Current Events > Playstation CEO: I don't want a Call of Duty deal. I want to block your merger

(+) Yeah! (+)

LOL fuck Sony, I hope MS wins and they crash and burn.

Minecraft is available on more systems now than it was the day Microsoft bought Mojang, and they've made it very clear with the contracts they've inked with Nintendo and Nvidia that they want to do the same with Call Of Duty once they finalize this deal for Activision Blizzard. They want to bring the game to more people, not less. Meanwhile, Sony are the ones paying third-party devs for multiple years of timed exclusivity on games like Forspoken (look how that one turned out lol) while throwing a bitch fit about this acquisition. Sony are being laughably hypocritical.

reminder nintendo not sony is the current market leader

and MS plans to bring call of duty to nintendo when its not been on nintendo in years

AceMos posted...

reminder nintendo not sony is the current market leader

and MS plans to bring call of duty to nintendo when its not been on nintendo in years

Good luck making it work on the Switch.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

what do you think a monopoly is?

Well, a monopoly is not when you can buy multiple different hardware from different companies, that each got exclusives that wont appear on the other hardwares.

Tbh I don't see any scenario where Xbox is gonna get a monopoly even if Call of Duty goes exclusive immediately.

I think people underestimate how established PlayStation is globally. Xbox are competitive in a handful of territories and irrelevant everywhere else.

As for consolidation both Activision and Bethesda were floundering and selling was their solution. It's not exactly a hostile takeover.

It's pretty funny to me that we're acting like this is all completely new and unheard of anti-competitive behavior in the gaming industry. There are mega-corporations literally thousands of times larger than this one is, and deciding not to release games on competitor's consoles has been around since the dawn of time.

You cannot look at the state of American capitalism and, with a straight face, say that this is somehow an unfair monopoly. Look at the eyeglasses industry. Look at pharmaceuticals, and the medication I need that was $500 a month in 2016, and is today $32,000. I swear to god if this deal gets blocked under any context other than, "we're looking at EVERY company in EVERY field, we're encouraging everyone to join unions, and Jeff Bezos can go fuck himself and start paying some taxes every year," than you know the regulators are bought and paid for.

microsoft has the ps ceo by the balls

Foppe posted...

Well, a monopoly is not when you can buy multiple different hardware from different companies, that each got exclusives that wont appear on the other hardwares.

what if one of those hardwares had 90% market share? do you think thats still not a monopoly?

TheSavageDragon posted...

You're right, it's not the same. They're not making games exclusive, they're buying up entire massive publishers. Which is a bad thing for all of gaming.
I think Sony is a POS company, but all this Microsoft wank is hilarious. It's like everyone forgot the first 2 decades of them pulling shit left and right because Gamepass is now a thing.

Seriously, this. Microsoft just attempted to double the price of xbox live gold to 120 dollars a year barely two years ago before they back-tracked at the last second via being bitched at on social media, and dudes really think they won't try to pull that shit again IF they were to become the one-stop place for call of duty and whatever else activision-blizzard has.

It doesn't matter if its microsoft, sony, or nintendo, not a damn one of these companies actually gives a shit about you and if they can get away with whatever grimy money-grubbing tactic they will. To see people actually fanboying for one corporation or another is insane to me.

Blind loyalty is a bit silly for any company.

Like on a personal level I'd be happy for the deal to go through because I do subscribe to Game Pass and would like Call of Duty and Diablo being included. But I'm not overly invested in the current direction of Activision-Blizzard anyway.

But I'm not ruling out Game Pass not being a good deal in my eyes one day. But when that's the case I'll just...stop. There's no investment I've sunk myself into. It's one of the easiest ecosystem things to drop.

Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo all need strong competition to be good. Nothing about this acquisition is really changing that. Already PS5 is spanking Xbox where we're seeing a repeat of last generation (perhaps even more dominant than the PS4 was). Like yeah that's overall deserved but stuff like this is them trying to change that so whatever. I don't think Sony or Microsoft are obligated to anything third party wise.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Like on a personal level I'd be happy for the deal to go through because I do subscribe to Game Pass and would like Call of Duty and Diablo being included. But I'm not overly invested in the current direction of Activision-Blizzard anyway.

I am of the opinion that if this deal were to go through, what exactly would stop microsoft from going "with this acquisition the value of our service went up, so we have no choice but to raise the price so that we can bring better quality service to all of our fans" or whatever else bull-shit wording they can come up with. They can also completely follow through with that 120 dollar a year for xbox live gold attempt almost two years ago, and while they are at it give game pass a bit of a price hike bump. (This is basically the same type of crap youtube pulled to hike up the price of youtube TV from 49.99 to 64.99+tax when the viacom channels (channels that mind you wasn't even optional for anyone) was added to the service. I personally don't bother with any of the viacom channels (if I do need to see south park or any other show that was on comedy central, there is other places for that) so this is basically just kicking my "value" right in the nuts.

