@saffeqwe 1) what ever yo usay dude. 2) Now you're just asking stupid questions. Why travel down that road yourself, if you're just going to back peddle out of it half way through the conversation, dude.
@HonestHick Xbox makes up less than 9% of FF sales. If it isn't selling well on PS5 in a PS5 dominated region now, it's not going to make up even 3% in a delayed launch. PC tends to do better than Xbox, but again 11% if lucky.
Problem with FF16 is it's marketing has sputtered out early. It's a fantastic game, but we haven't seen any more marketing since launch. You have a lot of gamers still put off by FF15 that they need to win back.
@rjejr lol that NPC woman explaining things over a map is so minor that I have no idea how you could even compare that to Xenogears Disc 2. The first encounter is just to get you familiar with her character. Her importance is to help strengthen the narrative, not supply it. Want to know more about the history of an area you can, optionally, ask her to do so. The story only relies on her 2 or 3 times, the latter of which come at great effect.
FF16's story is fantastic. It is not a game you can back seat game on. You have to play it yourself. Game is very well paced and calling it an action game in the vain of DMC does it a disservice. I get where the comparisons come from, but it doesn't fit. I'm saying that as someone who has finished the title and is in the middle of his second play through.
@saffeqwe lol dude we are talking about current events not defunct decade+ old shooters that youngest generation of gamers have never even heard of. Might as well start citing halo 3 numbers with logic like that.
I'm sorry, but halo infinite hasn't even managed to touch a modern Sony releases sales. Even ff16 with 3.3m out the door in its first week has trounced on the 2m infinite sold in its first year.
Anything else on the subject is halo fanboyism or willful ignorance. You need to wake up.
@Sakai Sorry, but gamepass will not improve with the arrival of ATVI or Blizzard games coming to gamepass.
Sure. You'll get the base core game for free. However the battlepasses, the free to play elements, you're still paying for those. So that's strike one against this acquisition benefiting gamepass.
Now what about the single player. Well considering the bonus' for the dev's comes out of that content and you just essentially neutored it with game pass on PC and potentially xbox. That's going to mean less of a return for those devs. A good chunk of money comes out of that premium product. You've just killed it by putting it day one on game pass. You think people don't care about single player now, wait till the dev's on those titles finally just give up. I know I personally would start looking for another job because the pay wouldn't be as good without that bonus. Going from 200k in a year down to 110k maybe 130-140k in a year best case, ya I don't see that helping the cause of Game Pass content. So that's strike two. Thats the activision side.
What about the blizzard side.... ya all that ***** is wrapped up in gamepass. OW2 is f2p now. You won't see WoW on gamepass. Diablo 4 could very well appear on the service, but I beg the question, is it cheaper to simply own the game at that point? Putting that a side, you won't be seeing more gamepass titles released yearly from blizzard. You know how many games they released last gen? Just one. That was Overwatch. You could make a case for Diablo 3, but that was a port. Which brings another fact to light, what happened during that era of PS3? Starcraft II? That didn't even come to console. I'm willing to mark this as strike 3.
Way I see it there isn't much in this deal for them between ATVI or BLIZ. Might help their PC space a little sure, but most PC gamers are going to ask themselves "why" in the first place. Steam sales are often and frequent. At 120 dollars a year where maybe Diablo 4 and a handful of other sales of indies and other titles not on the service, OW2, maybe if we see FF16 this year.... I dunno man. I don't even have Game Pass for Halo Infinite, it was cheaper for me to just buy the game and play the mp free.
I can't see this adding value. Even the skew of players is mostly PlayStation for CoD. Certainly have CoD players on PC, but turn off that cross play feature and you'll be spending 45 minutes waiting for a match during high traffic hours on PC. Xbox isn't much better. PlayStation you won't even know the difference.
So I don't see it. Game Pass has peaked. I don't think MS will hold the value you long for these properties and studios they purchased. I'm pretty sure we'll start to see layoffs in 5 years. Restructurings that ultimately hurt the release cycle further. I will not be surprised if Blizzard becomes the next RARE. Game Pass does nothing for the PlayStation gamer either.
this is a trainwreck. In 10 years we'll see the once mighty ABK reduced down to nothing but mobile games, a dying MMO, a competitive gaming scene that has evaporated, and a bunch of youtube videos outlining "The rise and fall of activision". If we are lucky we'll see some franchises like Singularity or Hexen revived, but I'm not holding my breath.
@saffeqwe also its biggest failure. You're the one living in the bubble. Can you give me anything after launch? How does halos numbers line up with other single platform ip? How many of those numbers are including the free to play mp that is available separately? Can you explain the low use case numbers?
As far as bubbles go. Mine is a dev bubble. Straight face, no lie, considered a failure internally. It's part of the reason they are switching to ue5 and had their leadership swapped.
I don't care about your day one hype, it all depends on the legs of a release, hard-core fans will always be there release day. They are the last to leave. All dreaming of days when they sat in a dorm room with their xboxes linked together. This numbers will be slow to deplete. What comes after, ya that's the true measure of hype. No one was talking about it beyond the launch window and it fizzled out, nostalgia was defeated before hype could take hold.
@Sakai not even remotely copium. You're world view is just tiny.
Microsoft is pushing into mobile. They want to be on every device, that's their shtick from the very start. They are after king. Not Activisions library of largely forgettable titles, not an old subscription model for an mmo dying a slow death, not diablo a franchise that is just going through the motions, not some tired shooter that stifles the industry. No sir, it's king, it's candy crush, it's that entire user space that they could start pulling into the gamepass fold. That trash fire generates more revenue than both blizzard and Activision combined.
@GrailUK Microsoft needs to be broken up. Problem is the US government has become a slave to the european elite (no offense) and doesn't care. I mean we're selling plots of our land to china for crying out loud.
