5 ms·
What a bizarre view of the world. It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. A Microsoft acquisition of this c
by bogwog 5y ago
What a bizarre view of the world. It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead.
A Microsoft acquisition of this company is bad, and an Apple acquisition of this company would be bad.
When mega corporations like this consolidate, consumers always lose. Microsoft couldn’t win customers through product and service quality, so they bought one of the largest game publishers in the world so that their competition can’t sell those games anymore.
- MrJagil 5y ago> It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. I think that’s accurate. Whether there’s room for and value in these kinds of playful conjectures is of course up to each of us to decide.
- hogrider 5y agoIt's totally accurate bc humans are a simple ape that should be living in bands of 50 to 150, but then we had several technological revolutions. Someday well be more like star trek vulcans, I'm sure.
- Kiro 5y agoComplaining about a bizarre world view and then dropping an equally bizarre and hyperbolic statement. I think this will be good, just as I think Microsoft's previous gaming acquisitions have been good.
- Underphil 5y agoFor those who like Bethesda Games and bought into the Sony ecosystem? Good for you, maybe.
- JAlexoid 5y agoAnd you weren't aware of the potential risks of a closed ecosystem before? It's not like you bought into an open ecosystem, but now they closed it off.
- Underphil 5y agoI didn't buy into either ecosystem. I'm just trying to show that it's not positive for everyone.
- Kiro 5y agoNever said it's positive for everyone but "consumers always lose" is equally false.
- ssnistfajen 5y ago"consumers always lose" and "it's not positive for everyone" are different statements with non-overlapping meanings.
- JAlexoid 5y agoCommercial games aren't made to make everyone happy. No game release is a "positive for everyone" and never will be. I can equally argue that my neighbor baking bread is not positive for me, because I don't get to eat it. And I like bread...
- dont__panic 5y agoI am very sad that ES6 and Starfield will never run on a Sony console. Just like when some Gimlet podcasts I liked went Spotify exclusive -- this kind of thing is a net negative for the world.
- skohan 5y agoYes exactly - it should meet the current standard for anti-trust action that it hurts consumers. It's quite sad that this is not enforced at all anymore apparently.
- ManManBoyBoyMan 5y agopersonally, I'm glad they won't be wasting time catering to two lowest-common-denominator systems. as someone who's only ever owned a PC, I've always lamented my high end (or, after a few years, low-grade (but still better than console)) hardware going to waste on games which haven't figured out how to make proper use of it. we've had affordable SSDs for nearly a fricken whole decade and essentially zero attempts to optimize their use until now, now that consoles have them. and there still aren't any directstorage games out. it's ridiculous the frontiers we've lost, the games we've gimped, due to low end hardware restraints. someday i hope they ditch the idea of the "xbox" as well, and consoles are lost to the sands of time. but for now, at least they're only wasting their time optimizing for one piece of trash, and at least that trash uses the same OS.
- pb7 5y agoYour complaint boils down to the equivalent of "why aren't safe speed limits on roads optimized around hypercars". Probably because the average car is close to a Toyota Camry. The number of people with high end PCs is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of console owners and publishers want to make money.
- ManManBoyBoyMan 5y agoit's not just about high end PCs, though. like i said, something as basic as an SSD has been affordable for nearly a decade, for not high-end builds. but the fact the xbox one and ps4 exist, and didn't come with one by default, means nobody cared. it's a tragedy. whatever hardware level they decide that consoles get for a given generation holds back the development of gaming tech for their entire lifespan.
- Underphil 5y agoThis is the world we live in now. People rage against capitalism but at the same they'll hang their hat on corporation x and defend them to the death.
- edgyquant 5y agoI don’t think these are the same people.
- JAlexoid 5y agoConsumers loose literally nothing from Microsoft's acquisition of Activision/Blizzard.
- xxs 5y agoThe tinted rose glasses are really strong. Most large company merges are close to never good for the end user - less concurrency and competition is not good.
- JAlexoid 5y agoIP laws already prohibit competition. There is only one maker of Diablo, and no Torchlight is going to replace Diablo. Games aren't going to get pulled from other platforms. New games may not come out on (insert-your-preffered-console), but they never were guaranteed to come out at all. Thus consumers aren't loosing anything here. It doesn't even reduce competition.
- skohan 5y agoYes consumers are losing here. In the near future, you will have to own at least two almost identical gaming devices to play all the relevant AAA games. That's basically a $500 tax being applied to gaming enthusiasts to get the same access to IP.
- JAlexoid 5y agoSo what you're saying is that consumers aren't loosing access to games at all. They aren't forced to choose one to the exclusion of the other. Other consoles aren't forced out of the market. And other console manufacturer will have a market incentive to invest into similar games, to entice people from buying a second console... And the market that would actually care, will already own multiple consoles... and a gaming rig. You've actually managed to convince me that this is good for the market, not neutral.
- 5y ago
- joaodlf 5y agoThis sounds a bit like "ms should just make better games". Games are hard. Extremely hard. If Microsoft managed to incorporate the Battle net portfolio into their gamepass, there is some argument to be made about how much better that service would become. I see your point, I really do, this stinks in all sorts of ways, but there could be a benefit here for a lot of players.
- p_j_w 5y ago>This sounds a bit like "ms should just make better games". Games are hard. Extremely hard. The answer to this conundrum for them should be, "Tough titties, learn to compete or die, but we will not allow you to bully your way into a market with money."
- joaodlf 5y agoI sometimes really question if I'm back on reddit while reading some of these replies... You're in HN, talking about MS and acquisitions, telling them to learn to compete? Am I on the right website or has my browser been hijacked?
- p_j_w 5y agoBuying Blizzivision is not the same as competing, it's them swinging their money dick around to take stuff away from the competition.
- xxs 5y ago>It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. very much need, but that's how gaming industry works in general - hype, fans and all.
- weakfish 5y ago
- mdoms 5y ago> Microsoft couldn’t win customers through product and service quality GamePass subscriber numbers are growing at an incredible clip.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoI'm not sure this is bad because Blizzard has been a total mess for quite some time. I'm excited to see if it can get better.