MidWalian

That was a nice trailer!

34 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

The only one that is next-gen exclusive from MS is Flight Sim ✈️ 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Microsoft

Seeing as Redfall will be published under the Bethesda banner we can add Hi-fi Rush to the list?

Just delay the game. Again.

Microsoft first party is a mess. 

Meanwhile in the UK...

This looks great. 

1 hour ago, James Lyon said:

It's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine. It's going to be...

...more expensive?

12 minutes ago, MW_Jimmy said:

 

Feels significant. Are we moving into done deal territory now?

I think so. From my understanding the FTC doesn't have the same teeth as the CMA. CMA still has some concerns about cloud gaming but doubt that will stop the deal.

*Sits back in cheap armchair*

Press release here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-narrows-scope-of-concerns-in-microsoft-activision-review

The biggest contributor of this senator's campaign finances is a large corporation starting with the letter "M".

Quote

During a Senate finance committee hearing on “The President’s 2023 Trade Policy Agenda”, Cantwell said—among a bunch of other international trade talk—“I’m told that Sony controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market, yet Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”

4 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Is Starfield mentioned in any documents? Rumour has is that Sony were negotiating some kind of exclusivity on that right up until the Bethesda acquisition, and then obviously MS made it Xbox exclusive. It would be interesting to find out more about that, and just how far along in development the PlayStation version was. 

I think that all went back to this one tweet? In before Oblivion gets mentioned!

No idea if Sony handed over exclusivity contracts to Microsoft's lawyers at the request if the FTC but Microsoft and Activision are bickering away with the FTC. Microsoft keen to mention they've handed over 2.5million documents* but it's not all of the documents which have been requested.

* 2.5 million documents. Fucking hell.

11 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

What's the question about Bloodborne? Is the point that it's a Sony funded title not a third-party developed game kept exclusive?

 

For context, here's where the quote is lifted from...

 

 

I think MS are (understandably) playing a little fast and loose in order to be able to make the number of "exclusive" third-party titles sound a bit bigger than it really is. They never say what the precise deal is with each game and therefore able to say that Sony has entered into an arrangement with a From Software which keeps Bloodborne off of Xbox. As a result it's true but it mis-represents the nature of that. From Software didn't develop something that Sony snapped up. Sony paid them to develop it.

 

By this definition, MS are suggesting any third-party funded to build a game for a specific platform (or not a specific platform) are in a deal. And I guess that's one very loose take

I think we're in agreement. The same document from Microsoft's lawyers mentions SackBoy as a third party exclusive which is, I guess, factually true when it comes to concerning the developer but these IPs are owned by Sony and is quite different to other examples.

It's like playing "odd one out" in some of these examples lawyers have written up. Bloody lawyers.

12 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

Oh, and FF16 and Silent Hill 2 both being kept off.

https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-states-final-fantasy-16-and-silent-hill-2-remake-will-not-come-to-xbox-consoles

 

 

Still find it odd how Microsoft's lawyers mentioned Bloodborne:

"Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered [sic] (Bloober team)."

Not disagreeing about the likelihood of exclusive contracts which all of the companies have been doing to some extent. I don't care when big tiles are  timed exclusives, quite shit when it misses a platform altogether though.

6 minutes ago, Talk Show Host said:

Thank the lords your post is a shining example of proper arguments against my nonsense then.

I honestly have no idea what points you are trying to make tbh.

(thread)

There's a lot of redactions. At least one of them is probably about Knack 3 though.

The section concerning Nintendo in the Microsoft doc is interesting. In months Activision believes they could produce native versions of Warzone and buy-to-play tiles such as Modern Warfare 2 for the Nintendo *Switch*. 

There is a redacted footnote though and the wording is a bit slippery. 

Here are the new docs. These are responses to the CMA's proposed remedies from both companies.

Sony's response.

Microsoft's response.

Cities: Skylines 2 will be on game pass day 1. Woo-hoo!

Microsoft hired YouGov to try and help with their case. 

Finished Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of days ago as I knew it's time was coming up. Enjoyed it and not that long a game.

10 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Didn’t MW2 have the most successful opening of any COD game ever? It’s clearly still a massive franchise that certainly does dictate or influence console purchases. 

Yes and here's what the CMA had to say about that:

Quote

7.189 Microsoft submitted that CoD’s popularity varies over time and success in the 
previous release does not guarantee the success of future titles (eg CoD 
Vanguard saw drops in purchases and player engagement).433 We agree that 
there was a drop in the total number of monthly active users across all CoD 
titles after the Vanguard release turned out not to be as successful (no 
change in the first 3 months after the release of CoD Vanguard, however an 
overall decrease of []% in the first ten months of 2022 relative to the first ten 
months of 2021).434 However, given the huge success of the latest release, 
CoD Modern Warfare II in November 2022, we infer that the fall in MAUs at 
the franchise level was temporary. For instance, Activision stated publicly that 
Modern Warfare II ‘has become the #1 top-selling opening weekend ever in 
the franchise, delivering more than $800 million worldwide in sell-through 
following the first three days from its release on October 28, 2022’.435

8 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

'A ten year deal to launch CoD day and date', will be cloud based. How could it be anything else?

 

 

They will bring it to "Nintendo's customers" and "Nintendo players".