Thats not at all what I am saying. I am actually saying that them moving in with microsoft would be worse as a consumer. Microsoft has a significant stake in gamepass and their subscription services. They have every reason to offer exclusive content on gamepass and ensure the game down 5+ years stays within their ecosystem (they currently have only promised a 3 year contract with Sony). I honestly want to see gamepass crash and burn as I see it as anti-consumer in the medium to long term.

I don't see gamepass as the future and I frankly think itll go down the same path as netflix within the next 2-3 years as day one releases pick up (they will create gamepass tiers for day 1 games vs delayed releases), the subscription prices will eventually devolve into it being less valuable going month to month vs buying a yearly subscription, and they will be hiking the price going into 2023.

>It’s just gonna be more of the same

You cant really make this arguement in good faith when one team literally owns the damn studio and IP.

Yea if your idea of support is just getting me to pay extra for exclusive content to gamepass thats not really support. I own both a PC and PS5, but I just dont see how this merger actually benefits me as a consumer.

I honestly don't see gamepass as the future as I know well from experience that all subscription services always turn to shit due to licensing, pricing hikes, and diminishing returns over time as the service continues to acquire new content.

>Your point on the 360 vs PS3 bit is actually inaccurate. The 360 vs PS3 era was competive precisely because Microsoft and Sony had bought a lot of studios during the previous generation and both worked exclusivity deals with third party ones.

Its actually not, weve seen with consolidation over the last 5-6 years now innovation has largely been stifled and there is signficantly less risk taking in the gaming industry due to the cost of making a gaming in 2020+ . This is why you see from acti-blizz that the most effective approach is just to make sequels, dlc's, expansions etc... on top of existing ip's. Back during the 360 vs Ps3 era's, companies were drastically more inclined to attempt to create new IP's because they weren't housed under a single entity. After blizzard merged with activision one could definitely argue that innovation went out the window in place of repeatable design patterns that had guaranteed profitability.

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>Unlike Activition, Microsoft must put out games people want to buy to bolster both the Xbox console and their subscription service. As the console makes a loss for the company and subscription services take a long time to make a meaningful profit.

Theyve had more than half a decade to put out games that people want to buy and they couldnt do it even with all the studio's they have purchased. You can't blame the leadership when microsoft had more than half a decade to change it.

>But you don't disagree they made crappy stuff in the last years. I'm just saying that seems like that right price: getting acquired by Microsoft and to die as a brand in 10 years or less.

I disagree, i get people like to shit on blizz for making expansions/dlc's rather than new IP's etc... but the formula is what consumers want. If they didn't want it their net profitability YOY would be dipping. Its not, which means all metrics are telling acti-blizz that there formula is working.

Gamer bro's like you need to understand you are the minority complaining about a game. The vast majority of consumers disagree with you hence why games like COD always sell more than the prior year.

Microsoft on the other hand hasnt managed to produce shit in the last 7-8 years thats even remotely comparable to acti-blizz with all the AAA studios they bought out. Ill take that fat fuck Bobby Kotick any day over merging into microsoft as MS has proven they only make it worse when they buy out studios.

We've already seen what happens to studios that are bought out by microsoft though, so what point exactly are you trying to make here? In the era of 360 vs Ps3 most of these studios were not bought out by a larger entity, infact once they were getting bought out during the ps4 vs xbone era, this is when we saw a massive dip in game quality.

I am not sure how microsoft buying out a bunch of AAA devs and then making them produce jack shit for 5 years now is somehow sony's fault. Infact I would argue its a valid point of why microsoft really shouldnt be buying acti-blizz to begin with.

Id rather see more competition any day rather than games getting consolidated into one service. If gamer bro's had the capacity to see how volatile subscription services are beyond 2-3 days out, they would agree as well.

Every studio that has been bought out by microsoft has become worse. This isnt hyperbole, I honestly cant think of a single first party title from microsoft since 2017 that was actually good. Forza 5 may be the only one, along with halo infinite (the free 2 play multiplayer not the actual game). But yea basically all of their studios they bought produced shit.

its really not if people actually did the math on it. The problem is gamers are the dumbest consumers. They generally don't do math and just see a ton of games and say "yea thats a good investment". Its only worth it if you are playing in excess of 8 or more games a year which most people aren't. You can normally buy the games you want to play per year for less than the price of the gamepass subscription.

Itll go the way of netflix as much as people like to downvote me for saying this. As more day one release titles try to get pushed to it, they will need to recoupe upfront costs and they will either tier gamepass for day 1 releases and/or increase the price of gamepass going into 2023 and beyond. Similarily games controlled by external publishers will end up jacking up their prices.

its more likely once microsoft buys acti-blizz that you will get a starcraft game announcement and then itll be cancelled.

I dont disagree, but i still fail to see how microsoft buying out this company makes this any better. You are acting like microsoft wouldn't do the same.

On Xbox some MW games were exclusive as well. So I dont really see this point as sticking to begin with.