Microsoft bought Zenimax which came with 8 studios, that’s when people latched onto the narrative that Xbox is becoming a monopoly (XGS has 23 studios) . Here is the actual definition of what a monopoly is,
What Is a Monopoly?
A monopoly refers to when a company and its product offerings dominate a sector or industry. The term monopoly is often used to describe an entity that has total or near-total control of a market.
Monopolies can result from extreme free-market capitalism, in that absent any restriction or restraints, a single company or group becomes large enough to own all or nearly all of the market (including by acquiring competitors) for a particular type of product or service.
How in the hell is Xbox close to being any of that, the damn console is still in 3rd place. People can start calling it a monopoly when Xbox is in a better shape than what Sony is currently and still buying big publishers. Xbox can’t be a monopoly when Nintendo and Sony are around and kicking, now we have Tencent and Embracer investing, I can’t see Xbox ever being a monopoly ever unless they started to buy Take Two, Embrace, EA, UBI, Square and so on.
Nobody actually thinks MS is approaching monopoly, they aren’t even the market leader. I’m just emphasizing why people don’t get upset with Embracer/Tencent purchase studios and they do when Microsoft does.
Sonyfanboys hate microsoft because they refuse to quit business like Sega did and Nintendo did on higher end hardware, the fact that they have to face direct competition make them seethe.
And honestly, I could care less, when companies take the leadership they are arrogant as fuck and start to screw consumers (10 bucks for minor visual upgrade on GoT for PS5), Microsoft could be at the second place forever because I go where my pocket is valued.
Of course it’s the fanboy narrative, the whole point of me bringing all this up was the fact it’s funny how Xbox is a monopoly because they bought 8 studios but Embracer out here with nearly 80 studios and don’t hear a peep, that’s all!
The other funny thing is, Embracer doing this much probably help MS to buy more studios because there are a few big new players now.
There are two dimensions. Consolidation / monopoly and platform exclusivity. So the complaints are different.
When MS acquires something we have people complaining that they cannot afford to buy games. When you tell them about XCloud and 10$, they will tell you about that they don’t have internet, use physical and whatever. Then the same people will argue about value of PS Now and that 70$ is a quality entertainment they can afford every month or whatever.
When MS acquires something we have people yelling that it is consolidation and will lead to monopoly from MS. When you tell them that they don’t even hate 30 studios (yet hehe), their arguments are boiling down that either MS owns the genre (RPG monopoly) or MS is too big or whatever.
Everything boils down to status quo. “MS and Xbox should exist in a way that it doesn’t affect me”. That’s the motto.
Because as It has been said those studios going to embracer doesnt change anything in their output while going to Microsoft for example does. Thats why nobody cares or brings it up.
No need to get all defensive over a simple answer.
I’m not being defensive, not sure why you got that sense we’re just chatting here haha no hard feelings or anything. I’m just saying how dumb it is to say that a company with 23 studios out of the 1,000s of studios out there, the same company that is running in 3rd place to their 2 rivals, can be a monopoly because they bought 8 studios. While you have Tencent and Embracer owning more of the gaming industry than Microsoft. Xbox being a platform or not doesn’t matter because they are tiny in the footprint of the rest. Just look at the definition of monopoly for example.
I have been saying that for quite some time. Especially after that twitter post when one of the portfolio managers said that one of the publishers is showing the same signs as Bethesda.
I do wonder who will buy them and how it is gonna happen if it happens. Will be it sold in parts? Will it be purchased whole? Its price will be around 10 bn I believe.
It is crazy for me how Playstation brand has become some kind of cultism with some crazy ppl defying the most consolidated fundaments of logic to worship it, they see Sony as a divine entity. I mean, I get last gen was not the best for Xbox and all, but man these guys are really something else, and Im talking in general, including some jornalists and stuff. I wonder if sony offer a sub for getting their exclusives day one, these ppl would prefer to pay 70 for a game, “because of devs”, or if sony acquires a publisher the monopoly narrative would happen. This is what happens when social filters fail and you give voice to idiots, the story of recent days applied to gaming industry.
I expect it to become worse when Xbox will get even more success. Even now, despite not being a real storm, a lot of people are already grasping the straws trying to find a way to attack Xbox.
What bothers me is how that same group of idiots can make that noise, maybe it is the nature of internet. I mean, back in the day, these guys would have been sent to oblivion due their being that ridiculous.
I am sure they have been shopped around. Especially, when bankers are doing it, you know that they are testing the market. If MS is invovled, they will inflate the prices automatically.
But it is interesting to speculate how it is gonna happen. I mean I suspect that Sony is probably out - even price aside - because they paid for FF16 and Forsaken (for 2 years) - and usually you don’t do that if you are planning to buy the bakery. They also bought that PC porting studio that Square Enix used. So it probably leaves MS and Tencent.
But other possibility is Square Enix being torn apart.
More like nature of Internet. Twitter is just able to accelerate the flow. But from “with Internet people will learn new things from other people and become smarter” in 80s to “with Internet we can unite idiots across the world” that’s funny.