"I know enough to know MS don't want to fuck up anymore and don't want to geopardise the success of GamePass on some short term gain anti-consumer practice."

Microsoft is known as a deeply messed up, monopolistic, and greedy corporation. They will abuse their power when they know they can as demonstrated by their dominant divisions, and those acquisitions may enable that. I don't necessarily expect them to do anything particularly anti-consumer in the short to mid term, but I think the value proposition will diminish as they gain power. Less day and date games, higher prices, more exclusives, etc.

"So your against the deal because MS might in the future be able to do what Nintendo and Sony does right now?"

 I used Nintendo and Sony to show you that having a large catalogue of must-haves will enable them to do things that they can't do now, including but not limited to Sony and Nintendo like practices that are frowned upon or objectively fucked up. I'm partly against the deal because it's too huge and too unnecessary and I believe I explained why in sufficient detail.

"Sony's panic is due to its dominant position being challenged but that's how a competitive market is supposed to work. One actor gets a dominant position than an underdog react (propose a new business line, innovate, merge with other) and try to take the lead. That's just part of competition in action."

In 2020 (before Series XS and Zenimax acquisition) Phil Spencer trivialized hardware sales and attributed Sony's so called dominance on Microsoft's "choices" to go broader (Cloud, Services, PC day and date):

https://www.techspot.com/news/86397-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-selling-more-consoles-isnt.html

To quote uncle Phil:

"If [selling more consoles than Sony and Nintendo] was our approach, we wouldn't put our games on PC. We wouldn't put our games on Xbox One; we wouldn't do xCloud and allow people to play games on their phones."

They're pushing a very different narrative now because they want the deal to go through which could help them control and potentially dominate the market in the long run. Sony and Nintendo didn't monopolize through force. Their popularity primarily stems from strong 1st party output and 2nd party relationships (especially Nintendo), and designing great and well rounded hardware (especially Sony), their brand power is the accumulation of right choices and consistent quality, which I respect. If Microsoft is upset about their current model and just wants to minimize Sony's so called "dominance" in the console space, then do what Sony does and make Series XS exclusives, drop GamePass day and date support, and hire/cultivate talent. They've been in the business for over 2 decades ffs. Microsoft (especially post Zenimax) isn't inherently weak, they're just feigning weakness. Wanting to match Sony's console business when consoles are hardly a priority to them is a blatant desire to dominate.

If you're happy with your model, stfu and accept being behind in hardware and traditional software sales (not you! Microsoft lol). If you're not happy about it, revert to the old model. Compromises are inevitable unless you want to monopolize which MS I think intends to through brute force. Conversely, if Sony isn't happy about their cloud/services/PC performance, then they should support them day and date at the cost of lower PS5 success. Can't win them all.

"I think Forza Horizon 5 and halo infinite sold better than you think outside of GamePass, also your to dismissive of the value they bring through GamePass by the way of new subscriptions and retention of current users. Even if Starfield sold 0 copies outside of GamePass but bring value that MS estimated as greater than the title's budget through GamePass it's still a success."

And how much do you think I think they sold outside GamePass? lol. FH5 and Halo Infinite (Microsoft's two biggest original games) were released day 1 on a massive install base and yet they're barely up there with C-tier Nintendo games in traditional sales, and are nowhere near Sony's best sellers. Their public results shouldn't persuade Sony to copy Microsoft's model. They're not going day 1 service until we see Microsoft's games consistently charting high and Xbox reporting profits. There's also the possibility of Xbox software across the board (as opposed to just games included in GamePass) declining as a result of a segment of gamers being spoiled by GamePass and playing near-exclusively on it. A lot of things have to align before Sony considers Microsoft's approach.

Indeed. Even if you look at everyone against it in this thread or anywhere for that matter. Not one person have giving a good reason for why its bad other then "It will weaken Sony" "What if other companys start doing the same thing" <--as if they have not". "i hate big companys buying other ones" thats pretty much the gist of it.

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

How much did they sell? How high do they chart?

Did you just skip the rest of what i posted?. And why dont you tell me how they sold bad?.

Here ill help you

"

 I used Nintendo and Sony to show you that having a large catalogue of must-haves will enable them to do things that they can't do now, including but not limited to Sony and Nintendo like practices that are frowned upon or objectively fucked up. I'm partly against the deal because it's too huge and too unnecessary and I believe I explained why in sufficient detail.

But your ok with Sony doing it?."

"Sony and Nintendo didn't monopolize through force"

Yes Sony did. And Sony would be more then happy if they could wipe out Nintendo and MS."

There you you go...

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?

Seriously, someone explain to me how this is good for the serious gamer on xbox who has been angry at the lack of exclusives. This deal will just make it worse.

How in the world does this deal make it worse? It literally gives them a large catalogue of games they can make exclusive if they choose. 

Correct. Never said they were. The post was about MS buying Activision and the fact MS aren't some lowly underdog.

I don't care about the Acquisition I'm Nuetral but I prefer if Microsoft poached sveral COD devs and poached most of Toys for bob and many devs to have teams work on their own brand new IPs but Microsoft wants the whole team + IPS so I cant do anything but watch while others see What Microsoft is doing? They been throwing alot of curveballs not even I can keep up I never heard of Unions but Microsoft threw union curveball and then EC calling out FTC and overwelming Microsoft curveballs these months and upcoming next year. Phil Spencer going super hard with calculated team of Businessman that fought 90's business war They were into more business trust wars than Sony ever could imagine themselfs . Microsoft are vets at this and wanna finish it in Royal Flush. Microsoft really has alot of fortitude.