It’s special that so many people here are championing Microsoft by taking over another big publisher. There are listings of Sony acquisitions, with dozens of studios they’ve acquired in recent years. Well, they already made 90% of the games exclusively for PlayStation, so it wasn’t a huge loss for Xbox. On the other hand, Zenimax and AB both make many popular multi-platform chains and consist of more than 40 developers. Can’t compare huh?

It seems logical to me that the CMA now appears to be putting an end to it. They can now send a signal that they will not tolerate a major competitor disrupting the market by buying everything. The first result is already visible. Despite the so-called “good guy” PR from Microsoft, the PlayStation version of Starfield bv has already been deleted. Thus, CoD is only a matter of time before it also becomes an Xbox/PC exclusive.

Looking at the long term, those zenimax and AB games will be modified within the scope of the subscription model, or the price of the subscription model will be significantly increased. It is still in the “growth” stage and when there are enough subscribers the price will go up, just like with Netflix, Azure, Prime, etc. The question is also what will be left of the competition if they continue to buy publishers and keep games away from competing platforms. Not a good long-term prospect in my opinion.

Additionally, the CMA and Microsoft seem to have different definitions. Microsoft, for example, grew in the last quarter to become the second holder of the platform with a higher turnover rate than Nintendo. And not the number 5, as Nadella suggested including Apple and Google in the equation. The latter, of course, is like pliers on a boar; How many games does Zenimax and AB sell on iOS and Android…

[Reactie gewijzigd door Trishul op 12 oktober 2022 16:30]