Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13

[Deleted member 11852]

We might be talking at cross purposes here, but..

Give up what 30%?

The subscription fee. This is the simplest way to have a PSN have access to GamePass. The easiest way to get PlayStation owners on board is to include a GamePass subscription in the PSN Store, where Sony would take a 30% cut of the subscription.

No need to port existing titles, or new non PS5 native titles, when you can stream them.

Ah gotcha. I thought competitive shooters needed as low latency as possible. I don't know how popular this approach be for Call of Duty, and this may not appeal to anybody who wants to game at over 1080p, or greater than 60fps. There are a bunch of technical concessions with streaming.

 

[Nesh]

Have you seen me complain about any sony purchase ? When did I ever whine about any of Sony's games ? I never have and frankly since Sony mostly makes the same type of game over and over again that isn't my cup of tea I wont ever care.

In the OS market you have the big 3 , windows /ios/andriod and then smaller ones line linux and osx. There is plenty of competition. The majority of people use multiple devices from multiple os companies. Some use IOS for mobile and windows for a laptop or desktop. Some use andriod and windows , some use IOS and linux. I know even a few with osx and andriod as their go toos

Right now the largest home console maker is sony and then nintendo has a handheld option that can work on a tv also. MS sold half the consoles that sony and nintendo sold. For better competition you need all 3 to sell as equally as possible.

Yes I ve seen you whinning and I am not gonna waste my time any more with your endless excuses and endless quotes.

 

[wco81]

This is probably not the right thread for discussing the culture at Activision and how this deal is in some ways a reward for those who promulgated a lot of unpleasantness at Activision?

 

[eastmen]

The subscription fee. This is the simplest way to have a PSN have access to GamePass. The easiest way to get PlayStation owners on board is to include a GamePass subscription in the PSN Store, where Sony would take a 30% cut of the subscription.



Ah gotcha. I thought competitive shooters needed as low latency as possible. I don't know how popular this approach be for Call of Duty, and this may not appeal to anybody who wants to game at over 1080p, or greater than 60fps. There are a bunch of technical concessions with streaming.

Unless they do what other companies do on the app store or google play and just have the program up there to use but no way to subscribe through the PSN Store.

This is probably not the right thread for discussing the culture at Activision and how this deal is in some ways a reward for those who promulgated a lot of unpleasantness at Activision?

Well 1) its all accusations , I am not aware of any court cases proving anything. 2) the heads of activision were always going to get rewarded. The back lash over everything has mostly died down and they all own tons of stock. So no matter who bought activision and no matter if it was now or in the future the heads of activision will get paid out.

 

[see colon]

Give up what 30%? by making COD gamepass only they make sure own the entire COD ecosystem, and can control all add-ons and DLC purchases.
this way Sony sees potentially 0% money form a user purchasing skins or whatever for COD.
Getting gamers onto gamepass is the goal here.

I think Microsoft would be keen on making COD exactly like Minecraft is now. You get the game wherever, and sign in with a Microsoft/Xbox account, and all the DLC is tied to that account. Therefore you can circumvent any store specific fees by selling people the DLC on platforms (ie, their own) that won't charge them that fee.

The economics of scale are in play here. The average COD game sells 30ish Million copies a year. That's a potential of 30 million season passes, but even if it's a hypothetical $10 DLC pack that half the community buys, and half of that is on Playstation, that's (30 Million/2)/2*10*0.3=$22.5 million dollars. You shave 10% of that off by offering it somewhere else without that fee and that's $2 million+ without raising prices or doing anything negative to the consumer base.

 

[cheapchips]

This is probably not the right thread for discussing the culture at Activision and how this deal is in some ways a reward for those who promulgated a lot of unpleasantness at Activision?

Probably not. Not sure what the right thread would be: "Corporations have no feelings and therefore immune from morality. Discuss. In circles. Forever. You may never leave. "

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The subscription fee. This is the simplest way to have a PSN have access to GamePass. The easiest way to get PlayStation owners on board is to include a GamePass subscription in the PSN Store, where Sony would take a 30% cut of the subscription.

