| Kyuu said: I waver between netural and against it. First of all, it's naive if not disingenuous to say it's only bad for Sony: 1. An acquisition of this magnitide is guaranteed to push Sony (and others) to step up their acquisition plans, which could affect Nintendo consoles in addition to Xbox and to some extent PC. Sony is more traditional than Microsoft and is more likely to make exclusives. 2. Unless the above happens and Sony gobbles up a publisher or two, it will be harder for MS to acquire a large number of smaller developers and publishers. 3. This "nice" Microsoft is temporary and directly tied to their "only 30% marketshare, next to Sony's 70%!!!". GamePass as I and many others predicted will increase in price, and lots of the future games people assume will be there on day 1 in fact won't be. And to any GamePass user who isn't a fan of CoD and AB games, a GamePass price hike caused by inclusion of CoD is definitely a negative. A higher entry price is worse value to a segment of people. The deal has some obvious positives though: 1. GamePass day 1 is a good thing. The future, no matter how evil I think Microsoft are, is guesswork after all. 2. It hints to a positive change in the toxic workplace. 3. Promises support for Nintendo platforms. 4. Makes Sony less reliant on videos games I consider garbage, and hopefully forces them to innovate and diversify their 1st party lineup. |
Sony is the only company making arguments against this deal so I don't think saying so is naive or disingenuous. If any other actors resent this deal they have yet to manifest themselves publicly and to regulators.
If Nintendo themselves believed the scenario you highlighted as anything serious or likely they would say so to the regulators and won't be making deal with MS improving their chance of success with the deal.
Sony might very well acquire more studios because of it or buy studios they already planned to we would never know but Microsoft can't be blocked by what Sony might plan to do or not do.
The nice attitude from ms is not because they are behind in console sales, it is because they're in front of subscription base game delivery and don't see Sony's (and others') existence as a threat but as an actor that adds to the potential of the overall market. And this is also true for Sony if MS can bring more consumer to the market some will certainly end up playing Sony games and even some will use the cheaper way of playing MS propose to also buy a PS5+.
As for the pricing, to have read many discussion around it I could guarantee you no one here believe Microsoft will ever increase the price. The best I can hope is that the price won't increase as long as Microsoft heavily focuses on growth but that has an end.
As for removing the day 1 release to GP, there is 0 indication this will happen short, medium, or long term. If the argument is anything is possible then yeah but 99% sure Sony will add a day 1 release to their subscription way before MS even thinks of stopping it.
Also, the transaction would be done with cash on hand as an exchange for the equivalent value in assets, MS may well be increasing the price of their subs pricing afterward but doubt this transaction will be the culprit though, as inflation and a shift of focus from growth to sustain and growth are more like it. Also, keep in mind that Gamepass is still at the same price as in 2017 when it was released. With only a 2% yearly inflation it already makes GamePass $1.02 cheaper than at release and so a 1-dollar potential increase could be solely attributed to it.
Last edited by EpicRandy - on 15 December 2022