Anyway solid points. Biggest problem I see here is that CoD and Blizzards IP will no longer be relevant in 10 years. That's just Microsoft's track record. When was the last time Halo meant something other than some old husk of a franchise past its prime. When was the last time Gears of War was a reason to buy an xbox? Where the hell is Conker? Perfect Dark? Didn't take long for Killer Instinct to dry up in its renaissance. Dare I pose the question about FABLE?
Biggest problem I have here is Microsoft consolidating big names under their umbrella only to see them wither on the vine. Sure state your issues with CoD, but it does have its place in the industry and those studios are home to developers enhancing their skills so they can one day work at the big names on big projects. Forces the industry to basically reboot its self prematurely. We might see a breif boost in Microsofts position, but I guaranty you, in 10 years they'll be right back where they started. As you said about market powers, this is not normal. Under US law at this point they should be under investigation for a split. I think the Xbox Brand needs to be divorced from Microsoft. You don't release a piece of kit like the One X or the Series X without having deep pockets.
We've seen MS take the lead before, so it's not anything sony is doing to control the market. They keep shooting themeselves in the foot.
Anyway hope everyone is ready for a few of years without a steady stream of games before the wave of quality titles comes again from exodus this cuases from these studios.
@Triumph741 Not sure why you get that impression. Sure we'll see Diablo IV on the service, but I don't think blizzard gamers care all that much about Game Pass unless WoW suddenly appears. you're still going to be buying your season passes. That being Said a good chunk of CoD's profit comes from the premium release and many gamers only play CoD. I don't see game pass changing that since the price of a sub is still the cost of the final game. Why would you keep paying for a game yearly you could pay once for and skip the next years cod entirely if you don't like hte studio. Case in point CoD WW2 or anything made by Sledgehammer like WW2.
This won't improve game pass at all. That isn't even the reason they are buying out ABK. It's for the mobile games division. They'll let these games flounder in obscurity for 10 years. Destroy those IP. Then asked why no one cares about these games once they do go exclusive.
This isn't going to change anything for sony. As someone who games on PC. Zero interest in gamepass. We see enough sales on PC that it makes game pass pretty irrelevant.
@AverageGamer If you understood the relationship between communist governments and corporations, you'll find the line pretty thin. The people's republic of China is buying that studio to gain more control over what you're playing. Tencent really doesn't generate the money for big acquisitions.
@UltimateOtaku91 that's an awful take. You don't want China having any kind of domain over the industry just so you can have one more thing to play. What ever gets released will have to go through China's tyrannical policies, censorship, and propaganda machine. Companies in China are not separate entities from the government. Kind of the standing rule with communism. So no. Its better Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Square, Embracer Group, Meta, and a thousand other companies buy out a studio so long as it isn't tencent.
I kid you not I'd buy an Xbox before I'd ever stand behind a backwards and unformed position like the one you just took.
@knowles2 No offense, but if you like to play a good FPS and you happen to play CoD just for the SP and get it for as cheap as yo ucan. You're kind of stupidly hurting yourself.
The initial numbers help in many ways. The determine the bonus' developers get from that project after 3 years of work. They play a part in determining the direction of the franchise. It's also the sort of thing that lead to the debacle that was Blops4.
Not saying you shouldn't wait a few months and see if you can shave a few bucks off, but it does sound like you're waiting till the game is on the bargin bin of a used games store, missing its case, and comes in a paper sleve, with the name timmy scribbled on the front of the disc with a sharpy. At that point you're telling the developer and publisher that you do not care about the single player and they should stop making it. It's self defeating. Which in turn gives them the idea and others, that people only care about the MP, because they are the ones paying full price.
Just based on what you're saying, you don't care about the single player, you just care about getting your fix every now and again.
@InsaneWade as much as I enjoyed the uncharted 2 and 3 mp, I'm to this day not convinced of its overall merrit to have a standalone title built around it. Which is I understand it is what they are trying to achieve with horizon. I feel a standalone ip might be better suited. We've had online titles stand on their own. Overwatch, Warhawk, etc. I think that can be done again. Without having to sacrifice the integrity of an ip in the process. Slapping horizon on the box may get the single player crowd interested at first and maybe jump start it, but it won't pull in hard core online players. The sort that spend 200+ hours a year playing them nonstop for the cool and social factor. Not for horizon. Probably why I feel exoprimal from Capcom is far more interesting than horizon multi-player or coop.
@KaijuKaiser yet that isn't horizon. Go play monster hunter. Several games in that genre space and even tried to expand upon it. How does it make sense to theme park your ip that waters down your franchise.
@Shepherd_Tallon I agree on a diverse catalog of games. But turning all of your ip into mp games is not how you do it. That's the kind of bastardization that leads to first soldier, apex legends, and nosgoth. You might end up with a winner like apex, but you lose a fantastic single player game with a traditional mp mode as a result. You give your franchise a black eye. Or worse Bury your franchise. The latter has a larger volume of victims. One God of War was almost a victim.
They need new ip, new franchises, they need to stop being so skittish when some of these experiments fail. How many sequels in playstation all stars battle Royale would we have been up to by now. How successful would the game have become.
well first off Horizon isn't a MP game. it's like shoehorning gameplay that doesn't fit. ND's Uncharted 2 was lightning in a bottle, it just magically worked, but even that franchise has a hard time maintaining a captivating multiplayer experience, by time we got to Uncharted 4, people were done with it, the changes that were made forgot what Uncharted MP is supposed to feel like. So why Horizon? does it makes sense here? I honestly do not think it does.
You reference CoD. I don't think you understand how much the premium core product makes for the company. Yes MP and WZ make a ton of money, but as much as people insist that the Single Player campaign isn't needed, the data Activision collects suggests the contrary. Part of the reason Black Ops 4 got so much flack and did not do that well. CoD is a different animal than horizon.
