Microsoft Tries to Buy Activision Blizzard

[wakka]

I can understand their mistake, though. Kinect was the fastest selling consumer device ever. It was a massive financial success. Just they couldn't convert that to ongoing success, because it was a casual market (Nintendo had the same problem with the Wii, only they made more before they had to cash out).

Yeah. The Bone and the WiiU were both casualties of the motion control craze. Nintendo and MS thought that stuff was here to stay and it really wasn't.

[Lebowski]

Yeah. The Bone and the WiiU were both casualties of the motion control craze. Nintendo and MS thought that stuff was here to stay and it really wasn't.

Id completely forgot how behind the kinect that Microsoft got. That they made the V2 mandatory with every new xbox one was a crazy strategy. It pushed up the price of console and pushed a item that nobody wanted. It also diverted development of key studios to kinect games and was eating into the power of their new machine. it kind of explains why they lost the ps4/xbox one generation as they where constantly playing catch up with sales development and eventual roll back and un-tethering the kinect v2.

[Asura]

Id completely forgot how behind the kinect that Microsoft got. That they made the V2 mandatory with every new xbox one was a crazy strategy. It pushed up the price of console and pushed a item that nobody wanted. It also diverted development of key studios to kinect games and was eating into the power of their new machine. it kind of explains why they lost the ps4/xbox one generation as they where constantly playing catch up with sales development and eventual roll back and un-tethering the kinect v2.

Microsoft ultimately made a mistake around that time, of trying to be all things to all people. TV! Music! Sports! Games! Motion controls! Skype!

Part of the reason Sony cleaned up was because they had clarity-of-messaging. The PS3/4 were for a specific person, and they marketed to that person aggressively. If you weren't that person, you weren't in their crosshairs, and that was fine.

[wakka]

Yeah. And, pretty crucially, the 'specific person' that the PS4 targeted was 'people who buy games consoles'. Which sounds like I'm being facetious but I'm not intending to.

[Lebowski]

Yeah. And, pretty crucially, the 'specific person' that the PS4 targeted was 'people who buy games consoles'. Which sounds like I'm being facetious but I'm not intending to.

Did anyone else try the xbox one kinect tv integration I set it up with my virgin box and used it as a pass through but that lasted all of five minutes as it made it massively more convoluted to use the TV. Shouting Xbox turn on the TV over and over again got me asked the question "why dont you just use the remote" and why dose the xbox have to be on for us to watch tv

[Cassius_Smoke]

It was a funny time. People were saying consoles were dead or dying. Xbox I think either got confused messages or asked the wrong people what they wanted from a console. The Kinect v2 tech was really impressive. If it was coupled with a VR headset today I'm sure you'd get some good results.

I also remember people saying Sony had taken a risk by simply making a games console.

[wakka]

Handhelds were officially breathing their last, as well, round then. Right before Switch came out and did 120m units.

I think it had a lot to do with the sudden extremely obvious usefulness and versatility of smartphones and (to a lesser extent) tablets. It made everyone think everything else was going straight in the bin.

[Brad]

Kinect games were garbage though. Not accurate or reliable enough motion controls, just like the hand controls for vr still aren’t, man many years later.

Wii motion controls were very good and their games utilised them well. Nintendo’s logic for why we needed the motion controls of the wii made sense. However, Nintendo’s reasoning behind the wiiu was basically a lie: controllers get in the way of the player and the action on screen. Ok, so what you gonna do about it? We’re going to put ANOTHER screen between you and the screen. What!?

[dataDave]

Microsoft ultimately made a mistake around that time, of trying to be all things to all people. TV! Music! Sports! Games! Motion controls! Skype!

Also: Cloud! No second-hand games!

The WiiU would've done much better if it'd traded in the gamepad for a wireless nunchuck (but left the old Wii controllers compatible, regardless). I really miss the Wiimote and nunchuck - it's so comfortable not having hands bound together on the lap.

Hopefully the next Switch comes with much more premium Joycon controllers. I almost feel like they should have done Pro Joycon for the Switch, somehow without making it look and sound like the included ones are bobbins (which they are). I feel really sorry for people that don't use a Pro Controller.

[wakka]

I am still waiting for the power of the cloud to truly show itself. It’s coming. I have no doubt about that. It’s only a matter of when.

[Lebowski]

I am still waiting for the power of the cloud to truly show itself. It’s coming. I have no doubt about that. It’s only a matter of when.

The power of the cloud was to take a much loved franchise (Crackdown) and yeet it straight into the sea.

[nonny]

Well just when you thought it couldn't get any better it looks like someone redacted some key confidential stuff from Sony with a Sharpie and now everyone knows... whoops.

This includes how much it cost to develop Horizon Forbidden West ($212M) and The Last of Us Part II ($220M).

It also divulges how much Sony makes from COD in some periods and, well, it's a lot...

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/28/23777298/sony-ftc-microsoft-confidential-documents-marker-pen-scanner-oops

[Neon Ignition]

Well, that just confirms the core of the whole issue. This is all down to Sony wanting to protect revenue from a title it doesn't own in any scenario. The thing is, if the FTC/CMA can reasonable lock down the foreseeable future of Call of Duty being able to release in the same form it has till now on PlayStation then the whole angle Sony has on it should be dismissed. As has been said, MS would be burning an immense amount of money to restrict COD's audience so it wouldn't make sense for the coming years anyway but ultimately customers would have the same options they do now.

It's not the FTC or CMA's job to steer consumers in a particular direction, just to protect the options. It's also not remotely their job to protect Sony's bank balance as the very clear market leader. They can continue to comb the Cloud concerns but the COD on PS5 side of things needs a line drawing under it.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Well just when you thought it couldn't get any better it looks like someone redacted some key confidential stuff from Sony with a Sharpie and now everyone knows... whoops.

This includes how much it cost to develop Horizon Forbidden West ($212M) and The Last of Us Part II ($220M).

It also divulges how much Sony makes from COD in some periods and, well, it's a lot...

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/28/2...n-scanner-oops

Last month HFW had sold 8.4 million copies. At £60 a game (if everyone paid that) it's over £500m return. Not bad.

COD is huge, but just like Marvel, and just like Westerns, and disaster movies, it'll pass.
Even the heavens cannot rain forever.

[nonny]

Yeah agree with both those points. The cost of these AAA titles is clearly huge but they're still definitely making money and are a core part of Sonys continued strategy.

That COD makes between 13-15bn when you add subscriptions just blows my mind. Who are these people buying PS5 and just playing only COD? To me that's like buying an expensive fridge freezer just to store a jug of water and ice cubes.... people are weird.

It really does show what Sony stands to lose though when their current deal runs out and if COD appears on game pass on the future. They've gotten themselves quite used to the cash cow...