| ConservagameR said: Guess I'm not the only one who thinks the CMA decision makes no sense. MS can own COD and ABK because MS wouldn't make as much money if they made it all excusive? That's their conclusion? Then why is Halo, Gears, Forza, etc, still exclusive then if making more money is the point? Why does Sony have so many exclusives if the right thing to do was make every game multi platform and cash in big? If next gen doesn't start until around 2028, then MS has lot's of time to keep buying. There's plenty of reasons MS can give as to why they're still not as big or big enough to compete with PS, and how could anyone prove otherwise since the ABK deal won't show most results needed to properly analyze for years and years yet. Like with COD. If most people keep buying it on PS, MS will just argue XB is still unpopular, even though COD profits will be going to MS now, so MS needs even more acquisitions. MS could keep buying, as they've said they will, large or small, up until next gen, then make everything exclusive. Maybe not things like COD due to longer term contracts, but how much is the penalty if MS breaks those contracts, and would that financial loss to MS be worth the exclusivity going forward? It's not like MS is afraid to lose billions with XB. If XB goes into next gen with exclusivity for Zenimax, ABK, and anything else they acquire (minus a few titles like COD maybe), which would be a lot of games and possibly largely popular, how's Sony going to deal with that? They can't make their own version of every single one of those games, not even close, and how long would it take to just make a few of them? 2030? 2040? So much for Sony can just make their own versions. If MS keeps buying like they are, big or small, Sony is going to need to do something so massive that it puts the Bungie purchase to shame, if they want to keep leading like they have been, or anywhere close. |
It's crucial that Sony doesn't underestimate the damage all this M&A activity can cause them down the line. With their turnaround in the last decade, and how they repositioned and rebuilt themselves, I don't think they would be asleep at the wheel. Sony witnessed the movie industry consolidate first hand, and now they have another front seat to see it for the video game industry. The difference is, Sony Pictures was never the market leader, unlike PlayStation.
I do believe at a certain point Microsoft will stop with massive acquisitions. But that probably includes at least one more, mid size, publisher acquisition. I think at this point, Sony has to lock up their long time partners in Square and Capcom, consider the possibility of a small publisher like Sega or CDPR, and fill out the rest of their portfolio with independent studios like Deviation, Arrowhead, Ember Labs, etc. While none of these IP's have the same mindshare as Call of Duty, Sony will slowly become like Nintendo, where their first party strength is the driving factor for their ecosystem.
That's not considering Sony's true strength, their ability to create and cultivate new IP's, which end up being major tentpole franchises. This factor is the reason I think Sony can maintain their position as market leader even if they don't have as much financial heft as their competitors. I just don't think it would be enough to solely rely on in this climate. It's going to be interesting to see what comes out during their financial report.
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