Am I the only one tired of hearing about this deal for 3 years with zero benefit to the gamers? They should've told the CMA to **** off and paid the fine already. Hell, they should've just made a deal for Activisions' stuff on gamepass and been done with it. I hate that they've wasted 3 years on buying a company when their games were already getting released on Xbox.
Do something about Namco etc shitting on Xbox just because Japan doesn't buy them! I want EDF games back on Xbox. They had an exclusive one on 360, now they're literally being released on every console EXCEPT Xbox...in a time when it's never been easier to port and release games (similar architectures and discs not required). It's not that they're small devs refusing either. Even the EDF spinoff from Yukes skipped Xbox after Yukes has spent 20 years releasing multi-plats. Someone above them (D3/Namco) is flat out refusing Xbox ports.
It's not that simple: as the Sony documents at the FTC trial revealed, Sony pays developers not to develop for XBOX. It's not exclusivity, just exclusionary. Also, in the japanese Keiretsu system groups of companies hold stock in each other. So it isn't a simple matter of selling x amount of games for y amount of yen, but of the bottom line in currency, stock value, and "intangibles".
Likewise, japanese companies (and chinese, which are way worse) don't measure profits solely in net revenue. Market positioning and consumer lock-in matters a lot because they bring in more money over time if less early on *and* less to competitors who won't have as much to invest further on. (That is how Sony pushed Sega out of the console hardware business.Sony wasn't outselling DREAMCAST by that much but the cashflow wasn't enough to stay in the business.)
Nadella wasn't lying when he told the court that he would rather exclusives weren't necessary in the console business but they are. What he didn't say is that is the way NINTENDO set the market up when they came west. Sony is just playing by the rules NINTENDO set up, which work fine for them when they screw up (WiiU, first three batches of PS3); their loyal fanboys were so locked into their franchises that not even lack of backwards compatibility and halfbaked hardware can get them to switch. Too late for that. Again, going back to the trial documents: even if MS wanted to play by jspanese rules and take COD away from SONY the way SONY took SPIDER-MAN away from PC, XBOX, and Nintendo, it wouldn't significantly hurt their business long term.
The wonders of lock-in.
That is why Microsoft is "changing the subject" and hitting Sony where they can't go.
Last reference: in the recent XBOX leak one undereported fact came out. The FTC tried to mske something of the fact that despite SONY selling more PS5s than MS sells XBOXes, MS makes as much money than Sony in a given quarter. Why?
1- It costs almost as much to build a diskless PS5 as a disk model but they had to price it $100 less to stay within sight of the Series S, which was designed to make a profit at $200. (Watch the prices come Black Friday).
2- Securing those third party exclusives costs money. (EA wanted $300M to make JEDI SURVIVOR XBOX exclusive.)
3- Sony has pretty much given up on developing anything but their AAA franchise exclusives while MS is encouraging their developers to get creative with new, smaller IPs like PENTIMENT and HI FI RUSH. Less cost, much lower development cost. Better profit margins. (Unlike other subscription services paid for monthly, Game Pass has little if any churn. Sony, however, seems to hsve a lot, hence their pricing structure encouraging annual lock-ins for their service.)
SONY and Nintendo are enjoying the fruits of playing the long game for 30 years. But now MS is playing a longer one. And betting $69B on it.
Things are going to get fun.
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