That's why. No one wants their single player IP being turned into a multiplayer one that is in service to the Multiplayer Mode. This franchisification isn't good for Sony's IP.
As far as spinning up something new for this sort of thing. Well Sony could stand to do work in this area.
This seems like overkill. 16 projects? We haven't even finished the core trilogy yet and we're talking 16 projects. How well is that PSVR2 game doing, I'm hearing most have trouble finishing it. Wasn't even done on decima.
No one asked for a live action netflix show, so that seems like a waste of time and money.
Look I was super stoked for the original. I really enjoyed that game, but I'm ready to move on. After the second game it already feels like they are trying to throw the kitchen sink in, that isn't even getting into the woke nonsense and the wannabe left behind dlc that is burning shores. I enjoyed the second game, but it just kind of fell flat in a lot of ways. The board game was just a waste of time and made no sense narratively, maybe in the first game it would hvae worked, but the story of the second just made it seem like "I'VE GOTTA GO NOW" then suddenly "oh hold up a minuted, lets play a board game". Someone at GG plays too much fricken witcher. This was not needed and made no sense. Then there is the games combat and resource gathering.... can't honestly say this was an improvement, but rather a step down. Again the rush rush narrative didn't help, but the lack of a driving force to get the player key'd into how all that worked wasn't very well thought out. Felt like most of the game you were being forced into weapons that were under powered, by placing a lot of resources too far out of reach. Which would make sense for end game equipment, but not the start of the journey. Just didn't feel very well thought out.
These things didn't kill the game for me, I enjoyed it, but you could tell GG is losing steam like so many franchises before it. I don't know that there are many places left to go for things like an MMO, Multiplayer, co-op, etc. I'm almost at the point that I'm ready to start asking for a new Killzone game over another horizon.
@Americansamurai1 You're in need of some context realignment:
Stylized Art Style: Nothing is mentioned about this. The Art in the title has little to do with the subject beyond the chibi art that you can get from sony and fans. I forget what the above image is from, but there is no style switch.
Co-op: The discussion of Co-op has to do with the fact that the original game Zero Dawn was planned to have it. This new co-op game in development is likely spawned from that idea. It was removed because it didn't make sense, but they still wanted to do a multiplayer robot hunting game with more complex mechanics. I guess they circled back to this concept now that Horizon has traction.
Word of mouth should help in the following weeks. The problem with this game is it tries to become more of a western style RPG than JRPG. It was a good solution too, crossing with DMC design by actually bringing in DMC's combat designer. In that same right it does kind of change the nature of the game. I love this game, one of the best Final Fantasy games, though I do hope they do attempt to walk these design decisions back to be more like FF7 Remake which is the superior game. A hell of a lot more strategy to the game especially on hard mode. This is another case where the combat like with FF12, FF13, and FF15 should hav ebeen a spinoff and not a mainline entry.
I think this list should be updated to reflect vol 2. Which means the chronoligical order means you're going to be waiting a bit after completing MGS3. Since if memory serves its MGS3, Portable Ops, then PW, then MGS5, then MG, MG2, then MGS1,2,4, and Revengeneance. I really do hope we see a MGRR remaster out of this. That would make Vol 2 complete imo.
"everyone is in favor of free speech when it’s their side that is given more of a voice."
Yes we have a name for those kinds of people in the US. Democrats.
" Elon is just going in the opposite direction and boosting pieces of crap like libs of tik tok and Matt Walsh."
Did you ever consider that your tunnel vision that lead you to think those two camps were PoC might have had something to do with the censorship you allowed for years? Matt Walsh makes good points, so does libs of tic tok. I mean unless you think AOC was right and that its ok to have crack in the white house, then I don't know what to tell ya man. You're on the wrong side of history with your perspective.
"He’s already censored people who work for him that have spoken negatively about work conditions."
We can walk through those cases if you'd like. Information is publicaly available as to why those people were "censored". Unfortunately thats Twitter. Not the public square. Though those same people made the argument that "its a company they can do what they want", I feel like its those same people now eating crow after years of pursicution through banning and digital oppression finally catching up with them.
"He’s free speech for some but not for all" by your own statements free speech for customers of his platform, but not with regards to his own company. That's fair so long as the rest of us in the town square can call a dog a dog without it being called disinformation and suddenly getting baned because someone in the US executive branch decides to have a tempertantrum over a private phone call. If that is the price, then its a very small price to pay for us in the public space.
I find your logic lacking priority and over flowing with disengenious positions. Your upset that the shackles are removed from those who never deserved them in the first place. Not becuase any actual wrong doing was done under Elon's reign.
@Uncharted2007 Ya I'll be stick to Musk on this one. Not a huge fan of his, but he at least understands the value of free speech. I can't say the same for Meta. Just like selling our freedoms away just as we got them back. Questionable logic of people just blows my mind.
@Nyne11Tyme That's a california developer problem. I can't say I've ever done those things. I keep a PS5 at my desk, but mostly to play over lunch or when I'm waiting for a build that is 45 minutes to 3 hours long and I know I'm going to be stuck working till midnight.
Looks cheap. Like a studio that wants to think its AAA, but isn't there yet. Really wish developers would stop buying these old trash tastic warehouses for us to work in. Throw up some dry wall and paint and be all like "look isn't this creative, fun, and high class". Honestly this Ubisoft San Francisco style is the worst. Enough to make you want to go to an EA studio, preferrably one with a new building like the one in Orlando.
So I think it's important to provide both, this isnt even a new take. People have been saying that for 15+ years now.
On the other side. Digital is just a distribution channel, not a replacement for physical media.
I think it's important to note that bad language used to communicate with the consumer base likely accounts for 40% of those digital sales. Number of people who think the disc is just a key and don't know the whole damn game is on the disc which has convinced them to just pay the digital tax is honestly just staggering.
