RIP Lemmings.
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Jim Ryan effectively just got his army of fanboys to attack Phil, I wouldn’t be shocked if Phil gets death threats after this… fucking these crazy nut cases online.
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If Ryan “RoTR exclusivity is bad” “FF exclusivity is a brilliant move” is not on your side, Jimbo, you are doing it wrong 
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TBF they were probably already doing that anyway.
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My point is to keep things in perspective - you’re talking about one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world versus a franchise that sold somewhere in the region of 2 million copies on Xbox last time a mainline title was released there. Yes I think Sony’s aggressive moneyhatting policies deserve criticism - I’m certainly not saying otherwise, but bringing up Final Fantasy exclusivity as if it is in any way close to Call of Duty exclusivity is ignoring the wild difference in the scales of these situations.
Just for speculations sake - Sony current has an exclusive deal with a new studio formed out of ex-Call of Duty employees. We don’t know what they are making but let’s say Sony ends up acquiring them and they make a successful Call of Duty competitor that becomes HUGE and diminishes Call of Duty’s position on the market, as well as strengthening PlayStation now that it has both Call of Duty and it’s strongest competition - in this scenario? Yeah, exclusivity could be a valid counter to that.
Alternatively - what if in ten years time Playstation just isn’t the market leader it used to be, so much so it’s no longer financially viable to even port Call of Duty over. In that case, yeah, exclusivity is pretty reasonable.
Again, I’m not saying these are particularly likely - but we don’t know what the market looks like in ten years. Microsoft is just going to utilise Call of Duty in whatever way is most beneficial to them.
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The thing is that regulators cannot force them into that because you cannot prove that COD is “a necessary” titles when Steam and Nintendo Switch exists…Microsoft just asked Sony to play it nice to close the deal fast, but Sony is essentially trying to burn the bridges with Microsoft here.
And it also kinda proves the point that Sony did not sign the agreement
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Yeah, have to admit. Ryan’s previous exclusivity takes have been headscrarchers. A few other takes too.
All I can say:
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The benefit of exclusives is for the respective brand, platform and eco-system that is hosting said exclusives. It brings more consumers to your brand.
I’m 100% all for exclusives. Have been since SNES/GEN and will never change. The ONLY way I see an exception in this situation is if Microsoft/Sony merged or combined to make ONE gaming console and that’s it where you get everything from both sides. Of course, this probably isn’t going to happen, at least not in my life time.
As for COD, it’s a massive IP which in my eyes, only GTA is bigger and can be huge for Microsoft and the Xbox brand. Allowing it to stay on PlayStation does NOTHING for Microsoft or the Xbox brand. And before you say it’s on Game Pass. That’s NOT a benefit if you’re NOT already an Xbox owner. If you’re a PlayStation owner who doesn’t give two shits about Xbox but cares about COD, they’re not spending $500 on Series X just to get the game in Game Pass when they could just spend $60 on the game every year which would take 8 years to match that $500. There’s no reason for these PlayStation owners to jump whatsoever if the main game/franchise/IP is still on PlayStation especially when their friends would also be staying on PlayStation.
Another issue would be, so Sony gets COD. WTF does Microsoft get in return? Sony keeps paying for timed/full exclusivity for games and franchises yet no one seems bothered by that and Sony doesn’t even own any of those timed/full exclusivity IP’s to begin with but Microsoft always has to be the nice guy.
Honestly, fuck that. I’m so sick and tired of Microsoft always having to be the one to play nice while Sony can keep doing the same exact fucking shit that they’ve done for 25+ years and no one bats an eye. Well, you reap what you sow. Sony needs to “man up” and as a billion dollar company who’s been dominant for over two decades, that shouldn’t be that hard for them to do as a company.
When Sony wants to give Microsoft EVERY first party exclusive from Spider Man to GOW to Uncharted to everything else, then I would give them COD. Hell, I would even give it to them for FREE because it wouldn’t matter since I would have all of their shit but they would only have a single IP of mine.
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I do think if I were to use 1 word to describe PlayStation it’d be “embarrassing”.
PlayStation is so scared of competition that it’s become embarrassing to watch.
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Jim “Cryin” Ryan.
What a whiny hypocrite.
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10 years ago Xbox One happened. 10 years is a very very long time in the industry. so 3 years is a lot.
Microsoft will announce Game Pass Friends & Family in USA, and people will forget about Jimbo.
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Sony acquired Psygnosis for around 20 million back in 1993 - adjusted for inflation this makes 41 million by modern standards. This doesn’t necessarily represent the entire picture, as the industry was much smaller back then so 20 million would represent a larger chunk of the industry.
Going by Hoeg law the likelyhood is that they’re going to be looking more at emerging gaming markets rather than the industry as a whole. “Does Activision/Call of Duty give Microsoft an unreasonable advantage in the gaming subscription service/cloud streaming market”. I’m not saying that they would, but the point is whether or not a regulator might think that and expect concessions.
I don’t know whether to trust the words of a person who spoke out about their cats in a letter about abortion rights.
I hope this deal closes as soon as possible.
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This now brings to light the CMA I think it was, point on the next gen console launch. Why are they taking what Sony says by heart and seemingly no one else. Sony must’ve told these regulators they’re worried about next gen.
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Also probably not the best move to imply Phil wasn’t being forthcoming in a public statement.
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In my opinion the risk to PlayStation isn’t the lost sales of call of duty, it’s the lost subscribers of PlayStation Plus. It’s basically a zero sum game with call of duty players, if they move to Xbox then they will cancel ps + and sign up for Xbox Live.
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And they can pinpoint that the whole VR and handheld market and mobile grew like crazy with COD and subscription market grew without COD (COD was literally unavailable eveywhere). They can show Fortnite, Apex and other games that are humongonous.
The most hilarious thing is that Jim openly admitted to the consumers that Playstation might lose COD 
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See, I’m of the opinion that Microsoft’s first party is already on par or above Sony’s post Zenimax. That’s why I don’t think ABK is needed to be exclusive for MS to be a strong competitor.
Game Pass + Current Studio Lineup + ABK Day One Games (still multiplat, or at least CoD is) seem like more than enough to me.
To me, it’s the difference between competing to absolute overkill, but that’s just my stance.
Like I’ve said before though, exclusivity just isn’t something that excites me. Not to say anyone should feel bad for liking exclusives, but I also don’t want to be talk down to for having my differing opinion on the subject (whether it’s coming from fellow Xbox fans, PS, Nintendo, etc.).
That’s just my stance though.
Yeah I mixed on that one myself. I get why Sony/Jim is making a statement, but it’s not like Phil lied either.
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I didn’t bring FF alone. A combination of strategic deals including FF made Sony have the optimal choice of platform for multiple popular genres in turn hurting the potential of those genres on Xbox MASSIVELY. CoD will hurt the potential of shooters on PS for sure, just like FF and Genshin hurt the potential of JRPGs, and SF/GG fighting, Spider-Man/Wolverine superhero games on Xbox.
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