The bigger picture with these new found MS acquisitions......

[Memorabilia]

And yet, I don't see how 50 million persons will be subbed to gamepass at $15 or even more per month if they want the quality of games on offer to increase. Sony and Nintendo will have their own sought after exclusives and highest rated games. Epic will continue to look for first dibs over steam. Steam might eventually fight back. Google will back someone soon since Stadia shows that XCloud could be in trouble or not viable anytime soon. It's funny, but out of all these services. PSNOW is the only profitable one....It's so ironic......

Sony does not have to react to anything. If anything MS's announcements is a reaction to Sony's strong first party studios and maybe they had suspicion that Sony was going after Konami IP's, going after many timed exclusives and may even purchase a studio or two as well. The only thing to be mindful of is that Sony's recent or exclusive deals are going to impact PS5 now or almost immediately.....

Spiderman, Demon Souls if they buy Bluepoint, means a portinghouse for any of their older games. FF lands soon enough, Silent Hill rumors and GTA rumors are still viable. People talk about IP's but Sony has a tonne of them in all genres to go against any big publisher MS can buy, they may just need a few studios to work on them....Sony has so many IP's they can reboot..

Socom, Primal, Extermination, Warhawk, Syphon Filter, Heavenly Sword, since they already shares in Square, a purchase is quite viable where they can now double down and redo vagrant story, chrono cross, brave fencer or ergheiz and do sequels as necessary. I think they have a tonne of genres they can re-ignite. Ape Escape is certainly another...


And of course that's a toll order for them...People keep saying, they intend to put gamepass on all devices, cool, good ambition, but just be aware that gamepass will not be coming to PS and IOS anytime soon. People taking to gamepass and xcloud over competing stores and online services is no forgone conclusion of success...

 

[jshackles]

 

[The Shift]

Xbox fans are going to be disappointed when they realize this will be just like Mojang. PS5 will still get the big Bethesda games.

Microsoft are going to spend money on staff, development and publishing resources to release games for their direct competitor? Let alone expend time that will effectively delay the release cadence of titles on Gamepass just so they can sell games on PS5?

Can't see that happening.

 

[KiNeMz]

Microsoft are going to spend money on staff, development and publishing resources to release games for their direct competitor? Let alone expend time that will effectively delay the release cadence of titles on Gamepass just so they can sell games on PS5?

Can't see that happening.

They have to. Zenimax studios operating structure and numbers are based off sales in all markets. They would collapse if they don't sell to the PS market. Over time Microsoft will begin exclusivity. But not straight up. 7.5b is a lot of Bing. They need to get ROI first.

 

[Journey]

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Far too much fear mongering.

Sony doom threads are a dime a dozen.

 

[JackMcGunns]

Using Rare as an example


Sea of Thieves just crossed 15 million players and they have a new promising IP called Everwild, so we'll see how it goes for Rare. MS got the short end of the stick with that purchase, rumor was that some execs thought they would get Donkey Kong with the purchase.

This however is looking very much like a merger/acquisition, keeping the studio's governance separate until a smooth transition is achieved, in other words it should've affect employees, their benefits or current projects. Output will not change, except that it will be under Xbox Game Studios and they get to decide what platforms the games will release on.

 

[RevenantX]

LastWord is the op. Ok nothing to see here.

 

[Shelookdlvl18]

One of the downsides to longevity, is that it makes it easy to spot when you suddenly attempt to change narratives. thelastword spent years telling anyone who could bear to listen, all about how Sony having more studios was a massive advantage. It's only now... When that argument no longer fits his narrative... That having more dev studios is now a hindrance rather then an advantage.

Even the individual points he uses to evidence his overall argument are either flat out false, or flawed at best.

Claims with certainty that Starfield is releasing on PS5, with zero evidence to suggest it.

Claims Rare is a "shell of it's former self" despite it's most recent release also being it's most successful.

Claims Sony's studios have the talent to produce games of any genre to compete against MS's, despite evidence to the contrary. Over the last gen, Sony directed it's studios to work with one another rather than compete. The plus side is that it eases development for those studios, but the downside is that all their games end up looking and playing similar.

Claims MS's acquisitions won't release games for quite some time, only to then compare that to Sonys exclusives which will be releasing sooner such as Silent Hill and GTA 6.

As evidenced by the reduced frequency of his posts, while also becoming long winded... thelastword seems to be struggling with ways in which to push his narrative.

