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If they did acquire Sega would that be a pain? An American company buying a Japanese one isnt there other hurdles involved with that too?



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The worst about this decision is, and I'm sure we can all agree on this, is that I did not get to post the wide Phil Spencer video again.

A block would certainly be easier to understand if logics did not die along with it.

But all is not lost, this deal was exciting for me mostly cause it has shown a new level of ambition and faith to this industry never seen from MS before. This ambition is unlikely to go away and when past acquisitions actualy bare fruits and gamepass grows it will only reach even higher. If this deals does not end up being allowed then this ambition and faith will only find another way, this is only a postponement. Wide spencer will be seen here before long, that's a certainty, don't despair.

Last edited by EpicRandy - on 26 April 2023

Ryuu96 said:

In a few ways, Sega feels like a match for what Microsoft is looking for, but on a much smaller scale, on a cheaper scale though and still a net positive.

Blizzard is PC focused and Sega Europe is PC focused, they are both strong players in the PC market, albeit Sega is a much smaller player than Blizzard but Football Manager, Total War are still big IPs and Relic is vital for Age of Empires as they'll likely be the developers for Age of Empires mainline entries going forward.

King and Rovio are both Mobile developers with strong backgrounds, okay, King does crap all over Rovio financially but Microsoft seems desperate for an entry into the Mobile market and their options are limited with everything being snatched up. Take-Two/Zynga are clearly out of the question. Rovio would be...a small start, Lol. Angry Birds isn't popular anymore but the experience that Rovio has may be more important than Angry Birds.

Part of the reason why Sega acquired Rovio is due to their Mobile experience, they believe they can help bring other Sega titles to Mobile, Xbox could use them for the same purposes, in some cases, the experience is just as important, Microsoft has almost no studios with Mobile experience aside from Alpha Dogs and a few smaller teams inside of Bethesda Game Studios.

Microsoft and Sega have a much better working relationship than Microsoft and Activision did, Sega is a heavy supporter of Game Pass, a partner with Azure, used Microsoft to help bring some titles to the West and maybe Microsoft could even find a use for Japanese Arcade stores by leveraging xCloud in them, arcade machines with xCloud.

Sonic can fill the platform/family friendly void that Crash/Spyro could have done. No substitute for CoD but a Japanese push with Persona/Yakuza.

But JFC...The fact that I can't tell whether Sonic would be deemed an essential IP for Cloud Gaming anymore is crazy, Lol. All logic in me says no it wouldn't and it should pass regulation easily but we're dealing with irrational regulators so I genuinely can't say for sure...Sonic is a well known IP but is it even a 10m+ seller per entry? Pretty sure it isn't. Surely Sonic wouldn't cause a block, or would it, Lol.

Where has this Sega hard on been all this time? I just don't see them going after anyone after this, minus some smaller support studios; especially SEGA with activision scrutiny and Japanese laws. Might be best to take the PS route and invest in startups. 



https://www.trueachievements.com/gamercards/SliferCynDelta.png%5B/IMG%5D">https://www.trueachievements.com/gamer/SliferCynDelta"><img src="https://www.trueachievements.com/gamercards/SliferCynDelta.png

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom



havoc00 said:

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom

Heh I don't read other gaming forums or twitter much at all but I can imagine. I don't know why all the doom & gloom though, we have Redfall, Starfield and Forza Motorsport coming this year and plenty of other games on the horizon.



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:o :P



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havoc00 said:

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom

I know we mess about in here and dramatise the doom and gloom for shitposts (for the most part) but outside of here it’s worse on this website now than I’ve ever seen in the 9yrs I’ve been here. The kids in here are aight so welcome and enjoy it whilst it lasts. 



Ride The Chariot || Games Complete ‘24 Edition

havoc00 said:

If they did acquire Sega would that be a pain? An American company buying a Japanese one isnt there other hurdles involved with that too?

There are hurdles but it won't be impossible and foreign companies acquire Japanese companies all the time.

