Let me ask you a question. How exactly would one “vet” information when one doesn’t “know” the information in order to “vet” anything? 
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Funny that people think Microsoft needs to respond to Sony acquiring Housemarque. They haven’t released anything on Xbox since Angry Birds in 2012. No doubt that when Microsoft does announce more acquisitions people will start saying it’s in retaliation to the acquisitions Sony made, even though Microsoft has stated countless times that they’re focused on building a world class stable of first party studios. Any acquisition from Microsoft isn’t in retaliation to anybody but to ensure that there is a steady amount of quality content coming into their ecosystem for Xbox, PC, Cloud Streaming, and Xbox Game Pass users.
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Do you think these will all be announced one by one like Sony did last week. Or all of them at the same time?
I don’t think they will announce these at the same time.
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JUST.BUY.EVERYTHiNG.
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Only people who want a “war” are saying MS needs to respond. MS as you said is going their own path to support their business. Microsoft will announce an acquisition this year. I can confidently say that based on the words of Satya, Phil, and Matt while also looking at the pattern of them acquiring/creating studios each year since 2018. They also have “holes” to fill, like fighting games and family friendly. Two studios that come to mind when thinking of those games are Netherrealm Studios and TT Games from WB. I wouldn’t expect them until after WBIE + Discovery finish their merger but it could happen before, things can change. But that’s only if that happens. MS still needs more Japanese content and I feel Sega would fit that bill. Those would be ideal targets in my mind based on what they want, what they say, and what is needed.
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Such a silly Tweet. Why would Microsoft need to respond to Sony buying a PC Port studio under 100 developers? If anything, Microsoft would be welcoming them to making even more games for their desktop OS and possibly encourage them to pick up 200 PC-focused Devs.
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I wouldn’t even call what Sony did a response to Xbox lol, maybe to just give their fans something to cheer for but that’s about it.
It’s not a response to MS. It’s to build their own stable of studios out based off of need and success (nixxes, and housemarque respectfully)
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Well yeah that’s what I mean, people keep saying on both sides that each company needs to “respond” which I always find a bit silly.
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Sony made defensive acquisitions like Insomniac but it’s not a “response”
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Sony isn’t responding to Microsoft. They are likely responding to the market. You saw Nintendo protect one of their own last year with an acquisition. If you have important partnerships, now is a good time to put a ring on it. Nixxes is because the future of game platforms is meeting customers where they want to play. If you don’t do that, you won’t be among the industry leaders. It doesn’t look like Sony has accepted the role of niche platform in the future which tells me more aggression in subscriptions can’t be too far behind.
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Could you link them? I’m interested on the details
Microsoft and addresses both Sony and Nintendo as partners not advesaries. You could hear that if you listened to the sarah bond talk which had the switch on the shelf behind her. Phil has said their competition is Gooogle, and Apple, Amazon. They play musical.chairs on the market with Apple. Lol
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The point being missed is that this is very different then the Microsoft antitrust trials were in the 90s. There are to many other viable storefronts for Microsoft buying valve to be considered anticompetitive. You have google play store, you have the ios app store, gog, epic game store, Playstation game store, you can still buy games via actual stores like target, Walmart, gamestop, etc.
Are you also forgetting this was literally a point epic brought up in the epic vs apple trial and it wasn’t all that convincing there.
This is the same kind of hair-brained arguments people make that if they were to acquire another major publisher it would be an antitrust violation or being anti-competitive which just isn’t true. Even if they bought Take 2 and Sega and some other major publisher there are still to many other major publishers, medium publishers, and small publishers in which your game can be published on. Plus programs like ID @ xbxo make it a harder burden to prove as they are literally giving you tools to self publish on there platform. In addition to supporting developers with gamepass deals which don’t even include exclusivity just your also releasing on gamepass day and date but you can still publish to PlayStation, epic, gog, etc.
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Microsoft/Xbox described Playstation during the Apple Epic court case, as their main competitor in the gaming and console industry.
Everything else is PR bs.
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My point was that there are reasons outside “market share” for such a deal to be more difficult to pass any regulatory check. MSFT has the potential to use their position on the PC market share (they are installed in ¿all? non-apple devices) to have an unfair advantage on Gaming storefronts. This will likely trigger some anti-competition checks. Dunno if this would be a blocker (I’m more inclined towards no), or if they will force some conditions on the exploitation of Steam (I’m quite confident on this, specially because some storefronts are based in Europe and EU will try to protect their companies). What remains to see is if it is worth the effort of going throu all this process, and if MSFT would be able to use Steam as they originally would love to.
Exactly, but there is a kumbaya minority who thinks 15 years ahead, I’d say to focus on present and close future, I don’t see Google or Apple ever making an actual game for example.
thats because the other studios aren’t Warner Bros to sell. They created a new entity and moved the studios to that entity in partnership with discovery. If that entity wants to sell the studios it would be up to them and that entities new CEO. While WB partially owns some shares in that entity its still a separate entity so any sales wouldn’t be from WB as WB doesn’t have any more gaming studios to sell.
While nothing he said is inherently wrong. I also think a lot of this is person dependant and speculation even on his part. As a creative person is one who has a drive to create. Its not like Cory Barlog is making inferior versions of god of war because he is making them with sony funding instead of securing his own money to make a game.
This comes off very much as “no one can be creative if they sell or are a part of a big company”. While i don’t think that was the intention that clearly is the tone. Most people like job security. Most people like knowing after a project is done they still have a job to support their family. Not everyone works best under the stress of this has to be good or else I will be unemployed. As that kind of thinking also creates its own handicaps. As than you start saying well i wont implement this mechanic as it might not be as popular or it wont appeal to as many people.
There is also a degree of creative freedom that being acquired provides you as you can just make your game without burden of financials, or just some of the day to day stuff that takes up more time than people think that have nothing to do with game design itself. LIke insurance, HR matters, etc.
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