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Ryuu96 on 23 May 2023
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DroidKnight said:

On the moneyhatting issue. I'm just trying to figure this stuff out.

Lets take last generation console hardware numbers for the example. (117 million PS4s vs 51 million Xbox Ones)

To moneyhat a game isn't as simple as outbidding the competitor?

For Sony to moneyhat a big AAA game, let's say 80 million dollars to keep it off of 51 million Xboxs.
Xbox could offer 120 million dollars to keep it off of 117 million PS4s and even though they outbid the competition by a lot it would still be turned down because of the smaller Xbox player count base vs the larger Playstation base?

They could offer even larger amounts of money, but with the smaller player base this would just end up becoming a loss on Xbox's part and a bad investment.

The way I see it, there is no way for Xbox to successfully moneyhat games, it isn't an equal playing field. Outright purchasing developers and publishers does seem the proper route for Xbox.

It is. Some don't like hearing it but acquisitions are really the only way that Xbox can compete now without taking another absolutely gigantic beating again and they may have put themselves in this situation but that doesn't change the fact that this is how they should be competing now. I think some who argue that Microsoft should be opening new studios instead of acquiring don't do so in good faith.

Moneyhatting just doesn't make business sense anymore due to the huge gulf in install base for a number of factors so Microsoft needs to acquire.

Acquire is also better for Game Pass, they need to own their IPs, they need studios working specifically for them and only them to fill Game Pass with content, Netflix made a mistake once of relying too much on licensed content and then when everyone wanted their piece of the pie they started yanking TV Shows from Netflix.

Difference here is that Gaming is a lot easier to get into than the Film/TV industry for a creator so Microsoft needs to horde a lot of developers for themselves. They need to do so to supply Game Pass with content which never leaves, to ensure they have full control over the IPs, to ensure the developer never leaves them for another publisher, to compete with Sony because they simply can't compete on a moneyhat level.