BacklogBrad

I imagine whatever zenimax online's new ip is will be on ps as well.

I think any major single player game will be exclusive. Probably includes both doom and wolfenstein even if there is a multiplayer mode.

Good for them for being in a position to stay independent, for now anyway. That stance can change in a heartbeat.

It's sad how many rumors start like this. Was the employee looking for attention or just completely unaware of the truth? It was fishy that one hasbro employee would speak for all of Activision and claim that not a single person at either company knows where the files are stored.

Watching the FTC lose was glorious. Gotta love those rare cases where government overreach is denied. Now the CMA looks like a joke (also glorious) and needs MS to give them an out by making another "concession" that MS doesn't actually care about.

I'm skeptical of the price point. Ubisoft doesn't seem like the type to decide a 20-30 hour game is not worth the AAA price (especially with their flagship franchise).

Hopefully I'm wrong but it seems like small scale means much more is being scaled back than just a tighter shorter story. Obviously the rpg elements like weapons and armor rating are probably gone too but why would Ubisoft view a brand new game in the old style as only worth AA pricing? If it is on par with Black Flag, syndicate or even 2/brotherhood I would think they would be confident people would buy it at $70.

Maybe Ubisoft has changed and is just being gracious with this price point but everything they have done in the past suggests otherwise. They are notorious for the copy/paste sequels that come out at full price then immediately price drop. For them to acknowledge that a new Assassins Creed game is not worth full price at launch worries me.

Picked up a ROG Ally so probably just testing that out with various Gamepass and Steam titles.

They still overmarketed the gimmick of the game. The rift tether was not the next gen revolution they claimed it was. Fun game though.

I wonder if a physical edition is in the works. Xbox hasn't had one yet.

I haven't really seen Rick & Morty at all but I thought the humor of this game was okay. Not all the jokes land but i never found it annoying. I love J.B. Smoove from curb your enthusiasm and he was great as one of the guns. Shooting and platforming was fun, I think it mostly comes down to how you respond to the humor.

High on Life is a fun game. The humor can be hit or miss. J.B. Smoove is great as the voice of one of the guns. Overall I really liked it.

@get2sammyb I uninstalled it already and moved on. I disliked pretty much everything about the gameplay and gameplay loop. Any later variety would have to overcome a lot and I have no interest in finding out if it does.

I did only play with one other friend and thought it might have been a little better with a full team but I am not going to recommend purchasing this game to any of my friends.

I'm waiting for that moment when "considering initiatives to encourage even more people to play the game" means $20 sale.

I bounced off this one after 4 hours. It was way too repetitive for me. I did not like this game at all.

@Kierant202 there is a massive crowd on pc that will not buy a ps5 regardless of if the games ever come to pc or not. Might as well capitalize on that and sell them a copy on pc.

The amount of people that you convince to buy a ps5 to compliment their pc is not going to make much money for sony. They are going to buy the console that sony barely makes money on and a small collection of 1st party games. Those are probably single player games so they are one time purchases, not battlepass micro transaction games. If those players fully dove into the ecosystem and bought all 3rd party games on ps5 then sony would make a lot of money but they are probably playing those games on pc.

It is a bigger net gain for sony to include games on Steam where there are 120 million active monthly users.

@XenonKnight I still don't understand how releasing a game on ps5 and PC forces people to go buy or build a pc that is most likely much more expensive than a ps5 and harder to use. This really doesnt affect the playstation console in any way. It opens up a new revenue source for playstation which will benefit console users not hurt them.

@XenonKnight releasing their games on pc doesn't force anyone to pc. You are still free to enjoy them on ps5 if you prefer. Pc ports mean more money made for sony and hopefully more money spent by sony.

99% chance call of duty will not be exclusive on year 11. MS wants call of duty on playstation and probably always will.

@elpardo1984 they were appealing the ruling of the preliminary injunction trial which would just issue a temporary block until the actual trial in august. Since they lost that trial and the appeal there is no longer a temporary restraining order to close the deal. The actual FTC trial is scheduled for august but now seems unneccessary without the Sony argument.

This deal basically slams the door on the post closing trial for the FTC that is technically still scheduled for August. The FTC would have been highly unlikely to have impacted the deal afterwards anyway but this officially throws out their main point.

@Tharsman jim Ryan was apparently trying to leverage other IP into the deal but it never was offered by MS.

Makes sense too for MS to not entertain that if Jim Ryan's only complaint to regulators was CoD then the other IP are irrelevant.

Surely Phil would have included that in his tweet if it was more than CoD.

That had to be an awkward phone call between Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer.

