Where do you stand on Microsoft buying Activision/Blizzard?

[Kyuu]

zero129 said:

Kyuu said:

I asked you a simple question.

If GamePass is the reason for the two biggest original MS games falling off US and UK charts in like 2 months after release, this ain't gonna propel Sony to copy their model. Also, GamePass is hardly a factor on PC sales where FH5 is doing "alright".

I didn't say they sold "bad" I said they underperformed. I'm guessing each maybe sold 3-4 million copies so far, with FH5 closer to 4 million.

Why the fuck do you keep accusing me of accepting Sony's bad practices? Two wrongs don't make a right, and what Microsoft is doing here is on a whole different scale.

It doesn't matter what Sony "wants". The fact of the matter is they've haven't done anything close to as anti-competition as Microsoft buying Zenimax, let alone ABK (when/if their content do go exclusive). Sony's paid exclusives are limited to a few games, most of which Japanese games that are practically irrelevant on Xbox, so the impact is minimal. The rest of their exclusives are primarily unpaid, shovelware, and PSVR stuff.

How much do you reckon GamePass hurts traditional sales across PC and Xbox? 30%? 50%? What do you make of Phil stating GamePass leads to more sales?

I asked you in return where is your prove they sold less then expected or bad or underperformed. You are the one who made the statement so its up to you to prove your point.

Its for the same reason you keep accusing others of accepting bad practices. I have never seen you complain when Sony does something bad. And this deal isnt bad for me or a bunch of other people. Its also not bad for Sony gamers as CoD is still going to be on their system. Something Sony would not allow. So i dont see how its on another scale other then cost. Im sure the is many xbox fans that would like to play the new Spider man, the new wolverine game, Kotor remake, Silent hill 2 etc etc. Scale is in the eye of the beholder not the cost as just since something cost more does not make it worse.

I dont think gamepass hurts sales at all. It allows people to try and play games they never would. I think of it just like how video stores used to do rentals of games in the 90's and that sure didnt hurt game sales.

And I've provided the evidence but not gonna go full-nerd and give you a detailed breakdown (NPD, GfK, etc). Charts and other sales information show that for "flagship" titles (S-tier), Halo Infinite and FH5 performed like a C-Tier Nintendo title or a B-tier Sony title. Your claim that they sold well on the other hand is not backed by anything, just a bunch of words.

I avoid attacking or accusing people personally like you often do, and rarely criticize Xbox (I would like to, but the Xbox community wouldn't take it well, because they know I'm a Playstation gamer, and not a fan of Xbox). You know full well that I criticized Sony countless times for certain decisions. Some of the stuff Sony does just baffle me, especially in the context of an increasingly "pro-consumer" Microsoft.

It seems your bias against Sony and its playerbase is impeding your ability to be objective at the bare minimum. Paid exclusives is a practice that existed generations before Sony popped into the market. The scale and significance of exclusives and acquisitions is decided by how many people they directly affect (the actual existing playerbase, not those "billions" of mobile gamers who will never realistically touch your games). Japanese games don't sell well on Xbox (a very distant 4th behind PS, Switch, and PC). When Sony bought FF7 exclusivity, they affected maybe 1 or at most 2 million Xbox players. When Xbox does the same, they affect some 7 million PS players. Sony may as well buy Capcom+SE+FromSoftware combined, and the damage on Xbox players still wouldn't be close to the damage Zenimax alone causes on the fans on Playstation (and Zenimax's own games. Frankly, I think skipping PS would hurt Starfield and Elder Scrolls more than PS).

No, objective metrics don't care about the eyes of the beholder. ABK is a far more significant acquisition than Zenimax which in turn is a far more significant acquisition than anything from Sony. Sony is extremely competent though... in time, they will turn small developers into industry-leaders and hype-machines... so they are by no means "doomed". They'll adapt as usual, and this inspires respect.

I've already commented that there are some positives to this deal which make me neutral-ish about it, and the 10 years contract (initially 3 years but the pressure from Sony and the FTC extended it) to keep CoD on PS may be one of them. GamePass on paper is also amazing for the consumer if MS really intends to support it all the way without raising the price, but I'm not obliged to agree that they will. I'm also not so naive as to assume ABK games will remain on PlayStation forever. It doesn't affect me personally because I have a Series-S spec'd PC (which I intend to upgrade in a few years) and I don't care about ABK games anyways. But none of that is relevant to the objective significance of what MS is doing. You'd be a total moron to not realize that if this were Sony acquiring ABK, MS would be the one dragging them to the court, because guess what? the "eyes of the beholder" doesn't matter to corporations, dollars do. It doesn't matter what MS says it wants to do with the new dozens of IP's and mega popular games. Having total control over them is a threat by itself.

"I dont think gamepass hurts sales at all. It allows people to try and play games they never would. I think of it just like how video stores used to do rentals of games in the 90's and that sure didnt hurt game sales."

But you said this:

"Halo and Forxa are doing very well for games that are also on gamepass why try act like they aint?"

Like there is a correlation between sales performance and availability on GamePass (which there is, and everyone will agree in time).