Kevw2006

@Bleachedsmiles sadly that type of behaviour isn't unique to PlayStation, or even video games, and should be rightly condemned wherever it happens.

I'm not sure why but I get a real Borderlands vibe from that video. That is be no means a bad thing as I love Borderlands.

I've asked this quite a few times now and I don't recall anyone ever answering but would people not expect Microsoft to try everything they could to stop the deal if it was the other way around. Going by the comments here I assume that everyone thinks that Microsoft should and would just sit aside and let it go through.

@Floki I'm hoping the irony in your comment is deliberate 🤣

@BAMozzy I'm sure I can recall games and updates being delayed on a specific platform in the past because they had failed some sort of QA process for a specific platform, with the indication being that it was the platform holder that had rejected it for release. That's always puzzled me ever since Cyberpunk came out as it seems that there must not have been any QA done in that case.

I don't think his fear is about making the PS version 'inferior' but more about making the Xbox version 'better' if that makes sense. As a first party game Xbox would get priority over PS when it comes to development. With the Series X being a more powerful console and in addition to that having better access to dev tools they could in theory make it perform better on Xbox than it does on PS. Nothing to do with them deliberately making the PS version worse, they would just be capable of making the Xbox version better. Jim Ryan isn't exactly going to admit that the Series X is more powerful than PS5 so he has to sell it as them making the PS version inferior.

There doesn't seem to be anything unexpected here. It seems to just be part of the process where the interested parties can respond to the provisional findings and contest anything that they don't agree with. Microsoft would have had the opportunity to contest any points if the findings were leading towards the other direction too, although not being an expert on these things I'm not sure if they will subsequently be able to respond to Sony's response.

@senote Sadly I fear you are right there. I'd love to see something come along and give it a run for its money (non-exclusive, of course 🙂).

@senote Neither Microsoft or Sony need each others permission to release a CoD competitor. I think Microsoft were just pointing out that fact that nothing was stopping them from doing it, not giving them permission to do so.

These vague statements are all so annoying. They do nothing to dispel any current speculation and only end up creating more questions and wild theories. It's almost like he's just out for attention...

@IOI While scaling for lower end PCs is a valid point there also isn't a 'hard-coded' minimum spec with a pre-defined performance target that a game should meet for PC games. Minimum recommendations vary from game to game and a PC that may meet the minimum requirements for some games won't necessarily meet the minimum requirements for other games and the performance levels may also wildly vary.

I've tried this on my mobile and I didn't really enjoy it, although that's nothing to do with the game and more about me hating touch controls with a passion. I could see it being really fun being played with a controller.

@antdickens As an android user for many years Google is currently showing me an ad about switching to iPhone...curious 🤨

I thought the whole idea was it was supposed to be disruptive and shake up the industry and the way it operates.

@Sol4ris But it works both ways with Phil too. Yes a lot of the time he comes out and seems quite genuine but people need to take off the rose tinted glasses and accept that at times he does massively contradict himself and come across a bit hypocritical and telling people what they want to hear. Jim Ryan comes across a bit too much businessman and Phil comes across as trying to be everyone's friend, someone somewhere on the middle would be a happy medium.

@Sakisa I see you managed to completely miss my point. All three companies involved (Sony, MS and ABK) have engaged in 'disappointing' behaviour in the past so one calling another out on it is massively hypocritical. Although since you mention it what 'pathetic tantrums' do you speak of? Barring the infamous "I just want to block your merger" quote, which lets remember was made public by an ABK exec, what have Jim Ryan or PlayStation said publicly against the acquisition that constitutes a pathetic tantrum? There has actually been very little said publicly by them about the deal and they have largely just made their case through the official channels, is this not their entitlement to do? The process is there for a reason and it is the regulators decision whether they look into the deal or not, not Sony's. Would you not expect MS to contest the deal as best they could if it was Sony buying ABK? It's MS and ABK that are actually constantly going on about the deal on twitter so I am really confused where the idea that it's Sony that are going on and on and on about it is coming from.

@teknium_ Plenty of people have spoken about it. I don't really see why it's a big deal though as why would they have any reason not to approve it.

Given that a large part of the reason Activision were in the position that they needed Microsoft to buy them is due to their own 'disappointing behaviour' I think they should probably be maintaining a dignified silence at the moment.

@Sebatrox I get no joy out of PS4 dominating the market but people also need to remember that Microsoft scored a massive own goal with some questionable choices on the launch of the Xbox One when they largely tried to kill off the used game market and kinekt being mandatory. Those had just as much of an effect as anything Sony did, if not more and they were left massively behind and playing catch up. I have no desire to see Xbox fail, quite the opposite in fact, but I get the feeling reading through the comments that a lot of people would be delighted to see Sony go bust and that's not a healthy outlook to have.