Basically what I am saying is that even if you don't care much for activision-blizzard stuff in general, it could still negatively affect you via causing price increases for the services you pay for now, like how the viacom channels did for me and paying for youtube TV with it's price increase (mind you I don't even use the damn service much myself....its for my family and their love of sports, lol. They don't even watch those viacom channels).

Like I said in my previous post I would be against crap like this if sony was doing this buy-out attempt, don't trust none of these fools lol. They would also be the types that would try to raise the price of PSN or the premium services while using a huge acquisition like activision-blizzard to justify it.

Microsoft would easily be able to this because, well, they own activision-blizzard now. They would be the one-stop place for all call of duty needs on consoles, and there is a whole lot of gamers hopelessly addicted to the pewpew action of call of duty....they would easily fold to a huge price increase to keep playing and therefore would make that the standard going forward.

Mad-Dogg posted...

I am of the opinion that if this deal were to go through, what exactly would stop microsoft from going "with this acquisition the value of our service went up, so we have no choice but to raise the price so that we can bring better quality service to all of our fans" or whatever else bull-shit wording they can come up with. They can also completely follow through with that 120 dollar a year for xbox live gold attempt almost two years ago, and while they are at it give game pass a bit of a price hike bump. (This is basically the same type of crap youtube pulled to hike up the price of youtube TV from 49.99 to 64.99+tax when the viacom channels (channels that mind you wasn't even optional for anyone) was added to the service. I personally don't bother with any of the viacom channels (if I do need to see south park or any other show that was on comedy central, there is other places for that) so this is basically just kicking my "value" right in the nuts.

Basically what I am saying is that even if you don't care much for activision-blizzard stuff in general, it could still negatively affect you via causing price increases for the services you pay for now, like how the viacom channels did for me and paying for youtube TV with it's price increase (mind you I don't even use the damn service much myself....its for my family and their love of sports, lol. They don't even watch those viacom channels).

Like I said in my previous post I would be against crap like this if sony was doing this buy-out attempt, don't trust none of these fools lol. They would also be the types that would try to raise the price of PSN or the premium services while using a huge acquisition like activision-blizzard to justify it.

Microsoft would easily be able to this because, well, they own activision-blizzard now. They would be the one-stop place for all call of duty needs on consoles, and there is a whole lot of gamers hopelessly addicted to the pewpew action of call of duty....they would easily fold to a huge price increase to keep playing and therefore would make that the standard going forward.

For one Xbox is still trying to grow their userbase. They're nowhere close to being in a position where they can aggressively raise prices. It would just give a larger lead to Sony.

This generation is already over two years in. The Call of Duty people are already on PlayStation. It's too late for COD to shift things that much this generation.

Secondly I don't actually pay anything for Game Pass at the moment thanks to Microsoft Rewards. I'm covered for the next year or so.

Lastly I've already experienced price increases with PlayStation. I'm in Australia and Sony's first party games are currently $125. On the standard tier that's nearly the same cost as a year of Game Pass. Luckily I already got the PS5 before they increased the price of it here.

Just to compare Nintendo first party Switch games here are $80 and Xbox first party games including Starfield is $99.

I'm already dealing with the market leader being more aggressive with pricing.

I dont see what the problem here is.

Other than Dakimaki or whatever his name is making some dumb posts on the first page as he usually does.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

what if one of those hardwares had 90% market share? do you think thats still not a monopoly?

Sony is much closer to 90% than what Microsoft is...

Revelation34 posted...

Good luck making it work on the Switch.

this is something I do not get about modern gaming @revelation34

the SNES couldnt handle a straight port of street fighter 2, or any of the MK games, or the terminator arcade game, or most high end arcade games of the time. So the genesis would be even worse at that.

nobody cared, developers would port their games to the home consoles anyway, which would basically be a re-do to some
degree.

look at DOOM, each home port was different from each other and none of it were perfect. Imagine if snes doom, 32x doom, Saturn doom, 3do doom, jaguar doom and gba doom didnt exist because a perfect, straight port wasnt possible.

so how come games dont get ported to the switch unless theyre straight, almost 100% code-to-code copy and paste jobs?

the_pika posted...

so how come games dont get ported to the switch unless theyre straight, almost 100% code-to-code copy and paste jobs

I'd say it's because "the game, but also portable" loses a lot of its appeal when it's not actually the game everyone else is playing. I know I routinely felt disappointed with this very thing on the PSP where it either was a terrible version of said game or just an entirely different game bearing the same title.

