Platforms with access to ABKs best currently
Playstation
Xbox
Steam
Platforms with access to ABKs best post-merger
Playstation
Nintendo
Xbox
Xbox Cloud Gaming
Steam
GeForce Now
Ubitus
Boosteroid
EE
+any other B2P cloud service that pops up
For the life of me, I can’t fathom how anyone can believe that ABKs content is “essential” and at the same time believe that the status quo, where only 3 platforms have access to ABKs most important content is more conducive to “thriving competition”
Even if MS turned into a mustache twirling villain after 10 years and rescinded access, which would be unlikely to occur, we arrive back at a scenario similar to todays status quo, but with a cloud gaming market that is much more democratized.
Platforms with access to ABK if MS pulls the plug in 10 years
Xbox
Xbox cloud
Steam
The worst case scenario, just brings us back to todays status quo, minus Sony- who we already concluded 1) wouldn’t be significantly harmed by a lack of access and 2) is unlikely to be foreclosed.
The idea that this decision in anyway protects “choice” in cloud gaming or will help competition thrive makes so sense whatsoever. The cloud theories of harm remain even more nonsensical than than the console ones were.
The worst part about it is the CMA explicitly is against an access “standard” where games appear on a wide variety of cloud platforms by default and prefers the “dynamic” system where platform holders bid on access to individual games. This “dynamic system” is THE MAIN REASON that console market is just a 3 horse race, and that’s exactly what will happen to the cloud market on the back of this ruling- Because there’s nothing really ‘dynamic’ about it. Exclusivity deals funded by a few entrenched companies will limit the number of market entrants that can succeed and thus, will limit consumer choice.
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User on Era put it perfectly.
Luna will die next.
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Everyone is baffled except fanboys. 😂
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