Another idea I've long had is that Microsoft should take minority stakes in some publishers.

EpicRandy said:

The worst about this decision is, and I'm sure we can all agree on this, is that I did not get to post the wide Phil Spencer video again.

A block would certainly be easier to understand if logics did not die along with it.

But all is not lost, this deal was exciting for me mostly cause it has shown a new level of ambition and faith to this industry never seen from MS before. This ambition is unlikely to go away and when past acquisitions actualy bare fruits and gamepass grows it will only reach even higher. If this deals does not end up being allowed then this ambition and faith will only find another way, this is only a postponement. Wide spencer will be seen here before long, that's a certainty, don't despair.

Right...Microsoft's "we're all in on gaming" came before Activision-Blizzard even entered the picture. It is a blow to their ambitions but mainly in the Mobile space and they'll go back to Plan B. Game Pass is growing even without AAAs, Lol. We've yet to see the releases of Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, an exclusive Doom, an exclusive Wolfenstein, an exclusive The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

havoc00 said:

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom

Twitter and Reddit thrive off reactionary hot takes, I've long ago purged my Twitter followers of that stuff and barely browse Reddit Gaming Communities anymore. People really need a little critical thinking before they make their doom & gloom comments and I'm glad this thread is actually sensible and reasonable in their complaints for the most part.

Microsoft losing Activision-Blizzard-King doesn't mean Xbox is in danger, it doesn't mean Phil's job is in danger, I want to tell them to stop being ridiculous but I know it will fall on deaf ears, some people act like they can't be negative but there's a difference between being negative and acting like the dang Earth is about to blow up, Lol.

Xbox fans should simply put themselves back in the mindset pre-Activision Blizzard but post-Zenimax where Activision-Blizzard-King wasn't even in the future, think back to then and how positive and optimistic they were about the future, that future is still exactly the same and nothing has changed, Xbox never even owned Activision-Blizzard-King and even under Xbox they wouldn't have produced many exclusives.

Activision-Blizzard-King, I will say again was a lucky opportunity that fell into Microsoft's lap and wasn't taken into account for their long term ambitions, there was no Activision-Blizzard-King in Phil's pitch to Satya. ABK was a very lucky opportunity to meet their long-term ambitions at a much faster pace (Game Pass, Mobile) but also make a bunch of money, it failed and so they'll go back to Plan B which is likely their plan after Zenimax.

It'll take longer to reach those ambitions but they were prepared to wait it out before, they'll still be prepared to wait it out. They'll still likely seek a Mobile developer for the experience of bringing Xbox IPs to Mobile, even CMA says they tried to acquire a Mobile developer, they're looking. They aren't going to stop looking because ABK failed, it isn't Microsoft's fault ABK failed, they couldn't have predicted how ridiculous regulators would be.

And before anyone says it, yes, 2022 was a bad year, Lol. They still released high quality AA titles but a lack of AAA is hurting them, however, by all accounts, Xbox financials are still healthy and doing better than ever even with the lack of AAAs but now the AAAs are right around the corner, Redfall is next week and it will be followed by Forza Motorsport and Starfield (which should be huge).

In fact, doesn't 2023 match 2021 in terms of AAA output (Redfall, Forza Motorsport, Starfield vs Halo, Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5)? And 2021 was widely considered a great year for Xbox, I'm way more excited for Starfield than both Flight Sim and FH5 combined as well, Lol. They definitely need more than 3 AAAs per year but I've no doubt that it will be up from here on out.

People are too involved in riding the news cycle, everything negative is needlessly amplified and taken to an extreme, I think the news has been negative but I'm playing games, not news, and I'm having fun, Lol. Year started brilliantly with Hi-Fi Rush which is yet another awesome AA title from Xbox, Age of Empires II port to Xbox was a great achievement, Redfall is next week and I'm looking forward to it, Starfield I'm incredibly excited for.