It's not just a Switch thing, it's across the entire industry. Ten+ years ago you'd get a game on PS3 and the PS2 version of the very same game would be an entirely different game made by a different studio. During the later years of the PS3/Xbox360 era that changed drastically. Now we just get PS4 versions of games developed for PS5 that are inferior on a technical level.

Foppe posted...

Sony is much closer to 90% than what Microsoft is...

holy what alternate universe are you living in? Do you have flying cars?

The Nintendo deal for Call of Duty is more about the successor than the Switch anyway.

Call of Duty should scale fine I reckon. The new one plays just fine on the Steam Deck with Windows.

Barber102 posted...

holy what alternate universe are you living in? Do you have flying cars?

In my universe, Sony have sold around 12 million more units than what Microsoft have.
And we have had different forms of flying cars for 80 years, but they have never entered largescale production.
Like the Aerocar.
Now tell me, how many more units have Microsoft sold in your universe?

Remember when this first announced Sony fanboys were like "Who cares about Call of Duty". Seem like Sony really do in the worst way.

Vyrulisse posted...

Sony is a blight on gaming.

Lol. Sad.

TendoDRM posted...

Fuck $ony.

It amuses me when sad little folk think putting $ in a company name is some kind of insult.

Foppe posted...

In my universe, Sony have sold around 12 million more units than what Microsoft have.
And we have had different forms of flying cars for 80 years, but they have never entered largescale production.
Like the Aerocar.
Now tell me, how many more units have Microsoft sold in your universe?

sony has only bought dev studios, where as microsoft has bought one major publisher in zennimax and trying to buy a second major publisher in blizz activision.

tell me why you think this discussion is about hardware when it isnt?

do you know how many dev studios are under zennimax? Do you know how many are under blizz activision? Oh sure sony bought this single dev studio and that single dev studio.

however the purchase of zennimax alone more than covers the handful of studios sony has bought in just that one acquisition.

we also know microsoft tried and failed to jack up gamepass. But once microsoft controls another of the major publisher in blizz/activision they wont fail again.

but again try to turn this into a topic about hardware sales when it has absolutely nothing to do with hardware sales.

Barber102 posted...

tell me why you think this discussion is about hardware when it isnt?

I wonder...
Kloe_Rinz posted...

what if one of those hardwares had 90% market share? do you think thats still not a monopoly?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/7/AAKOcSAADlTv.jpg

shaselai posted...

Or she thinks gamers are dumb.

Post like yours prove she's right.

Foppe posted...

I wonder...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/7/AAKOcSAADlTv.jpg

How does sony have 90% of the market share when nintendo exists?

Barber102 posted...

sony has only bought dev studios,

That's not true. They purchased Crunchyroll who is a video game publisher. I'm sure this doesn't count for some reason though I'm looking forward to seeing how far the goalposts move.

Barber102 posted...

do you know how many dev studios are under zennimax? Do you know how many are under blizz activision? Oh sure sony bought this single dev studio and that single dev studio.

Sony bought sucker punch, insomniac, naughty dog, media molecule, Bungie, Guerilla, etc.

Since 2010, Sony has acquired 92 companies. BEFORE 2010 for the entire history of Sony they've only acquired 22.

So what is this really about? Monopolies or you just don't like Microsoft?

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's not true. They purchased Crunchyroll who is a video game publisher. I'm sure this doesn't count for some reason though I'm looking forward to seeing how far the goalposts move.

Sony bought sucker punch, insomniac, naughty dog, media molecule, Bungie, Guerilla, etc.

Since 2010, Sony has acquired 92 companies. BEFORE 2010 for the entire history of Sony they've only acquired 22.

So what is this really about? Monopolies or you just don't like Microsoft?

when did crunchyroll start making games? I thought they were an anime streamer?

again what major publishers has sony purchased? Most of the devs sony has purchased made sony exclusives for years, beyond a few token titles.

Even bungie which you mentioned has full control over where they release their games and have stated they will remain a multiplat studio. Yet all of zennimax was immediately turned xbox and game pass exclusive.

ive also stated several times in the past I am 1000% anti exclusives. Its anti consumer. I also dont have a memory of a goldfish and can remember why and when I dropped playing console games and switched to pc. News flash it was xbox with their shit xbox one and all the glorious bullshit prior to release.

I only ever bought a ps4 for its exclusives and because the FGC was mainly on ps4 during its generation. I am not a sony fanboy.

meanwhile all zennimax and blizz/activision have ever made are mutliplatform titles.