@Sebatrox Ah so competition is good until Microsoft are the dominant ones, got it.

@BAMozzy You seem to be so in favour of MS buying up IPs rather than actually creating any new ones of their own with the developers that they already own. MS already has the tools to compete with Sony and one the ABK deal goes through the gap will gradually close until MS does become the market leader. And once they become that juggernaut no one is going to be able to come close.

@Jenkinss I seriously suggest you read up on Microsoft's history and how they got to be as big as they were in the first place as Sony hasn't got anything on their track record.

@BAMozzy I'm sure that Xbox players probably had the exact same opinion of Activision before Microsoft announced the merger too and their opinions of them certainly seem to have changed now too.

@awp69 There's been enough toxic comments from both sides of the argument to be fair, but in any such case the side that feels like it's going to be losing out is always going to be the most vocal. It's not fanboysim, it's just human nature.

Looks like Microsoft are closing some of the doors on areas where they were giving stuff away for next to nothing. Surely that's not a bad compromise if it keeps prices down elsewhere.

I can't take US Congress seriously after their actions during the questioning of the TikTok CEO last week. Bashing a foreign company for practices that US companies are far worse at just underlined how corrupt they really are.

Although to all those commenting on the 'high end console' market and excluding Nintendo. Japan is a very unique market where the high end console market isn't even really a market. The dominance of the Switch just cannot be ignored and Sony will certainly see Nintendo as a competition over there. I'm sure that if Nintendo were to announce they were buying Square Enix you would see just as much push back from Sony on that as there has been for the ABK deal.

@JayJ I think you must have missed my use of the word "may" in my comment. I wasn't saying that sales on Xbox are poor as we don't generally know this as digital sales figures often aren't released. I was just saying that if the sales were poor then it might lead to some unfortunate consequences. I'd agree with the PS plus extra part if Sony actually had any consistency to when they add first party games one there but it seems that you'd expect to wait at least a year for any first party releases so it depends on whether you are happy to wait and see for a particular release.

@JayJ The game pass comment is actually a pretty fair comment. MS can't launch everything into game pass and the more they expand their first party portfolio you'd expect that less big third party releases will launch on it so how well a highly rated third party release that isn't on game pass does is of interest. Bear in mind that poor sales as people "wait for it on game pass" may affect future releases even launching on Xbox at all. Obviously people that have more than on console or PC may have already bought it so Xbox sales may have been naturally lower anyway.

I suspect that this is just closing a particular loophole and it will be replaced with a similar value, less exploitable alternative offer in the future.

@Banjo- The reasons I gave were the ones officially stated by Microsoft/ZeniMax and I'm not aware of them publicly stating that Sony had anything to do with it. So if we take them at their word then the deal would always have been done. Unless you are suggesting they are being economical with the truth...

@Banjo- Reason 3 - adding past and future ZeniMax games to game pass. I'd argue that and ZeniMax becoming available combined were a far bigger reason than anything Sony had done. I suspect that they would have still bought them even if Deathloop, ghostwire etc all released on Xbox at the same time as PS.

@Banjo- Wasn't ZeniMax looking for a buyer because they were 'struggling'? And according to Phil Spencer the ABK was driven by mobile. If those are both true then Sony didn't actually pull the trigger on either of those. They may have been a contributing factor but I don't really think they would have been the main cause to fork out almost a combined $90bn on.

@Banjo- The comment you quoted from the Senator is clearly implying that they think Sony are the only ones that do this since it's singling them out.

@Banjo- I wasn't trying to justify anything and certainly wasn't trying to suggest that you had said either Nintendo or Microsoft should do it. I was merely pointing out that all three have, and still do, engage in it. Your comment made it sound like Sony are the only ones that do it and that is blatantly false.

If you're going to call out one for it, at least call out them all.

@Sol4ris Much respect for that comment. Although I don't blame them for making it exclusive to be fair as I know it would have been an exclusive if it was the other way around.

@Sol4ris Well...no but you never know. But we're talking about a game that has never existed and hasn't even looked likely to exist here. I noticed that you used Hellblade 2 as a very similar example a few comments above. Going by your logic with Sunset Overdrive do you believe that Hellblade 2 should be released on PS?

@Sebatrox I would have bought Redfall if it released on PS. I think it looks pretty cool but at the same time I wouldn't lose any sleep about not being able to play it. I have the exact same feelings towards Starfield.

@Sol4ris Sunset Overdrive would only be valid if there was a sequel released and it didn't release on Xbox, otherwise nothing has been taken away. There is no evidence of a sunset overdrive 2 ever being in development to have been taken away.

