The official opinions from Sony, Ubisoft, WB, BN, Apple, Riot, Google and more about the Activision Blizzard acquisition

[Gizmo_Duck]

You can play through elden ring just like bloodborne or sekiro if you want to.

No you can’t

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

It’s not just “different weapons” one is mele based with magic and one is FPS based with all types of bombs and futuristic guns.

Beyond that, they are VERY similar though, I agree with you there.

The A.I in ND games is the same. Only mechanics in TLOU that aren’t in Uncharted is the crafting stuff.

Fallout has some different mechanics from ES like the Vats system.

Obviously both sets of games are very iterative of each other.

Fallout has VATS to compensate the fact that the shooting mechanics is exactly the same as the bow and arrow mechanics in the Elder Scrolls games. Its super bare bones shooting mechanics. VATS is just lock on.

Uncharted has platforming, huge set pieces, completely different movement and gun play. TLOU is much more slower and tactical. PvPvP with different enemies, traps and crafting, light survival mechanics, etc. Same core mechanics and engine, but two entirely different games.

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

2 of these studios work on the same franchise that found success on the original xbox, the coalition has been making gears of War games for how long? Will microsoft ever allow those 3 studios to do anything else? Or will they have to leave like bungie to create something different. rare was regulated to bullshyt kinect games until sea of thieves, which was a budget title that nobody had faith in.

The Coalition is actually making a non Gears game now. Its their game to test out the waters of UE5. Playground is also making Fable. Turn 10 is a dedicated racing studio. I'm sure they could branch out and do something else but if you listen to Dan Greenawalt talk, all he wants to talk about is cars. Even before leading Turn 10, he worked on Project Gotham Racing, Midtown Madness & Rallisport Challenge.

With Rare, the Stamper brothers left (cashed out) and a good deal of staff left as well for Playtonic and to create Haze. Mainstays like Gregg Mayles (Creator of Banjo & Kazooie) is still at Rare however as he was creative director for Sea of Thieves. Admittedly, Rare did have to 'find themselves' again. However, they have no intention of revisiting their older catalogue. That said, someone like Toys for Bob, after the Activision acquisition goes though, can do. I would also wager that the leash Sea of Thieves was given in the beginning is proof positive that Phil had the juice at Microsoft because they stood by it a long time before it became the success that it isn't now.

It's going to be what's it's going to be brehs. Writing is on the wall. Hell, this from Sony themselves.

• "[No other developer] can create a rival." - Sony
• "Stands out as a gaming category of its own." - Sony
• "A unique franchise that cannot be replaced." - Sony

EA & Ubisoft ain't chiming in on Bungie purchases.

Microsoft has definitively answered the only question that ever needed to be asked of them during most of their console history. When were they going to wake up and realize that they were Microsoft? They've done that and they are moving at a speed I didn't even know they could move at. However, their failure in the phone space will ensure that this will never happen again.

Bill Gates says his ‘greatest mistake ever’ was Microsoft losing to Android

Microsoft’s messy move from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone let Android thrive

www.theverge.com

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been reflecting on his time at the company when crucial decisions were made over its mobile operating system. During a recent interview at Village Global, a venture capital firm, Gates revealed his “greatest mistake ever” was Microsoft missing the Android opportunity:

“In the software world, particularly for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. That is, Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win. It really is winner take all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M.”

This is how Microsoft views markets like this. To expect the world's wealthiest company (a software company no less) to not figure this stuff out at some point in time is do so at your own peril.

 

[5n0man]

Sure, Disney has Pixar, but the point was how they lean on their huge cash cows like Marvel, Star Wars, etc because those are reliable sources of money. Its not a 1:1 comparison with MS, but we're saying the same shyt at the end of the day. MS is going to be relying on already established IPs instead of doing new shyt.

And I would argue that closing studios like Ensemble, Lionhead, etc are failures. So is burning money paying developers for their time, only to reboot the project several times (pretty much all their new upcoming IPs like Avowed, Everwild, etc).

