this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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[–] kromem@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (22 children)

Not necessarily.

The FTC did important work here even if it wasn't successful in the suit.

Microsoft got Zenimax and was then rather excessive in how they handled it, and that is a large part of what prompted this degree of pushback by regulatory bodies.

If Xbox wants to leave the door open for future acquisitions they are very much aware they need to tread carefully moving forward.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Zenimax titles end up as timed exclusives down the road rather than permanent exclusives as announced.

Similarly, Sony has set any of their own future acquisitions up for potential scrutiny if they continue down the path of total exclusively, and what's likely going to end up happening is each side plays their bargaining chips to end up with mutual releases after timed windows.

This is arguably better than Activision Blizzard ending up in the hands of Tencent and going even further in the direction of Diablo Immortal, and may even help curb future exclusivity across the industry.

(In general, first party studio ownership leads to better games and less microtransaction BS.)

Less exclusivity in the future may largely rest on the FTC and other regulatory bodies having aggressively pushed back on this here and now.

In trade regulation you don't need to necessarily win the fight to still have a net positive influence.

[–] LetMeEatCake@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (16 children)

Microsoft got Zenimax and was then rather excessive in how they handled it, and that is a large part of what prompted this degree of pushback by regulatory bodies.

If Xbox wants to leave the door open for future acquisitions they are very much aware they need to tread carefully moving forward.

This reads like a rather optimistic take to me.

What Microsoft learned here is that they can buy a publisher (Bethesda), make that publisher's games exclusive, and still get the biggest gaming acquisition in history approved by regulators.

Microsoft will likely pause acquisitions for a bit, but everyone else that wants to get into/stay in gaming is going to look into them even more than before. I'd be surprised if Sony doesn't end up buying someone decently large (but not as large as Activision: Sony cannot afford anything like that). Everyone seems to think Sony would go for Square Enix but I think they would make a different choice.

[–] kromem@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

Yes, Sony will very likely eye an acquisition (possibly even the one extensively rumoured over the years that isn't Square Enix), but that'd be to shore up their bargaining position over exclusivity.

The exclusivity fight, particularly if mutually assured destruction, isn't a winning bet long term.

There's an ebb and flow to this industry, and we've already seen under Jim Ryan the shift to PC ports after exclusivity windows.

Honestly, the biggest thing holding back Sony ports to Xbox is probably Microsoft's insistence on platform support for the Series S.

Not great to engineer streamlined system that you push to the max with first party titles to then instead get held back planning to support your competitor's worst product.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Honestly, the biggest thing holding back Sony ports to Xbox is probably Microsoft's insistence on platform support for the Series S.

I don’t agree with that assessment given Sony only published games on the Xbox One when forced to by the license holder. They also seem to do just fine porting their games to PC where there is a host of different hardware configurations. Go look at the minimum PC specs for Ratchet and Clank; that sure seems like it could run on a Series S to me.

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