KippDynamite

@vapidwolf1
Thanks! I'll check it out.

@Squanch
Cheers! I have looked at 6th axis for maybe ten years. They're good (especially Tuffcub) but miss a lot of news.

I'll check out the other ones!

Oh, the humanity!

Does anyone know a good website where I can get lots of PlayStation news without constant nitpicking and complaining? Like, where they get interested in and talk about games instead of random UI and service topics?

I've tried to be patient with Push Square but it's just gotten to be too much.

You get two games a month for PS4, and one for PS5. That's what you pay for when you sign up. Simple as that.

These are actually the types of games I like on Plus - stuff that I probably wouldn't buy but am interested in.

If they said the games were Horizon and Returnal that would be awesome, but my response would be "I've already played those."

I've played many. There a lot of good ones. Probably the most impressed with Killzone Mercenary.

Games used to be finished and THEN released. Some companies still do this!

"Ultimately, the Japanese giant would still have to weather a significant outlay on developing the hardware, without guaranteeing the same royalties in return."

Unless Sony got a cut of the subscription. It still may not be worth it to them, but getting, say, 30-40% of the money from 25 million subscribers might be attractive to them.

@art_of_the_kill
Honestly, I'm more interested in the output of Housemarque than all of Activision.

@Juanalf
I'm saying that - when it comes to video games - Sony has a pretty good track record for adapting and knowing what they are doing, and Microsoft does not.

We should not just assume Microsoft knows what it's doing just because they are going to spend a lot of money. They are really good at marketing and setting the narrative, but not so good at making a profit with video games.

I'm sort of surprised so many people are impressed when they see money being spent.

I know a guy who constantly spends his money. He makes a lot so he can, but he has so many financial obligations he seems sort of miserable. He seems kind of phony sitting in his fancy car.

I know another guy who doesn't make much but he lives within his means - wears normal clothes and drives a ten year-old Toyota. He seems way more on top of his finances (and life generally) than the first guy. He also seems way less stressed.

I guess I'm surprised people are more impressed with the first guy than the second.

It's a matter of perspective. Here's another one:

For over 25 years Sony has been fairly steady in the gaming business. They've been on top in 4 of the 5 generations of consoles they've been in. They had a notable blip with the PS3 but righted the ship with a focus on innovated gameplay and solid exclusives. This continues to the current day, where the PS5 is selling faster than any new console in history and they have excellent exclusives coming out imminently.

It is MICROSOFT that is desperately trying to succeed. They've been in last place for four console generations in a row (though I'll readily concede the 360 wasn't perceived this way at the time). Their Xbox brand has reportedly never turned an operating profit.

THEY are the ones desperately flailing for ideas. They are like a cornered dog, frothing and posturing. They are the insecure ones who believe they have no options other than to spend desperate amounts of money.

@TheRedComet
"But Microsoft doesn’t have to honor any of it once they move into the home office."

This is simply not true. Contracts have to be honored - that's the whole point of having them. When one company acquires another they buy everything - assets, debts, existing tax audits, existing contracts, existing lawsuits, etc. All of this will still exist after Microsoft completes the purchase.

Well if Call of Duty still releases on PlayStation then almost all of the drama yesterday about Sony going under seems quite overblown.

Also seems like 70 bil is too much money to pay for Activision.

Of note, Project Zero Dawn wasn't the only attempt to save humanity. Among other things, a rocket loaded with people was sent to space, but Sobeck learns that the rocket was destroyed.

I wonder if some other people actually survived . . .

@get2sammyb
"To be fair, Sony did come into the industry with deeper pockets in the 90s and ate the smaller players like SEGA, so I suppose we should have expected this eventually."

That's not how I remember it. Sega was making big blunders, alienating developers, and selling very expensive systems. Sony had a developer-friendly platform and sold games for less than half the price of Sega games (same issues applied to Nintendo as well). They were much more aggressive in their business practices than they are now but I don't recall it being underhanded.

Phil Spencer has a big face and weirdly small mouth.

He is truly out of his mind to talk about entities potentially destroying the video game industry when he is the main culprit of such a thing. That or he thinks those hearing him are out of their minds.

@get2sammyb
"the $70 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard is more than the Xbox division has generated across its entire 20 year history.

I think things like that, assuming it's true, are sobering."

To me, is sobering in its potential to be a really bad business decision. Imagine that pitch in this or any other industry:

"Hey boss, we've been trying to make money with this idea for 20 years and have struggled. We have a plan but it requires more money than we've ever made over 20 years. Sound good?"

It's possible Sony has contracts for Call of Duty for the next ten years. No one knows.

In the first game it's revealed that a signal was sent to cause each aspect of the AI program to become independent AIs, which is why Hades broke loose and tried to reboot Earth. But who or what sent that signal?

After this trailer I wonder if that rocket full of rich people didn't actually explode as it left Earth before the apocalypse.

Me like Horizon.

Though I would genuinely love a sequel to The Dagger of Amman Ra - Laura Bow is actually pretty great!

Looks like they bought a graveyard.

Kotick has been rightfully hated for decades. The fact that he is a multi-billionaire is as much an indictment of our economic systems as anything could be.

Think of how many excellent games could have been made for 70 billion dollerydoos!

@Juanalf
Because at some point the behemoth that is Microsoft will go "let's just ditch that gaming wing of the company that hasn't made a profit in over 20 years."

I don't lose sleep over this. I have a job, business, family, etc. But I'm bored on my phone at the moment.

@IonMagi
"wasting tons of money on...Sony Pictures."

They just released one of the most profitable movies of all time. I don't know where you get your info but your narrative doesn't seem to fit reality.