Apologies, I think we seem to have confused each other somewhere. You said that you weren't sure who would play a single game for more than 7 months I never said anything about it being the only game you played, just the only one that you were needing to sign up for a subscription to play if that was your only realistic option. I just had e some examples of games that I have played for more than 7 months to show that it is perfectly possible to be playing a game for more than 7 months. Although I do have some friends where Call of Duty is the only game that they play all year round so perhaps that's a better example? And just to be slightly cheeky, CoD WILL be on game pass, GTA HAS been on game pass and isn't EA Play available through game pass? Not the current version but FIFA is on their list of games. My point really is that if you are in the position where you are forced so subscribe to game pass to play a game that you can't play otherwise and that subscription needs to run past the point where you've paid more money for the sub than you would have buying the game outright then that's where my math is coming from. It's a hypothetical scenario for sure but also possible. I would have bought both Starfield and Redfall if they released on PS but neither of those interest me enough to invest in anything else just to play them so I guess that's one sale they've lost out on 😂

@Microbius It's prudent to provide all of the facts when something is being reported so that people can make up their own opinions. In this case the senator does have ties to Microsoft and that should be taken into account when opinions are formed. Of course politicians are renowned for their honesty so I'm sure everything is above board here 😉

@Tharsman CoD, FIFA and GTA are all games that I've been playing for way longer than 6 months just as a few examples. Plus I tend to buy a lot of games and start playing them and then duck in and out periodically. I have some games with save file spanning years that still aren't completed so I could easily fall into the scenario of subbing for more than a few months just for a particular game.

The first paragraph reads to me like they are talking about games that were already available to buy not being pulled and not particularly about games that were in development. Vague as ever.

@Banjo- Sigh, do you genuinely believe that Microsoft, or Nintendo for that matter, have NEVER done that themselves? They all do it so you can't just point the finger at one.

@J_Mo_Money I can't think of many examples out there at the moment of any games that would make me actually go out and buy a new console specifically to play but if the situation did arise then that is probably the option I would settle on. Although on the subject or math, if you are in a position where you have to pay full price for your game pass sub and you subscribed to it solely to play a single game you are required to retain your sub for the duration that you are playing that game. If the game is an online multiplayer, live service or just a large scale game such as Starfield that you could conceivably be paying for a very long time, after you pass the 6-7 month stage of being subbed to game pass that game is now costing you more money than it would have been to buy the game outright when it released. One of the many reasons why I would prefer to buy my own console and buy games outright rather then signed up to a sub.

@J_Mo_Money Ignoring the fact that I typed that comment on my mobile phone and there's no way I'd be playing a game the scale of Starfield or Redfall on a phone screen, how do I do about purchasing either of those games to play on my mobile phone without needing to own 'something else' (i.e. game pass)?

@ValentineMeikin And a PlayStation or Switch user would be required to own 'something else' to play Redfall or Starfield. That's just as unconsumer-friendly

I notice there's some pretty key details missing from this article, notably that the it's the senator for the state that Microsoft is based in and Microsoft has donated to their campaigns so it's hardly likely to be an unbiased opinion.

@Sebatrox I agree that is isn't a 10/10 game, but I have also seen 10/10s dished out to 'worse' games than GoW:R, and it also certainly isn't as bad a game as some of the comments on here are trying to make out. But if you were to say that a 10/10 game should be perfect and without faults then no game should really be awarded a 10/10 really. It's the problem with having a scale of 10 compared to 100, if you feel something is better than a 9/10 then there's no option but to give it a 10. If the scale is 100 then there is scope to place it in the 91-100 bracket so it's not necessarily getting a perfect score. Although reviews are basically just the opinion of one person, or a small group of people and as you say can easily be biased. Although everyone has their own opinion and someone may genuinely believe that a game is a 10/10 where others may not.

@Sebatrox I honestly don't know what you think linking those threads is achieving. Just because you found a post where someone is bashing a game saying it's terrible and then a mix of comments agreeing and disagreeing doesn't in the slightest bit mean it's a bad game. For a start there's no context to that post and it could easily be a fanboy that's never even played the game trashing it. I'm pretty sure I could find a post with just as many comments, or more, praising it as a great game but you wouldn't suddenly turn around and say it's a great game either based off some random guy on the internet saying it is so I'm not sure why you think random guy on the internet bashing game is a valid argument. I'm also not sure what Minecraft has to do with anything, it's available on practically every device going and those sales are probably largely made up of people double or triple dipping on different devices.

@Sebatrox Even the highest rated games out there will have people that don't like them or find them boring, and that's okay. Everyone has different opinions and likes different things. If we all liked the same things then the world would be a boring place. For example I've tried many times to get in to Skyrim but I just can't and find it boring but I would never come on an online forum and sit and criticise it and call it names because I can appreciate that it is a really good game that many people do like, it just isn't for me like god of war isn't for you.