Blog Archives
Microsoft (All But) Acquires Activision-Blizzard
The FTC has lost its injunction case against the Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard merger. Minutes later, the remaining regulatory holdout in the UK appears to be in back-room discussions with Microsoft. Although the FTC can still technically appeal the decision, in all likelihood things will be buttoned up by the time this post goes live.
I have not been following the court case itself too closely. The armchair legal experts on Reddit though suggest that the FTC’s arguments were weak, but don’t really go into convincing detail as what alternative arguments would have been stronger. On the face of it, everything seemed to hinge on Sony – who currently owns 45% of the entire console market – being negatively impacted by the merger. Considering Xbox is just 27.3%, one might surmise that the merger would actually increase competition in the console space. At least the UK’s argument was about cloud gaming… something that basically doesn’t exist, with even Google and Amazon unable to get it to work.
I am sympathetic to the argument that buying publishers and game companies is detrimental generally. There are no doubt millions of PS5 owners who probably wanted to play Starfield on their console of choice. Sort of like how I would have liked to play Ghosts of Tsushima on PC, which isn’t even considered a console by Sony/courts, but nevermind.
Perhaps it’s a bit myopic, but I’m obviously in Team Game Pass. I don’t care about Call of Duty and I doubt WoW will change, but potentially seeing Diablo 4 show up without having to spend $70 on it is a welcome surprise. No doubt the good times will come to an end at some point, especially considering the recent subscription price hikes, but it’s still worlds better (and cheaper) than the alternatives.
Will everyone come to regret this outcome 10 years from now? I kinda hope so. Because that means things are normal enough in 2033 that we can still give a shit about video games and not play Fallout 5 by walking outside our front doors.
Beach and the PS4
So, I have been and will continue to be on vacation at the beach with family until the end of the week. The internet service down here is absolutely abysmal – we’re talking 5 Mbps shared across 40 rooms – which is why I have not been on top of the comments and general news. I suppose that might sound bad, caring about frivolous internet things while at the beach. But honestly, if I knew it was going to be vacation back to 1994, I might have passed. Also, the ocean seems saltier this year and there was a fly in my soup.
That said, how ’bout that PS4 news?
If you have not been keeping abreast of the latest developments, Sony basically “won” the show. You can read Liore’s coverage of the event or even similar things in this CNN article. Bottom line?
- No new restrictions on used game sales.
- No internet connection required.
- $399 vs Xbox One’s $499
It wasn’t all good news – a Playstation Plus membership is required for all multiplayer, just like Xbox Live today – but it was a fantastic PR coup for Sony to have been quiet all this time before launching into these consumer-friendly revelations.
A couple Apologists skeptics from around the web have tried to paint Sony with the Xbox One brush over the used games quote though:
“The DRM decision is going to have to be in the hands of the third parties. That’s not something that we’re going to dictate or mandate or control or implement.”
“Aha!” the Apologists cried. “Same thing as Xbox!”
Not really. In fact, not at all. The key point here is that Sony’s strategy is unchanged from the current generation. Remember Online Passes? Those were 3rd party attempts at mitigating secondary game sales, all of which happened in this generation. If EA suddenly changes their mind vis-a-vis reintroducing Online Passes, Sony isn’t going to stop them, but at least it isn’t turned on by default as it is in the Xbox One scenario. As Destructoid put it:
The major difference between PS4 and Xbox One, of course, is that Sony hasn’t made it easier for corporations to control the behavior of their customers, because the PS4 doesn’t tie your copies to your accounts, or initiate checks to scrub traded game data off your system. Basically, Microsoft designed the Xbox One to make it as easy as flipping a switch to eradicate any possibility of sharing your games, while Sony is maintaining its policy of this current generation.
Or you can go with the Game Front article for even further clarification:
“The Online Pass program for PlayStation first-party games will not continue on PlayStation 4. Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”
This is good news for gamers, indeed. In a nutshell, you can buy a used single-player game for the PS4 and play it all you want. If you want to go online with it, you may have to deal with some sort of publisher-determined DRM, be it an Online Pass or whatever.
Basically: #PS4Life
Not that I’m going to buy one anytime soon – I just bought a PS3 last Christmas. But it’s nice to know that whenever I do hop aboard the next console generation, I will have the opportunity to catch up on all the games I’ve missed by hitting up Amazon or some local place and not be paying full MSRP out the ass for 2+ year old games.
In An Age 
Gaming News Roundup
May 24
Posted by Azuriel
Square Enix stocks tumble on news that FF16 and especially FF7 Rebirth have not met sales targets. Which would normally be concerning… if not for the fact that these games are still Sony exclusives. Which, as a strategy, appears to be changing going forward.
It really boggles the mind sometimes, how stuck in the past these game executives can be. Helldivers 2 has been a breakout smash hit, with a large portion (possibly majority?) of the playerbase being on PC; it was significant enough for the Steam review-bomb campaign to work in any case. PC receiving ports in general has improved over the years for sure, but the fact that it takes ages is moronic. It’s been over fours years and PC still doesn’t have The Last of Us 2. Horizon: Forbidden West just came out on PC like two months ago. FF7 Remake took almost two years. Ghost of Tsushima took four years. God of War: Ragnarok probably won’t be out till 2025.
Speaking of ports, Ghost of Tsushima has beaten out God of War for the top spot on the Steam concurrent user spot for Playstation single-player games, at 77k and some change. Helldivers 2 sits at 457k, by the way. I’ve heard some chatter on Reddit about how this demonstrates that Sony’s “strategy” works, e.g. only releasing games on PC after a long-ass time. I mean… I guess? Unless there is some presumption that people bought PS5s just for this game, or that PS5 owners will buy it again on PC, I think this simply demonstrates Sony delayed a solid boost of revenue for 4 years for no reason.
Fallout: London is a fan-made Fallout 4 mod that is essentially an entirely new Fallout game. You may have heard some stories about how its original April release was delayed due to the “surprise” next-gen updates to Fallout 4 that Bethesda released a few weeks back. Well, it appears that the mod is back on track to be released… sometime. Soon™! The real news though, is how the modders somehow convinced GOG to host the 30-40GB files. This was needed, as Nexus Mods has an upper size limit. These fan projects usually get killed by the suits right before release, so the fact that not only will this thing (presumably) come out, but the fact that GOG is hosting the files is extraordinary.
Valve is working on what appears to be 6v6 MOBA-like Overwatch game called Deadlock. Now, I understand that Valve has a unique sort of “structure” over there, wherein developers basically just stew in a petri dish until games extrude through the biofilm… but, really? This is whatever actual game developers still left over there have chosen to spend their time on? Christ. I guess it’s at least something, as opposed to whatever George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are doing. Finish your fucking stories!
Posted in Commentary
1 Comment
Tags: Gaming News, PC Port, Sony, Square Enix, Valve