Microsoft Consoles and Updates

[one-armed dwarf]

Is it a great post? I dunno about that, I've just been watching too much Succession I think and imagining Satya Nadella channeling Logan Roy by putting Phil's head on a spike and telling everyone in xbox to fuck off and be more serious.

 

I think this is how businesses operate, I think

[DisturbedSwan]

I still need to watch Succession lol.

[HandsomeDead]

Look, people can talk about whatever they want but I guess I find generally in gaming so much emphasis is put on the business side of things in a way that just isn't on the same level as other mediums.  To the point it gets unsettling.  Tech CEOs are already some of the most off putting people in the world and having them lifted to an almost celebrity status in gaming is weird.

 

And sometimes I feel in all this discourse that the fact is that games are a craft and even an art form if you like, while they are shaped in some ways by the reality of the state of business, they're not defined by it (though some are shaped more than others).

It can be interesting to figure out how the games are shaped and what that means for games but let's have a bit of self awareness when we post something that reads like some guff from Forbes.

 

Anyway!

 

[Nag]

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get excited about anything in gaming nowadays.... the "death" of E3 has only made that worse in some ways... now that this is only going to drag on for even longer fills me with dread to be honest.

 

My love and my hobby feels more like politics at the minute and that makes me genuinely sad.

[mfnick]

2 hours ago, DisturbedSwan said:

take that $70B and invest it into games and possibly new studios, new 1/3P exclusives/timed exclusives and new IP. I think it may already be too late for this Gen but next gen that kind of attitude could get them firing on all cylinders again, I do think next gen they need to only have one SKU though.

This, 100%.

 

This generation is likely too late though as you say, which is probably why they want to buy existing companies rather than build their own properties. It’s not like the 360 gen where you could get 2 full Trilogy’s, DLC & side projects from 1 studio in the consoles lifespan. Now it takes almost a full console generation to make 1 main entry. 

Sony have managed by investing in those games throughout, but MS basically fucked it all off in the One generation and only started to right the ship & realise their mistakes towards the end around the time of releasing the One X. Which is still nowhere near enough time as is being proven by all their games stuck in development hell still. 

[mmmark]

2 hours ago, mfnick said:

Sony have managed by investing in those (third person action) games

I’ve never cared so little about such a big story. I don’t understand the reason they’ve thrown down hehe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

 

[mmmark]

Furious Microsoft boss says confidence in UK 'severely shaken'

 

Quote

"People are shocked, people are disappointed, and people's confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken.

 

"There's a clear message here - the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom."

 

He added that "the English Channel has never seemed wider" in terms of the contrast between the UK and the EU.

 

[DANGERMAN]

Funny if/when the EU block it too 

[DisturbedSwan]

This mad tweet from an Activision Exec was pretty deranged too. Full mask off, no more mr nice guy anymore from Activision or Microsoft.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

The rhetoric from MS and acti feels a bit Trumpian tbh.

 

Honestly tho some of these assholes are just looking for a golden handshake on the way out the door, I think

[Jimboxy]

I'm not even sure what Microsoft or Activision are contributing to the UK economy anyway, they make it sound like they're building fucking xboxs in Slough or something. Pretty sure they both do naff all here

[one-armed dwarf]

Lots of businesses run Windows and Office products don't they? 

[Jimboxy]

1 minute ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Lots of businesses run Windows and Office products don't they? 

Yeah and that's not going anywhere. They're aren't going to stop licencing word and Excel to the uk

[HandsomeDead]

Ninja Theory are UK based and I don't know what this would mean for them.  Probably nothing unless they decide to be petty, but it seems to be all hot air especially since if Tory Britain is even not okay with this I doubt most of the EU will.

[shinymcshine]

I get a familiar feeling that in trying to do something good (and prevent a majority share / monopoly) it'll end up with something actually worse for the consumer.

 

Like when Sky TV had all the live football, then they weren't allowed to bid for all the packages, so Prem Plus (PPV) was born - and you had to pay more as it was separate to the SkySport subscription - then they sold games to BT and later Amazon, so now you need to pay for 3 subscriptions rather than 1.

 

Or maybe how movies that use to go on Sky Movies now go to Netflix, Prime, D+, Apple TV etc 

 

So it might end up that they split out any different titles from GamePass (maybe by publisher) and make the Cloud service accessible through multiple platforms - but it'll likely then mean rather than getting everything bundled at a discount in Gamepass Ultimate, you have to take multiple subscriptions.

 

Yep, so you can have your separate elements, all at piecemeal prices, to prevent a monopoly, but it's not actually helping the consumer if you end up paying out more.

[mfnick]

Yea, that stuff fucking sucks!!!

[HandsomeDead]

There's just no ideal outcome I suppose.  Love it.

[Maryokutai]

2 hours ago, HandsomeDead said:

Ninja Theory are UK based and I don't know what this would mean for them.  Probably nothing unless they decide to be petty, but it seems to be all hot air especially since if Tory Britain is even not okay with this I doubt most of the EU will.

 

Rare and Playground operate from the UK as well, and the latter is probably their most proficient studio at the moment. Doubt this will have any impact on either developer though. In fact I don't get this whole rhetoric at all, there has been so many skepticism about this on a worldwide stage that it seems a bit petty to single out the UK in this case just because they're the first to say no.

 

But I'm kind of over this whole thing either way. I was slightly veering towards hoping that it would get through because it would pull a lot of AB staff out of the Kotick trenches, but I'm not going to sit here and root for a mega corporation to become even more mega.

[retroed]

 

 

 

[Nag]

I think they're likely just gonna buy the UK at this rate.