They don't just lean on star wars and marvel, they have new shyt always coming down the pipeline.

Microsoft burns money on new ips because they never had faith in them in the first place so they almost never see it through. Sony gambled with gow 2018, they were disappointed in the game when they first saw it but had faith in an established studio. They didn't know how tlou was gonna turn out but Naughty Dog already proved themselves with uncharted so they let them do their thing. They didn't know how a western studio was gonna handle a Japanese focused game like ghost but they took the chance.

Microsoft doesn’t do anything like that despite having the most money to burn, that's why they only have halo, forza, and gears under their belt. They could have had destiny too, but they didn't trust bungie to do anything but halo.

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Bloodborne and Sekiro are just stripped down versions of the souls games.

The mechanics are the same, you just get less variety in play style.

You can play through elden ring just like bloodborne or sekiro if you want to.

Theres definitely a lot of similarities and overlap. But not as similar as Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

They don't just lean on star wars and marvel, they have new shyt always coming down the pipeline.

Microsoft burns money on new ips because they never had faith in them in the first place so they almost never see it through. Sony gambled with gow 2018, they were disappointed in the game when they first saw it but had faith in an established studio. They didn't know how tlou was gonna turn out but Naughty Dog already proved themselves with uncharted so they let them do their thing. They didn't know how a western studio was gonna handle a Japanese focused game like ghost but they took the chance.

Microsoft doesn’t do anything like that despite having the most money to burn, that's why they only have halo, forza, and gears under their belt. They could have had destiny too, but they didn't trust bungie to do anything but halo.

I'm with you. I got a feeling MS will eventually fukk up COD too.

Idk how they fukked up Halo this bad with Infinite. They spent like 500 million too. Where did that money go?

If they can't manage their existing studios, I have no idea how they're going to manage +26 studios. The best thing they're doing right now is making sure Bethesda is still separate when listing Xbox and Bethesda games. But we saw what they did with things like Skype after they bought it.

 

[5n0man]

Microsoft has definitively answered the only question that ever needed to be asked of them during most of their console history. When were they going to wake up and realize that they were Microsoft? They've done that and they are moving at a speed I didn't even know they could move at. However, their failure in the phone space will ensure that this will never happen again.

The problem with this statement is that Microsoft being Microsoft isn't a good thing. It's like saying "when will Microsoft realize that they can just spend money to monopolize the industry". They don't have a very good track record on being competitive through innovation, they're the company that's been in trouble multiple times for antitrust violations.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Sonys not really talking about the quality of Call of Duty games they are talking about mindshare. It wouldn’t be hard to make a better FPS than Vnaugard, its just that at this point it doesn’t really matter. People that play COD are always gonna play COD even if they put out a garbage entry. Theres no wrestling that fanbase away from them. They’’re games that regularly score in the 7’s every year.

Call of Duty is like Pokemon, it will sell just because of the branding. Everyone that tries to make a game in the same genre just gets washed because those IP are too interwoven in pop culture at this point. They are ubiquitous for their specific genre

A lot of people will tell you there have been better FPS games over the years that just never gained traction, stuff like Titan Fall. It is what it is. I still think sony can make something like an Apex or Valorant that will sufficiently plug the big marketing hole of an FPS.

They got treyarch, bungie, and a bunch of other FPS veterans making games for them right now.

 

[5n0man]

If they can't manage their existing studios, I have no idea how they're going to manage +26 studios. The best thing they're doing right now is making sure Bethesda is still separate when listing Xbox and Bethesda games. But we saw what they did with things like Skype after they bought it.

They don't want to manage their own studios, that's the reason they're buying established studios that don't need much management to begin with. They want games that can sell based off name recognition alone with very little input because the gaming industry isn't really that important to them aside from the potential profits.

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Sonys not really talking about the quality of Call of Duty games they are talking about mindshare. It wouldn’t be hard to make a better FPS than Vnaugard, its just that at this point it doesn’t really matter. People that play COD are always gonna play COD even if they put out a garbage entry. Theres no wrestling that fanbase away from them.