 

[Iced Arcade]

This....didn't....need...to....be...bumped

 

[MonarchJT]

thelastword create a thread pretending to be worried about the Xbox brand and new acquisitions but that in reality it only serves to create negativity on everything that is ms or xbox so that it indirectly serves his Sony fanboyism?

News at 11
like if we don't know you man )

 

[MonarchJT]

LOL if yo xbots had half a brain you'd realise that the ultima goal of gamepass is to become the Netflix of games and to achieve that you need to launch on all systems. Gamepass premium anyone?

as xbox fan I'll push report button without my brain ..look

 

[Reality Czar]

They gonna need to find a way to recoup a bit of that money. Just spending $7 billion on the studios alone and u know making games ain’t free. Restructuring will happen for sure.

As for Game Pass it has never they already been admitting that Game Pass is not their profit maker. They will make way more selling multiplat. Licensing is where the real money is made.

 

[Snake29]

Stopped at Starfield coming to PS5. Already confirmed Xbox/PC/GP exclusive. Not gonna happen. In fact, aside from contract titles, I wouldnt count on anything else coming to PS unless via GPU. Which we know Sony wont do.

Nothing has been confirmed....

 

[Omni_Manhatten]

Let's be honest. MS has just added another 8 studios to their list from Zenimax, with it brings many IP's, some more popular than others. Some have resurged like Doom, Elder Scrolls is still huge, Fallout is still viable, though Fallout 76 hurt their reputation tremendously. Before that, MS bought several indie Studios since mid 2018 and they still have nothing to show yet for it relative to released games.

6 out of the 8 studios have IP's we know about in the console circle. The other two, Alpha Dog is involved in more or less mobile projects and Roundhouse is a newly acquired studio that only have their footprint as a support studio for many projects.....The reality is, most of the new games by Bethesda are still far away, I don't expect a new Elder Scrolls for years, even then, they still need to invest in a new engine or keep reworking their current one to avoid massive launch issues and refunds at launch. That will take lots of work, Starfield is really not on a new engine, but an overhauled one, so you can still expect many of their prior engine legacy issues to linger.

In truth 7.5B dollars is a lot of money, but it doesn't end there. To prepare these studios to launch exclusives that will benefit MS, there is further financial investment to take place, engine investments, personnel, planning and R&D that needs to take place. Lots of the current projects by these studios are remasters of current games. That will go as planned and release on competitive consoles. Starfield, Deathloop etc will all release on PS5 and yet these games are still some ways away. The question is, when will MS only games get into the conversation, it will most probably be towards the end of this gen or early next gen...Lots of the current games are tied into contractual obligations....

The other thing I expect to happen is that many of the big names from said studios will see this as a sign to cash out and exit, the top guys from Doom and Elder Scrolls, even Arkane, Mikami from Tango. So when MS is ready for these studios to start pushing exclusives, the makeup of these studios might not be the same as it is now.....Hence why it is important to build a base of top talent, that could probably overtake an IP.

The real question however is what happens now? We know that Doom Eternal Remastered, Deathloop and whatever is still in the current pipeline is still coming to PS5, yet having just spent 7.5B dollars, MS will want return on it's investments. They will also want to clean up the fat, some projects will be cancelled, some products will be sped up and they will let go of some people. Look at the number of Indie studios MS acquired, they are still not ready for a Series X launch. Exclusive games for SeriesX is a long way away and then MS will have to invest the development money for these projects, greenlight what they think is the right one and consider if these games will sell well enough on Series X and PC to recoup the costs. There is also the possibility that these studios don't get the funding and support they are used to since MS may focus on lowering the quality of the rendering and minimize the development schedule to accomodate a strict gamepass schedule.....

In truth MS had a hard time managing and producing quality out of a smaller clutch of studios, having so many now won't make it any easier....It might prove quite alot for them to manage and be profitable, but we shall see. Before that, MS acquired a big name called Rare, but they are now only a shadow of their former selves. So it's like this, another 6 studios pushing AAA, when Halo Infinite had 5 years and lots of cash, it means that cash will have to be split on many AAA studios now. Yet the reality minus the newly acquired 8 Studios is; Fable is not anywhere near a ready phase, Forza is still in it's early stages, the well hyped Initiative still has not shown us a peep.......It's either MS know what's it's doing here and feel they can manage all that talent and that they will have the financial backing to make all the projects coming out of these studios well funded, well spaced or that these projects will be given sufficient time and money to produce quality content...To me, I see lots of the old heads leaving these studios either to retire or to branch out on their own, but time will tell...

