I actually think that regulators letting MS buy Activision after having bought Zenimax, will probably make it easier for Sony to acquire. Not something on the level of Take 2, but publishers like SE (this level of publisher) I think will be fairly easy game.

Anyhow, will be good to finally get this whole Activision business behind us. I've personally never doubted that MS will acquire them.

And honestly, I'm sure since the acquisition announcement was made, that Sony has been working with the idea of a CoD-less future. Sony are usually more market savvy than MS when it comes to gaming, and I doubt they didn't start thinking of getting deals/ development steamrolled.

But let's be real, it's Killzone 2 remake time, am I right!??? Lol

Personally I would go with Square Enix since their relationship is very close like twintail said.

Hell, just take KZ2's guts and make a Factions-esque structure around it.  Place it before 2's story and have a perpetual ISA v. Helghan war going on.

Guess I'm not the only one who thinks the CMA decision makes no sense.

MS can own COD and ABK because MS wouldn't make as much money if they made it all excusive? That's their conclusion?

Then why is Halo, Gears, Forza, etc, still exclusive then if making more money is the point? Why does Sony have so many exclusives if the right thing to do was make every game multi platform and cash in big?

If next gen doesn't start until around 2028, then MS has lot's of time to keep buying. There's plenty of reasons MS can give as to why they're still not as big or big enough to compete with PS, and how could anyone prove otherwise since the ABK deal won't show most results needed to properly analyze for years and years yet. Like with COD. If most people keep buying it on PS, MS will just argue XB is still unpopular, even though COD profits will be going to MS now, so MS needs even more acquisitions.

MS could keep buying, as they've said they will, large or small, up until next gen, then make everything exclusive. Maybe not things like COD due to longer term contracts, but how much is the penalty if MS breaks those contracts, and would that financial loss to MS be worth the exclusivity going forward? It's not like MS is afraid to lose billions with XB.

If XB goes into next gen with exclusivity for Zenimax, ABK, and anything else they acquire (minus a few titles like COD maybe), which would be a lot of games and possibly largely popular, how's Sony going to deal with that? They can't make their own version of every single one of those games, not even close, and how long would it take to just make a few of them? 2030? 2040? So much for Sony can just make their own versions.

If MS keeps buying like they are, big or small, Sony is going to need to do something so massive that it puts the Bungie purchase to shame, if they want to keep leading like they have been, or anywhere close.

My Vita was laying around for months with an empty battery. After I reactivated it, I had to reformat my Vita 64GB memory card.

I'm currently redownloading all my Vita games (which I don't also have for Switch or Steam Deck), but that is quite a hassle: in the PSN-download-list I have to scroll down the whole list of my PlayStation games (including hundreds of PS3+PS4 games of my PS+ subscription) for EVERY download... the incompatible games can't be filtered out.

Is there an easier way I miss?

Not Valve. EA is too expensive. TAKE TWO.

Bet the farm if they have to. It'll be worth it.

All Sony would need to do is follow something similar to what MS just did with ABK. Tell the CMA, FTC, etc, GTA 6 will remain multiplatform. Sign GTA deals to show you're not bluffing (and just make sure those deals don't extend beyond PS6). Show how Sony and Bungie are operating, non exclusively.

This way MS knows, without Sony saying anything, that if they ever make too many past third party games exclusive, GTA will eventually go exclusive.

Sony will also make an insane amount of money off GTA until then. Let XB players play GTA online and buy MTX to their hearts content.

Screw making a COD competitor or any other if they can get their hands on GTA.

It's crucial that Sony doesn't underestimate the damage all this M&A activity can cause them down the line. With their turnaround in the last decade, and how they repositioned and rebuilt themselves, I don't think they would be asleep at the wheel. Sony witnessed the movie industry consolidate first hand, and now they have another front seat to see it for the video game industry. The difference is, Sony Pictures was never the market leader, unlike PlayStation.

I do believe at a certain point Microsoft will stop with massive acquisitions. But that probably includes at least one more, mid size, publisher acquisition. I think at this point, Sony has to lock up their long time partners in Square and Capcom, consider the possibility of a small publisher like Sega or CDPR, and fill out the rest of their portfolio with independent studios like Deviation, Arrowhead, Ember Labs, etc. While none of these IP's have the same mindshare as Call of Duty, Sony will slowly become like Nintendo, where their first party strength is the driving factor for their ecosystem. 

That's not considering Sony's true strength, their ability to create and cultivate new IP's, which end up being major tentpole franchises. This factor is the reason I think Sony can maintain their position as market leader even if they don't have as much financial heft as their competitors. I just don't think it would be enough to solely rely on in this climate. It's going to be interesting to see what comes out during their financial report. 

Microsoft is about to spend a lot of it's available cash on Activision, and with a recession incoming they won't have the money to drop on the biggest 3rd parties out there.  Microsoft was a beneficiary of covid dropping a lot of cash on them and increasing their stocks market cap 65% from pre-covid (was up 94% prior to our bear market)

With every new trailer we get for Final Fantasy 16, its setting reminds me of Final Fantasy 12, which is a severely underrated entry in the series.

I feel like FF XVI is shaping up to be the most promising entry since X (excluding 14).