After the second game, sitting this one out. In fact probably going to be just skipping ND games till Drukman leaves for his career with hbo and the studio gets knocked down a few pegs for its bioware level of ego and hubris.
@Almost_Ghostly I never said the games themselves weren't good.
My problem with ps+ is that by time these games tend to trickle down to the free tier, one of three things ends up happening:
1) I've bought the game already and finished it. Love FF7 Remake, but giving me a free copy of a game I own 4 times over isn't of any real benefit to me. Before you ask why 4 times read the next 2 responses. Keep in mind I own physical copies of these games anyway because I'm that big of a fan, but it isn't alone in this problem.
2) the game is seriously discounted prior to arriving on ps+. We are talking sales on their own store sometimes the month before it becomes a ps+ game, where it is some times as low as 10 dollars. If I just got 6 games I wanted at that price I'd be damn well near perfect. Instead its games I already own or games I have no intent in playing in the first place like nba2k23. Or a game I already own like cod cold War.
3) physical media goes on sale before either a discount on psn or freebie happens. The games tend to be less relevant.
So it's not a problem of quality, but availability. Is it too late by time it gets to my digital ps+ library. Personally I'd rather see the money that goes into securing these pointless freebies fed into deeper discounts, more special offers, and other things that could benefit ps+ subscribers beyond bait.
It's funny how many people were excited by ps+ catalog at ps5 launch. I'm just like "how do you not own these games already". In my case how do you not have a disc and digital copy already? You can bet I have. So I feel like my ps+ money goes to Giving others free games, while the only benefits I get is access to psn, cloud saves, and what ever silliness is going on.
Overall, I'd like a basic tier. No free games. None of that nonsense. Just discounts and network services. The free games is a waste in the essential tier.
@Boucho11 never said it wasn't. Is there something wrong with you that you'd point this out on poll asking us our impressions. Perhaps you should focus on your "you problem" before dropping such statements in the completely wrong context to be making them.
To be fair I'm rarely happy, at least this time I don't own Alan wake remaster. It does continue the tradition of the game constantly landing in my lap for free.
Ps+ hasn't been really that good for the last 10 years. I've been on it since launch. I think I've maybe played 3 games with it to completion. Started maybe 10 or 15 games out of what the hundreds at this point?
Launch date model, 100% the game on first play through with exception of ff mode related items. Cannot say I've had any issues with crashes. I'm not so trusting of your sources either.
I'd anything it helps illustrate Microsoft's willingness to under cut its rivals. Every Xbox first party game is put on game pass on release day. Many then get gamepass for a month then quit when done with the game. Sometimes with special offers, this is a substantial loss and honestly impacts the company's ability to make quality titles without throwing more money on the fire. The hope is with enough critical mass every Xbox gamer will be on game pass, if Microsoft becomes market leader that could result in 100m subs. If that leads to the complete elimination of optical drives they'll have what they wanted from the very start. Control and dominance.
So they don't make the hundreds of millions back and now they are manipulating the market so sony can't function as a competitor. They are tying up third parties to be gamepass offerings trying to reach critical mass.
By letting this go through it won't matter as it forces sony into a position they can't compete. MS is spending 69 billion. Sure they won't take cod away, but with that sort of market manipulation they won't need to. They'll burn sony out in 10 years time even if they put their games on ps+ on launch day. Microsoft will get what they want. Forcing the consumer into a space they really didn't want in the first place.
@Nepp67 hard to say who's fault that was though. If Microsoft was handling the marketing as part of their one year exclusivity agreement. Then it was likely more Microsoft misdirection likely stemming from them thinking it was an aliens spiritual successor. Or maybe the studio is just run by opportunistic ah.
I mean I don't think anyone thought this was anything more than a timed exclusive. How could it not come to playstation, is such a niche and obscure title. They need all the financial avenues they can get. My question is why did they think Xbox was the place to begin their journey.
It's time to split Microsoft up. That includes moving the Xbox Game Studios and the Xbox brand out from under the Microsoft Umbrella. Put Windows into its own company. Office as well. Azure Cloud should also be its own entity.
It's clear that this huge tech conglomerit is abusing its wealth and position to bully multiple industries around to get what it wants.
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Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@saffeqwe 1) what ever yo usay dude.
2) Now you're just asking stupid questions. Why travel down that road yourself, if you're just going to back peddle out of it half way through the conversation, dude.
Re: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PC Doesn't Actually Need an SSD
I mean if you want a lousy experience sure. By all means. run off an HDD.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 16 Sales Way Down, Out of the Top 10
@HonestHick Xbox makes up less than 9% of FF sales. If it isn't selling well on PS5 in a PS5 dominated region now, it's not going to make up even 3% in a delayed launch. PC tends to do better than Xbox, but again 11% if lucky.
Problem with FF16 is it's marketing has sputtered out early. It's a fantastic game, but we haven't seen any more marketing since launch. You have a lot of gamers still put off by FF15 that they need to win back.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 16 Sales Way Down, Out of the Top 10
@rjejr lol that NPC woman explaining things over a map is so minor that I have no idea how you could even compare that to Xenogears Disc 2. The first encounter is just to get you familiar with her character. Her importance is to help strengthen the narrative, not supply it. Want to know more about the history of an area you can, optionally, ask her to do so. The story only relies on her 2 or 3 times, the latter of which come at great effect.
FF16's story is fantastic. It is not a game you can back seat game on. You have to play it yourself. Game is very well paced and calling it an action game in the vain of DMC does it a disservice. I get where the comparisons come from, but it doesn't fit. I'm saying that as someone who has finished the title and is in the middle of his second play through.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@saffeqwe lol dude we are talking about current events not defunct decade+ old shooters that youngest generation of gamers have never even heard of. Might as well start citing halo 3 numbers with logic like that.
