What devs have they fk up lately?. And if we are going from things years ago under different leadership we might as well include all the devs/companys Sony fk'd up.

I'm worried about competition. Nintendo is still here, and just for the record, I think losing Sega as a competitor in the console hardware market was a loss. I also don't see Microsoft as a trustworthy company (not that Microsoft is alone in this, mind you), and I trust that given the chance, Microsoft will eventually abuse this in some manner that's bad for gamers. And just for the record, I've grown to dislike Sony quite a bit, and if anything, I welcome strong competition against Sony, but this Activision Blizzard deal is quite big for my taste - not that I'm a fan of other acquisitions either, mind you, if they hurt the competition.

Sony is the only company making arguments against this deal so I don't think saying so is naive or disingenuous. If any other actors resent this deal they have yet to manifest themselves publicly and to regulators.

If Nintendo themselves believed the scenario you highlighted as anything serious or likely they would say so to the regulators and won't be making deal with MS improving their chance of success with the deal. 

Sony might very well acquire more studios because of it or buy studios they already planned to we would never know but Microsoft can't be blocked by what Sony might plan to do or not do.

The nice attitude from ms is not because they are behind in console sales, it is because they're in front of subscription base game delivery and don't see Sony's (and others') existence as a threat but as an actor that adds to the potential of the overall market. And this is also true for Sony if MS can bring more consumer to the market some will certainly end up playing Sony games and even some will use the cheaper way of playing MS propose to also buy a PS5+.

As for the pricing, to have read many discussion around it I could guarantee you no one here believe Microsoft will ever increase the price. The best I can hope is that the price won't increase as long as Microsoft heavily focuses on growth but that has an end. 

As for removing the day 1 release to GP, there is 0 indication this will happen short, medium, or long term. If the argument is anything is possible then yeah but 99% sure Sony will add a day 1 release to their subscription way before MS even thinks of stopping it.

Also, the transaction would be done with cash on hand as an exchange for the equivalent value in assets, MS may well be increasing the price of their subs pricing afterward but doubt this transaction will be the culprit though, as inflation and a shift of focus from growth to sustain and growth are more like it. Also, keep in mind that Gamepass is still at the same price as in 2017 when it was released. With only a 2% yearly inflation it already makes GamePass $1.02 cheaper than at release and so a 1-dollar potential increase could be solely attributed to it.

Gabe Newell certainly disagree on your statement of MS' trustworthiness. For Nintendo, they themselves have helped MS out by accepting the CoD 10 year deal. But that said I totally understand and respect your opinion even if I don't share it.

Gabe is in a different position though. Steam has been doing very well even without Call of Duty, so clearly there's not that much threat against Steam even if Call of Duty strayed away from Steam again. Additionally, Microsoft has demonstrated its willingness to put its games on Steam for years now, probably because that's where the money's at on PC. That is, Gabe has good reason to believe that Microsoft is actually interested in releasing its games on Steam, and even if they weren't, Steam would still do just fine. He can definitely afford to be trusting. In the console market however, the belief seems to be that exclusives matter a lot, and I'm sure both Microsoft and Sony are looking further than just the next ten years.

While diluting my argument to the basic, I can't accept the merger of a big AAA publisher resulting in the shift and consolidation of a major corp. Whether anyone thinks the positives will outweight the bad, it is to you to value this deal on a short-term or long-term perspective.

Anywoo, the mismanagement stories of studios like The Initiative and the complete abandonment of their flagship series Halo in the hands of 345 Industries tell me that in some way, probably not now but in some way later .... They'll mess it up

I'm neutral in my point of view of it.

I have access to all platforms so it doesnt really affect me much.

I see one pro and one con though.


Pro - Blizzard games could potentially come out on Steam but then again Minecraft is still non-store exclusive on PC.

Con - There's a chance mismanagement could happen like Rareware 2 decades ago but its too far early to see what will happen now, we'll know in a few years with Bethesda.


Either ways, doesnt matter to me - I already have Activision/Blizzard games across Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo and PC platforms already, so it helps not being restricted to investing in one platform exclusively.

I'm all for it! It'll likely mean Crash 4 gets released on Steam rather than being exclusive to battle.net. I want to play Crash 4 so it'd be a great acquisition as far as I'm concerned!

That released on Steam back in October.

You are like 2 months late.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1378990/Crash_Bandicoot_4_Its_About_Time/

Though I guess I shouldnt be surprised, no one here posts news about stuff like that here anymore lol.