"So uh, is that deal still available? No hard feelings for all the fuss and lies."

@thefourfoldroot1 I wonder what a Ps+ extra deal would look like at "fair market value." Surely it would still need to be the largest such contract ever to bring call of duty day 1. We've never seen a 3rd party title of that magnitude day 1 on gamepass or extra.

@HonestHick I can see MS using some of the new IPs they will own soon but I'm not sure they pull teams off Call of Duty.

ABK is a well oiled machine that is spitting out best selling Call of Duty games every year. It would also look bad if MS slowed down production on CoD after Sony made such a stink about how important it is to them. It would not look good if MS made all those 10 year promises then released 3 games in that period instead of the expected 10. I think Call of Duty would benefit from a different approach rather than yearly but I think they need to stick with it at least for the next few years.

@Deshalu I agree exclusive IP are a good thing for xbox to have more of.

I was trying to say that Phil spencer never promised all ip will remain multiplatform. I thought I was disputing phils actual quote not yours.

@UltimateOtaku91 "this deal was not done to take games away from another player base" Phil spencer 11/17/2020

Doesn't promise bethesda ip always being locked to multiplat

@UltimateOtaku91 Phil Spencer did not say "take existing IP" you are putting words in his mouth. It was "take existing games" elder scrolls 5 and elder scrolls 6 are entirely different games. The 6th one was never announced for ps5 so it cannot be claimed that he has taken it away.

@thefourfoldroot1 there has never been a console game released exclusively into a subscription service. If you don't like subscriptions there will never be a reason forcing you to. Storefronts like steam, playstation and switch are way too appealing to exclusively offer a game to subscribers.

**gamepass hack - pay for one month and treat it like a Costco membership. Buy a bunch of the gamepass games digitally for 20% off and they are yours forever. It only takes a couple games to save more than the single month sub.

@thefourfoldroot1 it's interesting that you don't think Apple or Amazon have entered the gaming market.

If Jim Ryan is to be believed, we are not moving towards a subscription only future. He gave a video testimony saying publishers unanimously don't like that model.

I don't think there has ever been a more competitive time in gaming history. 3 major console producers, all thriving. New handheld consoles(that dock to any hdmi display) are entering the market regularly and offer native access to multiple storefronts (xbox, steam, epic, etc.)

It's worth pointing out that the last time xbox (or anyone) seriously threatened playstation they responded with one of the best console gens of all time, ps4. Sony has been showing signs of that ps3 arrogance again lately.
Playstation is at its best with a healthy and aggressive xbox.

@Deshalu I love what 343 has done with the single player of halo. 5 and infinite are both amazing campaigns IMO. I'm excited to see what they do with the open world formula they started with infinite.

This changes very little for playstation. Call of duty will still be the best selling game on ps nearly every year. Sony will still get their cut to fund 1st party games. It will be interesting to see what MS does with the IPs that ABK barely touched. Protocol, spyro, crash, etc might be exclusive to xbox if they ever do anything with them but abk making those games was extremely rare to begin with. Xbox has been very hands off with their acquired studios so it might be business as usual at abk (CoD and WoW factory).

PS+ will need to improve but that's a good thing for ps gamers.

I'm glad the deal is making it through. It should be a good thing for the industry.

I tried exoprimal for a couple hours. That game is not for me. I found the gameplay loop boring right out of the gate.

Xbox - tom clancy ghost recon wildlands
Ps2 - ace combat 5
Ps5 - final fantasy 7 remake
Pc - far Cry 3 blood dragon/xcom enemy unknown

Played it for about 2 hours and so far I'm not liking it. Maybe it is just a personal taste thing but I found this game pretty boring. I tried it on gamepass so I'm not out anything, would have been pretty bummed if I paid $60 for this.

Hopefully their research is heavily focused on the low survival rate of live service games. It's not uncommon for these games to be delisted within a year of release.

If they really do have about a dozen in development, it wouldn't be shocking if 8 or less actaully make it to release. Once they do release it is an even tougher battle in convincing the live service crowd that this one is worth continuously spending time in instead of the other service games competing for their time. Those established service games have the benefit of history on their side. The players have a built up profile already, they likely have friends and feel like part of a community. It seems like a tough sell to get them to start over with that level of commitment.

@Deshalu playstation isn't losing the income from call of duty. They will still get the same cut of every sale on the playstation store (typically 30%). The biggest change with this merger is the other part of the profit from each sale on ps store (and every other store) goes to their direct competitor xbox. The deal is strange in that it won't really negatively affect Sonys revenue that much but will be a massive boost to their rival xbox's revenue.