I'm sorry, but halo infinite hasn't even managed to touch a modern Sony releases sales. Even ff16 with 3.3m out the door in its first week has trounced on the 2m infinite sold in its first year.
Anything else on the subject is halo fanboyism or willful ignorance. You need to wake up.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@Sakai Yet I did not say that. I don't have time to fix your reading comprehension problem. Please don't respond to me further I'll just ignore you.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@Sakai Sorry, but gamepass will not improve with the arrival of ATVI or Blizzard games coming to gamepass.
Sure. You'll get the base core game for free. However the battlepasses, the free to play elements, you're still paying for those. So that's strike one against this acquisition benefiting gamepass.
Now what about the single player. Well considering the bonus' for the dev's comes out of that content and you just essentially neutored it with game pass on PC and potentially xbox. That's going to mean less of a return for those devs. A good chunk of money comes out of that premium product. You've just killed it by putting it day one on game pass. You think people don't care about single player now, wait till the dev's on those titles finally just give up. I know I personally would start looking for another job because the pay wouldn't be as good without that bonus. Going from 200k in a year down to 110k maybe 130-140k in a year best case, ya I don't see that helping the cause of Game Pass content. So that's strike two. Thats the activision side.
What about the blizzard side.... ya all that ***** is wrapped up in gamepass. OW2 is f2p now. You won't see WoW on gamepass. Diablo 4 could very well appear on the service, but I beg the question, is it cheaper to simply own the game at that point? Putting that a side, you won't be seeing more gamepass titles released yearly from blizzard. You know how many games they released last gen? Just one. That was Overwatch. You could make a case for Diablo 3, but that was a port. Which brings another fact to light, what happened during that era of PS3? Starcraft II? That didn't even come to console. I'm willing to mark this as strike 3.
Way I see it there isn't much in this deal for them between ATVI or BLIZ. Might help their PC space a little sure, but most PC gamers are going to ask themselves "why" in the first place. Steam sales are often and frequent. At 120 dollars a year where maybe Diablo 4 and a handful of other sales of indies and other titles not on the service, OW2, maybe if we see FF16 this year.... I dunno man. I don't even have Game Pass for Halo Infinite, it was cheaper for me to just buy the game and play the mp free.
I can't see this adding value. Even the skew of players is mostly PlayStation for CoD. Certainly have CoD players on PC, but turn off that cross play feature and you'll be spending 45 minutes waiting for a match during high traffic hours on PC. Xbox isn't much better. PlayStation you won't even know the difference.
So I don't see it. Game Pass has peaked. I don't think MS will hold the value you long for these properties and studios they purchased. I'm pretty sure we'll start to see layoffs in 5 years. Restructurings that ultimately hurt the release cycle further. I will not be surprised if Blizzard becomes the next RARE. Game Pass does nothing for the PlayStation gamer either.
this is a trainwreck. In 10 years we'll see the once mighty ABK reduced down to nothing but mobile games, a dying MMO, a competitive gaming scene that has evaporated, and a bunch of youtube videos outlining "The rise and fall of activision". If we are lucky we'll see some franchises like Singularity or Hexen revived, but I'm not holding my breath.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@Lanmanna can't argue with that logic.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@saffeqwe also its biggest failure. You're the one living in the bubble. Can you give me anything after launch? How does halos numbers line up with other single platform ip? How many of those numbers are including the free to play mp that is available separately? Can you explain the low use case numbers?
As far as bubbles go. Mine is a dev bubble. Straight face, no lie, considered a failure internally. It's part of the reason they are switching to ue5 and had their leadership swapped.
I don't care about your day one hype, it all depends on the legs of a release, hard-core fans will always be there release day. They are the last to leave. All dreaming of days when they sat in a dorm room with their xboxes linked together. This numbers will be slow to deplete. What comes after, ya that's the true measure of hype. No one was talking about it beyond the launch window and it fizzled out, nostalgia was defeated before hype could take hold.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@Sakai not even remotely copium. You're world view is just tiny.
Microsoft is pushing into mobile. They want to be on every device, that's their shtick from the very start. They are after king. Not Activisions library of largely forgettable titles, not an old subscription model for an mmo dying a slow death, not diablo a franchise that is just going through the motions, not some tired shooter that stifles the industry. No sir, it's king, it's candy crush, it's that entire user space that they could start pulling into the gamepass fold. That trash fire generates more revenue than both blizzard and Activision combined.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@GrailUK Microsoft needs to be broken up. Problem is the US government has become a slave to the european elite (no offense) and doesn't care. I mean we're selling plots of our land to china for crying out loud.
Anyway solid points. Biggest problem I see here is that CoD and Blizzards IP will no longer be relevant in 10 years. That's just Microsoft's track record. When was the last time Halo meant something other than some old husk of a franchise past its prime. When was the last time Gears of War was a reason to buy an xbox? Where the hell is Conker? Perfect Dark? Didn't take long for Killer Instinct to dry up in its renaissance. Dare I pose the question about FABLE?
Biggest problem I have here is Microsoft consolidating big names under their umbrella only to see them wither on the vine. Sure state your issues with CoD, but it does have its place in the industry and those studios are home to developers enhancing their skills so they can one day work at the big names on big projects. Forces the industry to basically reboot its self prematurely. We might see a breif boost in Microsofts position, but I guaranty you, in 10 years they'll be right back where they started. As you said about market powers, this is not normal. Under US law at this point they should be under investigation for a split. I think the Xbox Brand needs to be divorced from Microsoft. You don't release a piece of kit like the One X or the Series X without having deep pockets.
We've seen MS take the lead before, so it's not anything sony is doing to control the market. They keep shooting themeselves in the foot.
Anyway hope everyone is ready for a few of years without a steady stream of games before the wave of quality titles comes again from exodus this cuases from these studios.