I do hate microsoft and everything it has done to windows, I hate what they tried to do in the past which was anti consumer and in the future they will continue to do so.

Which is why despite being a pc gamer I refuse to buy gamepass.

Barber102 posted...

crunchy roll only makes mobile games and is predominantly an anime streaming studio so this is akin to netflix gaming big LOL on you for this.

Nobody tell him what Microsoft is really getting out of the Activision Blizzard merger lmao.

Barber102 posted...

ive also stated several times in the past I am 1000% anti exclusives.

Then you should be pro Microsoft as they're the only company in the competition with a commitment and track record of bringing their first party games to other platforms.

Sony's track record is one of reducing the amount of platforms a game is playable on. And even when they can't do that, they make it obnoxious as hell for developers to make cross platform play.

Also that statement seems to be diametric with this one:

Barber102 posted...

I only ever bought a ps4 for its exclusives

Tyranthraxus posted...

Nobody tell him what Microsoft is really getting out of the Activision Blizzard merger lmao.

Then you should be pro Microsoft as they're the only company in the competition with a commitment and track record of bringing their first party games to other platforms.

Sony's track record is one of reducing the amount of platforms a game is playable on. And even when they can't do that, they make it obnoxious as hell for developers to make cross platform play.

Also that statement seems to be diametric with this one:

dont quote me out of context, I also stated for the fgc, aka the fighting game community, almost every tournament was on a ps4 last gen and since pc has higher frames comboing works different and somethings arent possible on consoles especially in mk11. I mainly play fighting games so where the competition is that is where I will be.

i know about candy crush being owned by activision.

and no xbox is not commited to shit as soon as they bought zennimax, they said their games were only on xbox and game pass. you just killed your entire argument in this singular statement. if they were commited they wouldve done the same thing sony did with bungie letting bungie decide where they release their content.

bungie is staying multiplatform, all zennimax titles are not. Keep sucking microsoft.

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's not true. They purchased Crunchyroll who is a video game publisher. I'm sure this doesn't count for some reason though I'm looking forward to seeing how far the goalposts move.

Sony bought sucker punch, insomniac, naughty dog, media molecule, Bungie, Guerilla, etc.

Since 2010, Sony has acquired 92 companies. BEFORE 2010 for the entire history of Sony they've only acquired 22.

So what is this really about? Monopolies or you just don't like Microsoft?

Out of those 92 companies how many of the were gaming studios?

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Out of those 92 companies how many of the were gaming studios?

I believe Sony has bought 10 or 11 gaming studio simps 2019

bob15x posted...

I believe Sony has bought 10 or 11 gaming studio simps 2019

Lmao the typo is perfect.

Barber102 posted...

and no xbox is not commited to shit as soon as they bought zennimax, they said their games were only on xbox and game pass. you just killed your entire argument in this singular statement.

Bzzt wrong. Every single one is on Steam. Try again.

Barber102 posted...

How does sony have 90% of the market share when nintendo exists?

When did I say that Sony got a marketshare of 90%?

VeggetaX posted...

I thought y'all hated CoD. But because Sony don't want it then now it's a big deal?

I had this same thought lmfao hahahahahhah

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's not true. They purchased Crunchyroll who is a video game publisher. I'm sure this doesn't count for some reason though I'm looking forward to seeing how far the goalposts move.

They're an anime streaming service first and foremost. You're talking out of your ass.

Sony bought Psygnosis back in the day who was a European publisher. It's why they own Lemmings.

But Sony didn't buy publishers because they didn't need or want to. They have always preferred to have third parties release games on their platform. It has nothing to do with playing fair or whatever that means. None of them play fair. Why would they?

Its really a shame that Sony lost Crash and Spyro btw, those series were killed because no one cared about them and they got turned into shovelware franchises

KainFourteh posted...

It amuses me when sad little folk think putting $ in a company name is some kind of insult.

$seems I $truck a nerve lol

Damn_Underscore posted...

Its really a shame that Sony lost Crash and Spyro btw, those series were killed because no one cared about them and they got turned into shovelware franchises

Well if Sony bought a publisher back in the day they would own them lol. But they decided not to (or never tried to do anything about it) so someone else did.

KainFourteh posted...

They're an anime streaming service first and foremost. You're talking out of your ass.

Microsoft is an enterprise software company first and foremost.

Sony is a electronic hardware company first and foremost.

Valve is a digital games retailer first and foremost.

No one gives a shit. Crunchyroll publishes games. Get over it

I think people are assuming that Microsoft and Sony are still working under the same logic. They aren't.