Not to mention the multiple great multiplatform releases, from Resident Evil to Jedi Survivor, or the multiple successful Game Pass day one launches this year, I'm also having fun with Minecraft Legends and Dead Island 2. So I've got to say, aside from the Hardware sales, I'm not really seeing the doom and gloom. Everything else is up, Lol.

VersusEvil said:

:o :P

Was tempted to get the red one but I have enough controllers and I want a Elite Series 2.

However, this makes me think they will do a series of Starfield controllers, and dear lord if they all look good.

It's actually really smart to use Design Labs for this...They should do it for all major releases.

VersusEvil said:
havoc00 said:

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom

I know we mess about in here and dramatise the doom and gloom for shitposts (for the most part) but outside of here it’s worse on this website now than I’ve ever seen in the 9yrs I’ve been here. The kids in here are aight so welcome and enjoy it whilst it lasts. 

Some taking their masks off because they'd love nothing more than for Xbox to leave the industry without realising how awful that would be because my billion dollar corporation is more ethical than your billion dollar corporation apparently, Lol.



Microsoft CEO: I've Never Been More Excited About Xbox's Pipeline Of Games

"Great content remains the flywheel behind our growth. We have now surpassed 500 million lifetime unique users across our first-party titles."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Literally days ago, Satya commenting on Xbox's future line-up, without Activision-Blizzard-King.

Satya knows the importance of 1st party content.

Also, I want to share this post from a user over on ResetEra.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PianoBlack Said:

I don't blame anyone who's feeling disappointed about ABK or whatever but man. It's nuts to me to see people acting like MS is just lost, confused, hasn't done anything good this gen.

First party organization A
12 games since next gen launch
85.6 average MC score
86.5 median MC score

First party organization B
10 games since next gen launch
84.4 average MC score
86.5 median MC score

Again - you don't enjoy the output, whatever, that's fine. Not everyone's gonna love Pentiment and Flight Sim, totally fair. But let's not pretend that there's some universal mismanagement going on with no games ever released and whatever other nonsense.

I'm sure it's pretty obvious but A is MS and B is Sony. I didn't count MLB or Minecraft since they don't really get treated like meaningful first party games. If you include those it looks like this:

Microsoft/Bethesda
13 games
84.5 average
86 median

PlayStation Studios
13 games
83.2 average
85 median

The "big" games are coming. They got delayed past what we expected. So did all of Sony's big games, by the way. Remember when they had to walk back removing the "launch window" discount on Horizon Forbidden West nearly 18 months after launch? It sucks but it is what it is. And I know we've been hearing it forever, but it is all going to start paying off. It is mathematically impossible for the floodgates to stay closed forever.

Here are the studios with 3 years or more in dev:

Arkane Austin - Redfall releases this year after 6 years
Bethesda Game Studios - Starfield releases this year after 8 years
Coalition - 4 years since last full release
Compulsion - 5 years since last full release
id - 3 years since last full release
Initiative - Perfect Dark in development for ~4 years
InXile - 3 years since last full release
MachineGames - 6 years since last full release
Ninja Theory - Hellblade 2 in development for ~5 years
Obsidian - Avowed in development for ~6 years
Playground - Fable in development for ~5 years
Turn10 - Forza Motorsport releases this year after 6 years
Rare - Everwild in development for ~6 years
Undead Labs - SOD3 in development for ~5 years

That's 14 titles that are probably coming in the next three years. That's not counting "known" follow ons like Outer Worlds 2 or Forza Horizon 6. And that's not counting publishing. Stoic. Avalanche. Brass Lion. Oxide. Kojima. Maybe IOI and Certain Affinity and whoever else. We're probably looking at something like 5 or 6 "big" first party games every year in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

And I'm confident we're gonna get our first glimpse of this wave on June 11.



And that’s my replay of Rime finished, 1 collectible and 1 chapter completion cheev glitched but it is what it is. Next up Va-11 Ha-11a.



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