Re: FTC Fails to Delay Microsoft's $69 Billion Buyout of Activision Blizzard
@Triumph741 Not sure why you get that impression. Sure we'll see Diablo IV on the service, but I don't think blizzard gamers care all that much about Game Pass unless WoW suddenly appears. you're still going to be buying your season passes. That being Said a good chunk of CoD's profit comes from the premium release and many gamers only play CoD. I don't see game pass changing that since the price of a sub is still the cost of the final game. Why would you keep paying for a game yearly you could pay once for and skip the next years cod entirely if you don't like hte studio. Case in point CoD WW2 or anything made by Sledgehammer like WW2.
This won't improve game pass at all. That isn't even the reason they are buying out ABK. It's for the mobile games division. They'll let these games flounder in obscurity for 10 years. Destroy those IP. Then asked why no one cares about these games once they do go exclusive.
This isn't going to change anything for sony. As someone who games on PC. Zero interest in gamepass. We see enough sales on PC that it makes game pass pretty irrelevant.
Re: Melee-Focused Battle Royale Naraka: Bladepoint Draws Steel on PS5
looks cool, but chinese company NetEase, that's a hard pass.
Re: Destruction AllStars Dev Gobbled Up by Tencent Subsidiary
@AverageGamer If you understood the relationship between communist governments and corporations, you'll find the line pretty thin. The people's republic of China is buying that studio to gain more control over what you're playing. Tencent really doesn't generate the money for big acquisitions.
Re: Destruction AllStars Dev Gobbled Up by Tencent Subsidiary
@UltimateOtaku91 that's an awful take. You don't want China having any kind of domain over the industry just so you can have one more thing to play. What ever gets released will have to go through China's tyrannical policies, censorship, and propaganda machine. Companies in China are not separate entities from the government. Kind of the standing rule with communism. So no. Its better Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Square, Embracer Group, Meta, and a thousand other companies buy out a studio so long as it isn't tencent.
I kid you not I'd buy an Xbox before I'd ever stand behind a backwards and unformed position like the one you just took.
Re: Destruction AllStars Dev Gobbled Up by Tencent Subsidiary
More trash for the fire. No idea why sony backed that game.
Re: Arzette Is a New PS5, PS4 Sidescroller Inspired by the Infamous Zelda CD-i Games
CD-i..... does this person hate money?
Re: The FTC Officially Files an Appeal Against Microsoft-Activision Court Victory
FTC. Such a weak organization. I bet they lose the appeal.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@knowles2 No offense, but if you like to play a good FPS and you happen to play CoD just for the SP and get it for as cheap as yo ucan. You're kind of stupidly hurting yourself.
The initial numbers help in many ways. The determine the bonus' developers get from that project after 3 years of work. They play a part in determining the direction of the franchise. It's also the sort of thing that lead to the debacle that was Blops4.
Not saying you shouldn't wait a few months and see if you can shave a few bucks off, but it does sound like you're waiting till the game is on the bargin bin of a used games store, missing its case, and comes in a paper sleve, with the name timmy scribbled on the front of the disc with a sharpy. At that point you're telling the developer and publisher that you do not care about the single player and they should stop making it. It's self defeating. Which in turn gives them the idea and others, that people only care about the MP, because they are the ones paying full price.
Just based on what you're saying, you don't care about the single player, you just care about getting your fix every now and again.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@InsaneWade as much as I enjoyed the uncharted 2 and 3 mp, I'm to this day not convinced of its overall merrit to have a standalone title built around it. Which is I understand it is what they are trying to achieve with horizon. I feel a standalone ip might be better suited. We've had online titles stand on their own. Overwatch, Warhawk, etc. I think that can be done again. Without having to sacrifice the integrity of an ip in the process. Slapping horizon on the box may get the single player crowd interested at first and maybe jump start it, but it won't pull in hard core online players. The sort that spend 200+ hours a year playing them nonstop for the cool and social factor. Not for horizon. Probably why I feel exoprimal from Capcom is far more interesting than horizon multi-player or coop.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@KaijuKaiser yet that isn't horizon. Go play monster hunter. Several games in that genre space and even tried to expand upon it. How does it make sense to theme park your ip that waters down your franchise.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@Shepherd_Tallon I agree on a diverse catalog of games. But turning all of your ip into mp games is not how you do it. That's the kind of bastardization that leads to first soldier, apex legends, and nosgoth. You might end up with a winner like apex, but you lose a fantastic single player game with a traditional mp mode as a result. You give your franchise a black eye. Or worse Bury your franchise. The latter has a larger volume of victims. One God of War was almost a victim.
They need new ip, new franchises, they need to stop being so skittish when some of these experiments fail. How many sequels in playstation all stars battle Royale would we have been up to by now. How successful would the game have become.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@KaijuKaiser huh?
well first off Horizon isn't a MP game. it's like shoehorning gameplay that doesn't fit. ND's Uncharted 2 was lightning in a bottle, it just magically worked, but even that franchise has a hard time maintaining a captivating multiplayer experience, by time we got to Uncharted 4, people were done with it, the changes that were made forgot what Uncharted MP is supposed to feel like. So why Horizon? does it makes sense here? I honestly do not think it does.
You reference CoD. I don't think you understand how much the premium core product makes for the company. Yes MP and WZ make a ton of money, but as much as people insist that the Single Player campaign isn't needed, the data Activision collects suggests the contrary. Part of the reason Black Ops 4 got so much flack and did not do that well. CoD is a different animal than horizon.
That's why. No one wants their single player IP being turned into a multiplayer one that is in service to the Multiplayer Mode. This franchisification isn't good for Sony's IP.
As far as spinning up something new for this sort of thing. Well Sony could stand to do work in this area.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
This seems like overkill. 16 projects? We haven't even finished the core trilogy yet and we're talking 16 projects. How well is that PSVR2 game doing, I'm hearing most have trouble finishing it. Wasn't even done on decima.