Without marketing rights Sony may lose a small portion of the call of duty playerbase but I think most will remain loyal. If you have or previously had a playstation and your friends are on PS, you're probably sticking with PS.

@Splat do you have a source for gamepass is losing money? All evidence points to it being profitable.

@theSpectre zenimax games and final fantasy make sense as exclusives since they are mostly single player isolated experiences. I imagine the next mmo from zenimax online is on as many platforms as possible.

Call of duty and overwatch do not make sense as exclusives.

@RicebinBernacky it will be interesting to see how many of the casual gamers convert to gamepass. Sony had some data on the crazy number of people that have a console and only play COD. I can't imagine too many of those players suddenly paying for gamepass instead of just that one time $70 or free to play warzone.

It will be interesting as it unfolds, there hasnt really been a game like this hitting a service before.

CMA agreement is in place apparently. "Microsoft and CMA have agreed on a small divestiture to address the regulators concerns. Any divestiture would be related to cloud gaming in the UK." CNBC David Faber

@KaijuKaiser where did I imply the window of development? All I said was Sony was known to have made a deal on 2 bethesda games prior to the merge and was in discussions for Starfield exclusivity.

I don't think you can assume multiplatform release of Hi Fi rush when Sony was working to secure a 3rd out of the 4 known bethesda upcoming releases.

Sony had set a precedent of securing exclusive release window of bethesda titles.

Edit: redfall wasnt announced until after the acquisition. So sony had the previous 2 and was working on the 3rd of the 3 known upcoming releases.

@thefourfoldroot1 it is simply saying the decision allows more than the current 2 options to play a game. It implies nothing about the future dominance of any of those options.

@KaijuKaiser i wouldn't assume hi fi rush would have been multiplat on release. Sony bought the 2 previous bethesda games and had eyes on starfield.

For the most part xbox will just be getting a huge cut of all the playstation sales. What helps playstation will also be helping xbox.

Additionally gamepass will be even better. Sony will need to focus resources here that it has previously been reluctant to.

Some of the single player focused games might be exclusive. These won't be a huge hit to sony. Call of duty, overwatch, maybe even diablo will remain on ps.

@thefourfoldroot1 I don't agree that this is a concession that cloud will be increasingly dominant or that MS is particularly dominant in that segment.

It is simply saying that instead of 2 options on where to play this game you will now have many options.

In my opinion the most important tidbit from the judges formal decision.

"Sony opposes the merger; its opposition is understandable. Before the merger Sony paid for exclusive marketing rights but restricted xbox's ability to do the same. After the merger, the combined firm presumably will not agree to such restrictions. Before the merger, a consumer had to buy a playstation or an xbox. After the merger, consumers can utilize the cloud to play on the device of choice, including, it is intended the nintendo switch. Perhaps bad for Sony but good for call of duty gamers and future gamers."

To paraphrase
The deal only hurts the market leader and no one else(actually helps a lot of independent competitors). A block would only help the market leader and no one else.

@theSpectre exclusivity decisions probably come down more to the game style than specific sales figures.

It certainly makes more sense to make a single player game exclusive than an online game. I would guess whatever zenimax online has coming next is multiplat, the rumored quake might be multiplat again too. Elder scrolls 6 would sell really well on playstation but it makes more sense as an exclusive single player experience. Call of duty needs that massive player base just to function, the more players the better it will be for everyone. It also has countless battle passes and dlc to sell as well.

I am genuinely confused by Sony's decision to get exclusivity for live service games that already have a low survival rate with multiplat.

@xDD90x that's what I was referring to, the decision to make ps6 games less optimized by withholding the new systems. It sounds like Jim Ryan already made that decision but who knows, he was blowing smoke throughout the whole block attempt.

@MaccaMUFC they did swear under oath not to make call of duty exclusive. I don't think sony signs anything. I believe it is clear that call of duty never was planned to be exclusive, they want the 70% cut of all those playstation sales. I don't think Sony needs to worry about that. The biggest issue will be quality parity if Jim Ryan was honest when he said they will not give information about their next consoles for them to develop cod.

CMA and xbox have both just now asked the CAT tribunal to pause litigation on the appeal of the CMA block after hearing the ftc ruling. It appears they are renegotiating now. This whole thing might be official soon.

I look forward to seeing how Sony responds to the likelihood of COD being day 1 gamepass in a few years. If you sub to either console's service they are about to get much better.

I think they reached the correct decision. The question now is does xbox work with the CMA on a solution or around the CMA on a solution.

This FTC case was the biggest hurdle by far. It is basically smooth seas ahead and is just a matter of which path they take around the UK decision.