Don’t seem to have issues releasing PS5 games? But they will have issues releasing Xbox games? I don’t get the thinking.

 

[thelastword]

They gonna need to find a way to recoup a bit of that money. Just spending $7 billion on the studios alone and u know making games ain’t free. Restructuring will happen for sure.

As for Game Pass it has never they already been admitting that Game Pass is not their profit maker. They will make way more selling multiplat. Licensing is where the real money is made.

Exactly. Building a studio is different to buying an existing studio. You take on all the fat, all the excess. The regular financing of the normal business routines, the focus on profitability and recoup on investment is now a direct and immediate concern......This is not a 500 million acquisition for several indie studios. This is 7.5 billion here and the investment necessary to keep several large IP's alive or at current or better quality necessitates much more money than just the initial expenditure.....

Don’t seem to have issues releasing PS5 games? But they will have issues releasing Xbox games? I don’t get the thinking.

Well their track record is the litmust here, clearly. Several indies were bought. A new studio was built. What are the returns? Rare has been there for ages, what has been the returns? Even their main franchises are deflating and we are only talking a trifecta of Gears, Halo and Forza....Looking at Halo, their main franchise, look at the investment on that alone vs the results. Don't know what the culture is over at 343i, but even the last screens of Infinite are not drastic from the initial disappointing showing. So I'm a bit curious how MS is going to handle Halo Infinite, they are trying to take their time with the next Forza Motorsport, they are trying to reboot fable, launch a new AAAA studio with a successful and massive game, it's AAAA afterall. Their indie Studios have shown nothing yet and would need some attention vs wallowing in 50-70 Meta territory and if they take on even bigger franchises than What Halo and Gears is now, games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, how are they going to do it with their track record?

...And I know lots of XBOX fans want these newly acquired franchises to be exclusive, but all that investment already placed in currently developing games like Starfield, Next Fallout and next Doom etc...... will not see profit and will lose massively if these games are only on XBOX or worse yet launch on gamepass. If we think of the quality of these games going forward, for these franchises to evolve, they need massive investment and reboots. It's why GOW was so successful. You can't keep doing the same old same old or lowering production investment to make these games more viable for a subscriber service...That is not a strategy that will garner quality meta's and profitable sales.....Games like Skyrim were always massive sellers, you don't want to reduce it to a gamepass game, that will instantly diminish and bushel out the franchise's appeal.....If you think about it, the competition is all about pushing new and rebooted franchises in many genre's, a diminished skyrim and Fallout won't compete.....As can be seen, new franchises are already in gear to eat unwanted pie pieces. I look at something like Elden Ring and that game will have all the backing and developer focus you would expect and it will be massive, so the competition will be quite fierce all round in 2022.....The bigger question is when will we see the first fruits of this 7.5 billion acquisition, factoring that we have not seen any thing from the indie studios MS bought since 2018. Bethesda styled games will require much more money and time.....I imagine a new Elder Scrolls will require much more time and care than Halo Infinite to guarantee quality and success.....

 

[Bernkastel]

Exactly. Building a studio is different to buying an existing studio. You take on all the fat, all the excess. The regular financing of the normal business routines, the focus on profitability and recoup on investment is now a direct and immediate concern......This is not a 500 million acquisition for several indie studios. This is 7.5 billion here and the investment necessary to keep several large IP's alive or at current or better quality necessitates much more money than just the initial expenditure.....

Well their track record is the litmust here, clearly. Several indies were bought. A new studio was built. What are the returns? Rare has been there for ages, what has been the returns? Even their main franchises are deflating and we are only talking a trifecta of Gears, Halo and Forza....Looking at Halo, their main franchise, look at the investment on that alone vs the results. Don't know what the culture is over at 343i, but even the last screens of Infinite are not drastic from the initial disappointing showing. So I'm a bit curious how MS is going to handle Halo Infinite, they are trying to take their time with the next Forza Motorsport, they are trying to reboot fable, launch a new AAAA studio with a successful and massive game, it's AAAA afterall. Their indie Studios have shown nothing yet and would need some attention vs wallowing in 50-70 Meta territory and if they take on even bigger franchises than What Halo and Gears is now, games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, how are they going to do it with their track record?