No one asked for a live action netflix show, so that seems like a waste of time and money.
Look I was super stoked for the original. I really enjoyed that game, but I'm ready to move on. After the second game it already feels like they are trying to throw the kitchen sink in, that isn't even getting into the woke nonsense and the wannabe left behind dlc that is burning shores. I enjoyed the second game, but it just kind of fell flat in a lot of ways. The board game was just a waste of time and made no sense narratively, maybe in the first game it would hvae worked, but the story of the second just made it seem like "I'VE GOTTA GO NOW" then suddenly "oh hold up a minuted, lets play a board game". Someone at GG plays too much fricken witcher. This was not needed and made no sense. Then there is the games combat and resource gathering.... can't honestly say this was an improvement, but rather a step down. Again the rush rush narrative didn't help, but the lack of a driving force to get the player key'd into how all that worked wasn't very well thought out. Felt like most of the game you were being forced into weapons that were under powered, by placing a lot of resources too far out of reach. Which would make sense for end game equipment, but not the start of the journey. Just didn't feel very well thought out.
These things didn't kill the game for me, I enjoyed it, but you could tell GG is losing steam like so many franchises before it. I don't know that there are many places left to go for things like an MMO, Multiplayer, co-op, etc. I'm almost at the point that I'm ready to start asking for a new Killzone game over another horizon.
Re: Guerrilla's PS5, PS4 Horizon Multiplayer Game Is a Massive Shift for Studio
@Americansamurai1 You're in need of some context realignment:
Stylized Art Style: Nothing is mentioned about this. The Art in the title has little to do with the subject beyond the chibi art that you can get from sony and fans. I forget what the above image is from, but there is no style switch.
Co-op: The discussion of Co-op has to do with the fact that the original game Zero Dawn was planned to have it. This new co-op game in development is likely spawned from that idea. It was removed because it didn't make sense, but they still wanted to do a multiplayer robot hunting game with more complex mechanics. I guess they circled back to this concept now that Horizon has traction.
Re: PlayStation Developer Firesprite Has Moved to a New Studio, and It Looks Expensive
@Nyne11Tyme so tiny
Re: Japanese Final Fantasy 16 Sales Plummet by 90% in Second Week
@TheArt It should have had the name, just not a mainline entry. This is just as much a Final Fantasy as FFT is. It's a fantastic game.
Re: Japanese Final Fantasy 16 Sales Plummet by 90% in Second Week
Word of mouth should help in the following weeks. The problem with this game is it tries to become more of a western style RPG than JRPG. It was a good solution too, crossing with DMC design by actually bringing in DMC's combat designer. In that same right it does kind of change the nature of the game. I love this game, one of the best Final Fantasy games, though I do hope they do attempt to walk these design decisions back to be more like FF7 Remake which is the superior game. A hell of a lot more strategy to the game especially on hard mode. This is another case where the combat like with FF12, FF13, and FF15 should hav ebeen a spinoff and not a mainline entry.
Re: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection: All Games Included and What to Play First
I think this list should be updated to reflect vol 2. Which means the chronoligical order means you're going to be waiting a bit after completing MGS3. Since if memory serves its MGS3, Portable Ops, then PW, then MGS5, then MG, MG2, then MGS1,2,4, and Revengeneance. I really do hope we see a MGRR remaster out of this. That would make Vol 2 complete imo.
Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads
@KaijuKaiser
"everyone is in favor of free speech when it’s their side that is given more of a voice."
Yes we have a name for those kinds of people in the US. Democrats.
" Elon is just going in the opposite direction and boosting pieces of crap like libs of tik tok and Matt Walsh."
Did you ever consider that your tunnel vision that lead you to think those two camps were PoC might have had something to do with the censorship you allowed for years? Matt Walsh makes good points, so does libs of tic tok. I mean unless you think AOC was right and that its ok to have crack in the white house, then I don't know what to tell ya man. You're on the wrong side of history with your perspective.
"He’s already censored people who work for him that have spoken negatively about work conditions."
We can walk through those cases if you'd like. Information is publicaly available as to why those people were "censored". Unfortunately thats Twitter. Not the public square. Though those same people made the argument that "its a company they can do what they want", I feel like its those same people now eating crow after years of pursicution through banning and digital oppression finally catching up with them.
"He’s free speech for some but not for all" by your own statements free speech for customers of his platform, but not with regards to his own company. That's fair so long as the rest of us in the town square can call a dog a dog without it being called disinformation and suddenly getting baned because someone in the US executive branch decides to have a tempertantrum over a private phone call. If that is the price, then its a very small price to pay for us in the public space.
I find your logic lacking priority and over flowing with disengenious positions. Your upset that the shackles are removed from those who never deserved them in the first place. Not becuase any actual wrong doing was done under Elon's reign.
Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads
@Uncharted2007 Ya I'll be stick to Musk on this one. Not a huge fan of his, but he at least understands the value of free speech. I can't say the same for Meta. Just like selling our freedoms away just as we got them back. Questionable logic of people just blows my mind.
Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads
@BeerIsAwesome your choice is dregs or distopian orwellian future.
Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads
Removed; user is banned
Re: PlayStation Developer Firesprite Has Moved to a New Studio, and It Looks Expensive
@Nyne11Tyme That's a california developer problem. I can't say I've ever done those things. I keep a PS5 at my desk, but mostly to play over lunch or when I'm waiting for a build that is 45 minutes to 3 hours long and I know I'm going to be stuck working till midnight.
Re: PlayStation Developer Firesprite Has Moved to a New Studio, and It Looks Expensive
Looks cheap. Like a studio that wants to think its AAA, but isn't there yet. Really wish developers would stop buying these old trash tastic warehouses for us to work in. Throw up some dry wall and paint and be all like "look isn't this creative, fun, and high class". Honestly this Ubisoft San Francisco style is the worst. Enough to make you want to go to an EA studio, preferrably one with a new building like the one in Orlando.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2023?