Sony's aim is to be the biggest console for third parties. They have basically accomplished that for every single console generation other than the PS3. When they weren't able to make a similar business model for handhelds they left that market. They are trying to do that now with VR as well.

Their aim is to release a couple of major first party titles a year and let third parties handle the rest. The whole AAA blockbuster thing they now focus on wasn't even a thing for them until late into the PS3 generation.

Microsoft did go for that same business model. So when they believed they had established themselves enough they scaled back investments into gaming development. Which overall was a pretty major fuck up. But then they bought Minecraft. Which in all likelihood has made them more money than anything else they did in that business. That's what they want to replicate with Game Pass and all of these acquisitions. It's why they're spreading their games to PC and mobile. It's why they want to own all of their content.

They're currently two companies going for different things. Now Sony didn't care about anything Microsoft was doing until Call of Duty came into question. That's one of their biggest third party games and it makes them a lot of money. Even Microsoft putting COD day one on Game Pass is a concern for them even if it's still multiplatform. They want to be seen as the major console for those styles of games and they have spent the last decade locking that in.

Neither company is morally right or fair. Both want their way of doing things to be more established.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Neither company is morally right or fair. Both want their way of doing things to be more established.

There's a big difference between "we want to add games to our Game Pass service but still have them available on other consoles for as many people to play as possible" and "we want to pay studios to release their games exclusively for our system or as a timed exclusive for multiple years". Of those, I would definitely say that Microsoft is the lesser of the two evils.

Calwings posted...

There's a big difference between "we want to add games to our Game Pass service but still have them available on other consoles for as many people to play as possible" and "we want to pay studios to release their games exclusively for our system or as a timed exclusive for multiple years". Of those, I would definitely say that Microsoft is the lesser of the two evils.

Thats a bit wrong though. Microsoft wants to release those games on Gamepass only. They definitely dont want to release those games on other consoles.

They are making short term agreements now because all the Regulators are calling out their monopolistic behaviour and if they dont the merger will be shut down. 10 years from now dont expect to see any of those games on a non-Microsoft console

Also thats excusing all the horrible anti-consumer stuff Microsoft has tried to pull even 1-2 years ago. Sony is very evil, but its definitely the lesser

I think Microsoft would love to have Game Pass on PlayStation and Switch. But it's not a realistic expectation for Sony and Nintendo to go for. They want their 30% cut and have their own subscription to sell.

Xerun posted...

They are making short term agreements now because all the Regulators are calling out their monopolistic behaviour and if they dont the merger will be shut down. 10 years from now dont expect to see any of those games on a non-Microsoft console

I think it's the opposite. It doesn't make sense for multiplayer games to be exclusive anymore. 10 years from now I think Nintendo will be the only one doing that.

Single player games are a different story.

Xerun posted...

Thats a bit wrong though. Microsoft wants to release those games on Gamepass only. They definitely dont want to release those games on other consoles.

They are making short term agreements now because all the Regulators are calling out their monopolistic behaviour and if they dont the merger will be shut down. 10 years from now dont expect to see any of those games on a non-Microsoft console

10 years isn't "short term" at all, that's more than an entire console generation. Plus, with Minecraft and Call of Duty specifically (and maybe a few other big games) they would be losing a ton of money from missing out on microtransaction sales from players on other consoles, and I don't think enough of those players would switch from their consoles to Xbox and Game Pass to make that up.

Xerun posted...

Also thats excusing all the horrible anti-consumer stuff Microsoft has tried to pull even 1-2 years ago. Sony is very evil, but its definitely the lesser

What did they try to pull 1-2 years ago?

Calwings posted...

There's a big difference between "we want to add games to our Game Pass service but still have them available on other consoles for as many people to play as possible" and "we want to pay studios to release their games exclusively for our system or as a timed exclusive for multiple years". Of those, I would definitely say that Microsoft is the lesser of the two evils.

I seem to recall all the Sony fanboys saying that xbox games were on the PC so they weren't exclusive so has that changed again now? so if Microsoft is putting their games on the console and the PC then what are you complaining abut and how are those games coming on the pc for all sonys 1st party

Tyranthraxus posted...

What did they try to pull 1-2 years ago?

Doubling the price of their Xbox online service

making their HDD proprietary

Psychonauts 2 upgrade for PS5

Xerun posted...

Doubling the price of their Xbox online service

making their HDD proprietary

Psychonauts 2 upgrade for PS5

1. They didn't double the price. They considered it but backed off because of consumer backlash, though I'd love to hear your explanation as to why listening to consumer complaints is anti consumer.
2. Proprietary HDD was way older than 1-2 years ago.
3. They didn't do anything specific to Psychonauts 2.