...And I know lots of XBOX fans want these newly acquired franchises to be exclusive, but all that investment already placed in currently developing games like Starfield, Next Fallout and next Doom etc...... will not see profit and will lose massively if these games are only on XBOX or worse yet launch on gamepass. If we think of the quality of these games going forward, for these franchises to evolve, they need massive investment and reboots. It's why GOW was so successful. You can't keep doing the same old same old or lowering production investment to make these games more viable for a subscriber service...That is not a strategy that will garner quality meta's and profitable sales.....Games like Skyrim were always massive sellers, you don't want to reduce it to a gamepass game, that will instantly diminish and bushel out the franchise's appeal.....If you think about it, the competition is all about pushing new and rebooted franchises in many genre's, a diminished skyrim and Fallout won't compete.....As can be seen, new franchises are already in gear to eat unwanted pie pieces. I look at something like Elden Ring and that game will have all the backing and developer focus you would expect and it will be massive, so the competition will be quite fierce all round in 2022.....The bigger question is when will we see the first fruits of this 7.5 billion acquisition, factoring that we have not seen any thing from the indie studios MS bought since 2018. Bethesda styled games will require much more money and time.....I imagine a new Elder Scrolls will require much more time and care than Halo Infinite to guarantee quality and success.....

You are so wrong that you need a wall of text to hide what is wrong about you.

 

[DAHGAMING]

Xbox taking what they want end of the day, 1 day they might even want that Soyny games and trust me, what Phil wants, Phil gets.

 

[phil_t98]

Exactly. Building a studio is different to buying an existing studio. You take on all the fat, all the excess. The regular financing of the normal business routines, the focus on profitability and recoup on investment is now a direct and immediate concern......This is not a 500 million acquisition for several indie studios. This is 7.5 billion here and the investment necessary to keep several large IP's alive or at current or better quality necessitates much more money than just the initial expenditure.....

Well their track record is the litmust here, clearly. Several indies were bought. A new studio was built. What are the returns? Rare has been there for ages, what has been the returns? Even their main franchises are deflating and we are only talking a trifecta of Gears, Halo and Forza....Looking at Halo, their main franchise, look at the investment on that alone vs the results. Don't know what the culture is over at 343i, but even the last screens of Infinite are not drastic from the initial disappointing showing. So I'm a bit curious how MS is going to handle Halo Infinite, they are trying to take their time with the next Forza Motorsport, they are trying to reboot fable, launch a new AAAA studio with a successful and massive game, it's AAAA afterall. Their indie Studios have shown nothing yet and would need some attention vs wallowing in 50-70 Meta territory and if they take on even bigger franchises than What Halo and Gears is now, games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, how are they going to do it with their track record?

...And I know lots of XBOX fans want these newly acquired franchises to be exclusive, but all that investment already placed in currently developing games like Starfield, Next Fallout and next Doom etc...... will not see profit and will lose massively if these games are only on XBOX or worse yet launch on gamepass. If we think of the quality of these games going forward, for these franchises to evolve, they need massive investment and reboots. It's why GOW was so successful. You can't keep doing the same old same old or lowering production investment to make these games more viable for a subscriber service...That is not a strategy that will garner quality meta's and profitable sales.....Games like Skyrim were always massive sellers, you don't want to reduce it to a gamepass game, that will instantly diminish and bushel out the franchise's appeal.....If you think about it, the competition is all about pushing new and rebooted franchises in many genre's, a diminished skyrim and Fallout won't compete.....As can be seen, new franchises are already in gear to eat unwanted pie pieces. I look at something like Elden Ring and that game will have all the backing and developer focus you would expect and it will be massive, so the competition will be quite fierce all round in 2022.....The bigger question is when will we see the first fruits of this 7.5 billion acquisition, factoring that we have not seen any thing from the indie studios MS bought since 2018. Bethesda styled games will require much more money and time.....I imagine a new Elder Scrolls will require much more time and care than Halo Infinite to guarantee quality and success.....

You know what, Microsoft want to also sell consoles you know, they just like Sony released consoles lately. Buying these studios may make people think more about the purchase of a console when games are exclusive

one thing you Sony fanboys always go on about is the exclusives Sony has and now Microsoft have all these IPs and studios under their belt there is a lot of concerned post from the sony side about how they won’t be exclusive or how they will bring gamepass to PlayStation

but your worried that Microsoft spent 7.5 billion and don’t have the money to keep financing the studios with engines and staff costs, I mean it’s not like these studios were making enough money to already do that.

 

[MonarchJT]

I explain you a thing thelastword since you are so worried.

If Sony has managed to have the success of the ps4 after the unsuccessful period 2008/2016 where lost billions of dollars for the entire gen , and certainly Sony being a company with 1/10 of the economic possibilities of Ms. You have nothing to worry about. 7.5b is really nothing for a company that earns 15 every Q