A lot of people will tell you there have been better FPS games over the years that just never gained traction, stuff like Titan Fall. It is what it is. I still think sony can make something like an Apex or Valorant that will sufficiently plug the big marketing hole of an FPS.

They got treyarch, bungie, and a bunch of other FPS veterans making games for them right now.

The COD brand definitely plays the biggest part in sales, and Vanguard is an under performing COD, but replace "Call of Duty:" with literally any competitor, "Rainbow 6:" "Ghost Recon:", "SOCOM:", "Killzone:", "Resistance:" etc, and its still the best game in that series.

I think the problem with Vanguard was people were tired of the WW2 setting - and you see it with the sales slump BF took with BF1 and BFV. Even 2042 being a complete disaster outsold those WW1 / WW2 BF games. COD WW2 was an underperforming COD too. Warzone distracted people, but oversaturation was a big thing with the COD franchise too from dropping yearly. Plus everyone wanted a sequel to MW2019, not more Black Ops or another WW2 COD.

Even the worst CODs are full of significant amounts of content, runs the best, and have everything like 4k, 120 FPS, AMD FidelityFX for console, VRR, etc.

I knew COD was so far ahead of the competition when they flexed on the industry and dropped a temporary 200 player mode in Warzone. Meanwhile all these other shooters struggle with 32 players and staying a solid 60 FPS. Then they had their regular 50 vs 50 TDM modes in Warzone. No one in the industry can make a game that comes close to this. You just gotta cater to a niche to survive like Siege or Apex.

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

They don't want to manage their own studios, that's the reason they're buying established studios that don't need much management to begin with. They want games that can sell based off name recognition alone with very little input because the gaming industry isn't really that important to them aside from the potential profits.

I got a feeling that MS is going to make a lot of "Miles Morales" sized games with these existing IPs to regularly pump out games for Game Pass. People are getting tired of these huge droughts and are unsubscribing.

Whether they're as good as Miles Morales is a whole other discussion (strongly doubt it).

 

[5n0man]

I got a feeling that MS is going to make a lot of "Miles Morales" sized games with these existing IPs to regularly pump out games for Game Pass. People are getting tired of these huge droughts and are unsubscribing.

Whether they're as good as Miles Morales is a whole other discussion (strongly doubt it).

The quality of games will largely depend on rather or not gamepass eventually becomes profitable. I can see most of their games eventually becoming live service games with a bunch of micro transactions if it doesn't. Basically glorified cellphone games with bigger budgets. That mobile Diablo game might be the future for gamepass releases. I don't see how they'll have 26 studios pumping out high budget AAA games just to give away for next to nothing without either cutting budgets or monetizing them to hell.

And they plan on spending another $70 billion for more studios in the future.

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

The quality of games will largely depend on rather or not gamepass eventually becomes profitable. I can see most of their games eventually becoming live service games with a bunch of micro transactions if it doesn't. Basically glorified cellphone games with bigger budgets. That mobile Diablo game might be the future for gamepass releases. I don't see how they'll have 26 studios pumping out high budget AAA games just to give away for next to nothing without either cutting budgets or monetizing them to hell.

And they plan on spending another $70 billion for more studios in the future.

Live service is a guarantee. All their games right now are pretty much live service anyways with how they all have MTX and regular updates.

shyt like Guitar Hero is pretty much free money if they release it under a live service model.

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

The quality of games will largely depend on rather or not gamepass eventually becomes profitable. I can see most of their games eventually becoming live service games with a bunch of micro transactions if it doesn't. Basically glorified cellphone games with bigger budgets. That mobile Diablo game might be the future for gamepass releases. I don't see how they'll have 26 studios pumping out high budget AAA games just to give away for next to nothing without either cutting budgets or monetizing them to hell.

And they plan on spending another $70 billion for more studios in the future.

Pentiment, Grounded, Psychonauts, etc. Those aren't AAA games. Those are polished AA games. Gears Tactics, etc, AA games. Not everyone is going to get an unlimited budget to make a game.