- cross-posted to:
- gaming@beehaw.org
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@beehaw.org
- technology@beehaw.org
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"Megacorporation Wins. Consumers lose again. "
Would be the correct title.
Bummer. This is terrible news for consumers and is really going to hurt competition. Microsoft has already shown that they’re going as exclusive as possible with their recent acquisitions, so we can probably expect to never see any new Activision/Blizzard titles outside of Microsoft’s ecosystem now, and that’s a huge umbrella of content that the rest of players are going to miss out on.
Not necessarily.
The FTC did important work here even if it wasn’t successful in the suit.
Microsoft got Zenimax and was then rather excessive in how they handled it, and that is a large part of what prompted this degree of pushback by regulatory bodies.
If Xbox wants to leave the door open for future acquisitions they are very much aware they need to tread carefully moving forward.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Zenimax titles end up as timed exclusives down the road rather than permanent exclusives as announced.
Similarly, Sony has set any of their own future acquisitions up for potential scrutiny if they continue down the path of total exclusively, and what’s likely going to end up happening is each side plays their bargaining chips to end up with mutual releases after timed windows.
This is arguably better than Activision Blizzard ending up in the hands of Tencent and going even further in the direction of Diablo Immortal, and may even help curb future exclusivity across the industry.
(In general, first party studio ownership leads to better games and less microtransaction BS.)
Less exclusivity in the future may largely rest on the FTC and other regulatory bodies having aggressively pushed back on this here and now.
In trade regulation you don’t need to necessarily win the fight to still have a net positive influence.
Microsoft got Zenimax and was then rather excessive in how they handled it, and that is a large part of what prompted this degree of pushback by regulatory bodies.
If Xbox wants to leave the door open for future acquisitions they are very much aware they need to tread carefully moving forward.
This reads like a rather optimistic take to me.
What Microsoft learned here is that they can buy a publisher (Bethesda), make that publisher’s games exclusive, and still get the biggest gaming acquisition in history approved by regulators.
Microsoft will likely pause acquisitions for a bit, but everyone else that wants to get into/stay in gaming is going to look into them even more than before. I’d be surprised if Sony doesn’t end up buying someone decently large (but not as large as Activision: Sony cannot afford anything like that). Everyone seems to think Sony would go for Square Enix but I think they would make a different choice.
Yes, Sony will very likely eye an acquisition (possibly even the one extensively rumoured over the years that isn’t Square Enix), but that’d be to shore up their bargaining position over exclusivity.
The exclusivity fight, particularly if mutually assured destruction, isn’t a winning bet long term.
There’s an ebb and flow to this industry, and we’ve already seen under Jim Ryan the shift to PC ports after exclusivity windows.
Honestly, the biggest thing holding back Sony ports to Xbox is probably Microsoft’s insistence on platform support for the Series S.
Not great to engineer streamlined system that you push to the max with first party titles to then instead get held back planning to support your competitor’s worst product.
Sony will very likely eye an acquisition (possibly even the one extensively rumoured over the years that isn’t Square Enix)
Sony won’t be allowed to since they’re the market leader by a long way.
Honestly, the biggest thing holding back Sony ports to Xbox is probably Microsoft’s insistence on platform support for the Series S.
No, it’s that sony don’t want to release their games on xbox. Don’t be silly. Playstation basically is Sony these days. Everything else they own has either died or faded into irrelevance apart from cameras and tvs. Playstation is their biggest asset, and they would never consider releasing their games on their competitors consoles.
won’t be allowed to since they’re the market leader
That’s not really how it works.
would never consider releasing their games on their competitor’s consoles
Eh, we’ll see.
That’s not really how it works.
It is, actually.