"it’s the manufacturer slumped against the ropes, blood dripping from its mouth, while it desperately gasps for air."

This website could not be more melodramatic. PlayStation makes quite a lot of money independent of Activision, though it's true Activision brings in a lot. Something like 20 million people bought the last God of War. PlayStation makes 30% of GTAV money. They're doing quite well.

But how will Microsoft realistically make money from a $70,000,000,000 purchase when they give away all their games? Do some math and get back to us, Sammy.

GamePass makes, at most, probably 3 billion a year. It has 25 million subscribers, most of which don't pay full price. How in the world is Microsoft going to recoup 70 billion dollars? These types of questions don't seem to be important to the economic wizards on fan sites such as this one.

I genuinely have zero interest in Call of Duty and have never spent a penny on them. I was eyeing Sekiro but that's the only Activision (published) game I've been remotely interested in for quite some time.

Honestly, Insomniac has a more interesting output than all of Activision to me.

@HungryHungryHomer
When there are no games coming out they've got to praise something!

Also, it would be nice if Push Square called out this crap for what it is rather than to have no ethics. Heaven forbid you take a position.

This place has felt more pro Xbox than PlayStation for over a year now and it would be nice to feel some love for PlayStation on a PlayStation fan site.

This acquisition is objectively bad for our hobby and it should be okay to say so.

I think this is bad for the industry and will create a lot of articles for websites like this one, but ultimately my gaming life will probably remain similar to how it is now. I'll still be playing Horizon: Forbidden West a month from now, and that's all I really care about with regard to gaming.

Imagine you never went to gaming websites. Would this news really affect you that much?

I suppose a fairly straightforward way for Sony to cope is to allow GamePass on their systems and charge a 30% cut of the subscription.

This is exactly the same thing as Sony buying Insomniac for 0.4% that same cost!

@LiamCroft
True. Good point.

Looks like it could be decent but that video was put together very poorly.

If PlayStation doesn't even get the games it seems obvious they wouldn't also get extra skins?

This is getting to the point where I wonder if anti-trust legislation is appropriate. This must be one of the biggest acquisitions in world history.

That said, I haven't played an Activision game in over a generation!

@killileahihoo
Didn't read either article, huh? The global mobile gaming business made 116 billion, not Sony.

I also don't see why there is so much pressure to copy 3rd place.

When your competitor thinks copying them is the right thing to do, it's probably the wrong thing to do!

I guess we'll see. Colin Moriarty is known to say whatever random thought enters his head.

Blink once for yes, twice for no.

Damn them! I predict a future where even Street Fighter will have ads while the matches load! Heresy!

Or even a dystopian future where, instead of fun costumes being included in games, you have to buy each one! Or, worse yet, a game where you get advantages by effectively purchasing cheats! Or a game where you have to play each day to stay involved because the game is always changing - then the games will be in control of US! God help us if that day ever comes!

I have the best memories of 2 but I think the story in Uncharted 4 is probably the best.

I really liked how it takes the old trope of rescuing the princess and turns it on it's head - Elena not only physically rescues Drake, but saves him emotionally and psychologically as well. She could have just divorced him for his repeated antics and betrayals, but she instead wins the "Best Wife In Gaming" award. They then find a way to have a stable life while also having adventures. I found it really touching and meaningful.

@nomither6
Imagine a song. A person or corporation owns the copyright to that song. No one can sell it on their own - the owner of the copyright has to authorize it. They generally enter into a deal with someone (say, Spotify or a radio station) where they can play or sell the song for profit, but they give a cut to the copyright holder.

This is how a great many things make money. A person holds the copyright to a movie, and they get a cut when the movie makes money. Someone holds the patent to a medication or video game controller, and they make money each time there's a sale.

Society in general agrees on the existence of copyright, patents, etc., and there are many laws involving them.

An NFT is a concept that was literally created out of thin air last year. It stands for "Non-Fungible Token." How it works is, a person uses the Blockchain to create a unique identifier to a piece of media. Then they say they are selling that unique identifier, and call it an NFT. This is all separate from copyrights, patents, etc.

If a person owns the NFT to a song they still have no rights - they can't sell the song or make money from it. They don't really own anything about it, other than the imaginary thing they themselves created called an NFT.

So people are making NFTs for things, then selling them to whoever is willing to buy them. They may or may not have anything to do with the actual item associated with the NFT.

If this all sounds like nonsense to you, it's because it is. A person is basically hoping the NFT increases in value - like a collectible card. The main difference is that with a collectible card there is at least an actual thing increasing in value, whereas an NFT is something literally made up by greedy tech people.

Companies are getting involved because all big corporations get involved if they think they can make money somehow. But it's all nonsense.

People who launder money or hide assets are involved because it facilitates their criminal behaviour. Governments are slow to catch up to these types of things, but my guess is they will be banned at some point. Even governments like the US are starting to crack down on things like Cryptocurrency - this year the front page of your tax return has you list how much money you have in crypto. NFTs won't be far behind.

When it occurs to a big enough group of people that NFTs are worthless, they will actually be worthless.

@RevGaming
"Imagine a weapon from god of war ragnarok is an nft that only 10 people can use in the campaign."

For some reasons publishers are trying to spin this as a positive but it doesn't make financial sense for them. How much time does it take to make a new weapon, balance it, do the art and animation, etc.? And only 10 people could get it?

Microtransactions make a bunch of money because a dev spends very little time making a cosmetic item while potentially millions of people could buy it. It's profitable at a large scale. But making a cosmetic for one person? The price for one item would have to be insane for them to bother.

Ubisoft has already tried this and almost no one bought their crap.