will tell. The next few months should be interesting.
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There wasn’t as much worry or concern about Xbox getting Segaed as there is now about the slight possibility of Sony not being #1 anymore…
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I’m starting to think they had to use Sony’s talking points to get a review to go into the phase 2, the fact they almost used word by word statement from Sony is a bit much.
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It’s the nature of time that the old way must give in.
It is actually one of the challenges that regulators are trying to tackle. Especially FTC with their nonsense. But in the end you cannot predict the future. Not every innovation will win. You can hate Facebook for WhatsApp and Instagram and their monopoly and still it did not stop TikTok from taking over.
It is very fascinating, because people are literally afraid that Sony will lose their market spot. Probably instinctively they are aware that everything that Sony has, has all to do with their #1 position. As soon as they lose it, they will be in trouble. A lot of their current contracts are still the remnants of the past (like COD).
It will be even more fascinating when the marketing machine of Netflix + Microsoft will start working. As Sony has some marketing advantage right now so they can offer nice deals. But with Netflix + Microsoft Ad Engine - they potential is enormous.
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I want Sony and the regulatory board to have to go to court and be forced to admit unambiguously that there are no sound legal reasons for their stance and statements. There needs to be a deterrent for their relentless intellectual dishonesty IMO.
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This is precisely the reason I am confident it will never get to that point. There is no reason to hold up the deal other than “big tech is bad” or “this hurts Sony.” Obviously, neither of those is a winning legal strategy.
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Didn’t CMA want to sue Amazon but then retreated when Amazon decided to proceed?
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Don’t remember if that was the CMA (or even if it was Amazon), but there was definitely a news story a while back about one of the major regulators giving in once the firm they were scrutinizing decided to fight back in court.
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Nailed it, I also add that what also killed rental stores (or at least in my country) was that piracy became easy and dirt cheap, why rent if you can pirate it? Same with PC gaming back at the start of the 360 generation, many developers were dropping out from doing PC ports because of easy piracy, then Steam came in with deals in exchange of no used reselling, it worked.
Sega was ahead on the CD gaming market with Sega CD and kept in with Sega Saturn, neither they or Nintendo could compete with Sony deep pockets with hundred million dollars in marketing and acquiring the biggest publisher in Europe, Psygnosis and have their own factories for hardware and software, not to mention being the patent holder of that very storage medium.
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Sony benefitted a lot from being the huge media empire and also the biggest consumer electronics giant at that time (yet people believe that Sony was in the same position as today at best)
And they were able to sell hardware at cheaper prices, no one was saying that Sega should bring Sony to courts over unfair advantages, they had to be on their own.
I’d be curious if there was a poll here which was:
Are you buying Modern Warfare 2 or waiting for it to hit GamePass ?
I’ve bought every single cod since 4 but this time I’ll be waiting. Not really impressed with the gameplay, it’s more of the same.
I was even tempted to rebuy some of the old cods on the store that are on sale, but I’d rather wait for GamePass as well.
I think that is mostly said tongue-in-cheek like “Well if you want COD (Sony) you can always put GP on PS” as in doing something that will never happen.
I haven’t bought for years and won’t be buying
I buy CoD from time to time just to play the campaign, but I’ve dropped off a bit since they rarely drop in price to really justify it as much. Knowing I won’t have to soon enough I’m happy to just wait now. I do think MW2 looks particularly interesting though.