Removed; user is banned
Re: Over 56% of Final Fantasy 16 UK Launch Sales Were Digital, But the Charts Only Count Physical
So I think it's important to provide both, this isnt even a new take. People have been saying that for 15+ years now.
On the other side. Digital is just a distribution channel, not a replacement for physical media.
I think it's important to note that bad language used to communicate with the consumer base likely accounts for 40% of those digital sales. Number of people who think the disc is just a key and don't know the whole damn game is on the disc which has convinced them to just pay the digital tax is honestly just staggering.
Re: Overwatch Animated Mini-Series Genesis Incoming, Begins 6th July on YouTube
Strange place to premier it, but ok.
Re: The Last of Us 3 Rumours Are Doing the Rounds Again
After the second game, sitting this one out. In fact probably going to be just skipping ND games till Drukman leaves for his career with hbo and the studio gets knocked down a few pegs for its bioware level of ego and hubris.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2023?
Removed; user is banned
Re: Indiana Jones Game Deal Amended to Exclude PS5, PS4
@__jamiie yes, but you're not.
Re: PS5 Port of Body Horror Scorn Potentially Teased in Series of Cryptic Tweets
@AverageGamer sorry, but you're speaking utter nonsense.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2023?
@Almost_Ghostly I never said the games themselves weren't good.
My problem with ps+ is that by time these games tend to trickle down to the free tier, one of three things ends up happening:
1) I've bought the game already and finished it. Love FF7 Remake, but giving me a free copy of a game I own 4 times over isn't of any real benefit to me. Before you ask why 4 times read the next 2 responses. Keep in mind I own physical copies of these games anyway because I'm that big of a fan, but it isn't alone in this problem.
2) the game is seriously discounted prior to arriving on ps+. We are talking sales on their own store sometimes the month before it becomes a ps+ game, where it is some times as low as 10 dollars. If I just got 6 games I wanted at that price I'd be damn well near perfect. Instead its games I already own or games I have no intent in playing in the first place like nba2k23. Or a game I already own like cod cold War.
3) physical media goes on sale before either a discount on psn or freebie happens. The games tend to be less relevant.
So it's not a problem of quality, but availability. Is it too late by time it gets to my digital ps+ library. Personally I'd rather see the money that goes into securing these pointless freebies fed into deeper discounts, more special offers, and other things that could benefit ps+ subscribers beyond bait.
It's funny how many people were excited by ps+ catalog at ps5 launch. I'm just like "how do you not own these games already". In my case how do you not have a disc and digital copy already? You can bet I have. So I feel like my ps+ money goes to Giving others free games, while the only benefits I get is access to psn, cloud saves, and what ever silliness is going on.
Overall, I'd like a basic tier. No free games. None of that nonsense. Just discounts and network services. The free games is a waste in the essential tier.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2023?
@Boucho11 never said it wasn't. Is there something wrong with you that you'd point this out on poll asking us our impressions. Perhaps you should focus on your "you problem" before dropping such statements in the completely wrong context to be making them.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2023?
To be fair I'm rarely happy, at least this time I don't own Alan wake remaster. It does continue the tradition of the game constantly landing in my lap for free.
Ps+ hasn't been really that good for the last 10 years. I've been on it since launch. I think I've maybe played 3 games with it to completion. Started maybe 10 or 15 games out of what the hundreds at this point?
Re: Final Fantasy 16 Is Overheating and Crashing PS5 Consoles Completely
Launch date model, 100% the game on first play through with exception of ff mode related items. Cannot say I've had any issues with crashes. I'm not so trusting of your sources either.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Cost $220 Million to Make, Horizon Forbidden West Cost $212 Million
I'd anything it helps illustrate Microsoft's willingness to under cut its rivals. Every Xbox first party game is put on game pass on release day. Many then get gamepass for a month then quit when done with the game. Sometimes with special offers, this is a substantial loss and honestly impacts the company's ability to make quality titles without throwing more money on the fire. The hope is with enough critical mass every Xbox gamer will be on game pass, if Microsoft becomes market leader that could result in 100m subs. If that leads to the complete elimination of optical drives they'll have what they wanted from the very start. Control and dominance.
So they don't make the hundreds of millions back and now they are manipulating the market so sony can't function as a competitor. They are tying up third parties to be gamepass offerings trying to reach critical mass.
By letting this go through it won't matter as it forces sony into a position they can't compete. MS is spending 69 billion. Sure they won't take cod away, but with that sort of market manipulation they won't need to. They'll burn sony out in 10 years time even if they put their games on ps+ on launch day. Microsoft will get what they want. Forcing the consumer into a space they really didn't want in the first place.
Re: PS5 Port of Body Horror Scorn Potentially Teased in Series of Cryptic Tweets
@Nepp67 hard to say who's fault that was though. If Microsoft was handling the marketing as part of their one year exclusivity agreement. Then it was likely more Microsoft misdirection likely stemming from them thinking it was an aliens spiritual successor. Or maybe the studio is just run by opportunistic ah.
Re: PS5 Port of Body Horror Scorn Potentially Teased in Series of Cryptic Tweets
I mean I don't think anyone thought this was anything more than a timed exclusive. How could it not come to playstation, is such a niche and obscure title. They need all the financial avenues they can get. My question is why did they think Xbox was the place to begin their journey.
Re: Microsoft's Potential Game Plan in 2020: 'Spend Sony Out of Business'
It's time to split Microsoft up. That includes moving the Xbox Game Studios and the Xbox brand out from under the Microsoft Umbrella. Put Windows into its own company. Office as well. Azure Cloud should also be its own entity.
It's clear that this huge tech conglomerit is abusing its wealth and position to bully multiple industries around to get what it wants.