Presumably as vjPiedPiper was alluding to, Microsoft would be willing to give up a small portion of the subscription in order to gain the benefits of full revenue from any DLC since those would likely go through Microsoft's system versus Sony's system as all DLC would be tied to the account rather than a system specific version of a game.

A significant part of Microsoft's numbers showing that GamePass subscribers spend more money in general than non-subscribers likely has to do with increased sales of DLC, so it's not insignificant and would quite possibly outweight any 30% cut that Sony would take from GamePass subscription fees.

There's a bit of that which makes me uncomfortable, however. In that there's also an incentive to buy the game on Microsoft's system (MS Store) if someone has already purchased DLC for it and it's leaving GP before they are finished playing it. However, that would also represent additional royalty free revenue for MS if the person played on it PlayStation and now felt incentivized to buy the game on PC or Xbox.

Regardless, Sony would need a BIG carrot to agree to GP being on PlayStation due to those factors. Is COD a big enough carrot? Maybe?

Regards,
SB

 

[see colon]

Regardless, Sony would need a BIG carrot to agree to GP being on PlayStation due to those factors. Is COD a big enough carrot? Maybe?

If you listen to ol' Jim it sounds like no console can exist without COD. Must be the biggest carrot.

 

[Malo]

Presumably as vjPiedPiper was alluding to, Microsoft would be willing to give up a small portion of the subscription in order to gain the benefits of full revenue from any DLC since those would likely go through Microsoft's system versus Sony's system as all DLC would be tied to the account rather than a system specific version of a game.

I highly doubt Sony would be ok with any purchases of microtransactions and DLC made on the PS go solely to Microsoft. That's generally not how these stores work, they all take their 30% of all transactions made on their platform.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Unless they do what other companies do on the app store or google play and just have the program up there to use but no way to subscribe through the PSN Store.

I cannot see Sony agreeing to approve an app with that setup. We know from the Epic/Apple lawsuit that Microsoft wouldn't either, both strongly control access to third party content available on their console platforms. Microsoft were strongly lobby Apple to allow GamePass on iOS bypassing Apple's cut whilst simultaneously rejecting the same model on Xbox.

 

[eastmen]

I cannot see Sony agreeing to approve an app with that setup. We know from the Epic/Apple lawsuit that Microsoft wouldn't either, both strongly control access to third party content available on their console platforms. Microsoft were strongly lobby Apple to allow GamePass on iOS bypassing Apple's cut whilst simultaneously rejecting the same model on Xbox.

Well I mean MS ended up going through the web browser to get on IOS.

For sony I don't know, they may allow a set up like that because it wouldn't just have to be COD now would it. Sony could get access to the whole first party line up of MS for the loss of 30%.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I highly doubt Sony would be ok with any purchases of microtransactions and DLC made on the PS go solely to Microsoft. That's generally not how these stores work, they all take their 30% of all transactions made on their platform.

Yes, if the purchase was made on that platform ... in their storefront.

So, for example it doesn't matter what platform you buy content DLC in Rocket Arena is available on all platforms regardless of where it was purchased unless it is a platform specific piece of DLC (PlayStation Sweet Tooth or Xbox Armadillo, for example).

GamePass is structured in such a way that all DLC for games in GamePass by necessity are on a Microsoft platform (GamePass) and purchased through their platform (MS Store which is what GamePass uses as its content backend). This would be especially true if it's only GamePass Cloud Streaming that was allowed on the platform (good enough for MS).

As I noted, Sony would need a BIG carrot in order to allow that on their platform. The question then becomes, is COD a large enough carrot to get Sony to allow GamePass (ostensibly streaming only) onto PlayStation consoles?

Regards,
SB

 

[Nesh]

Yes, if the purchase was made on that platform ... in their storefront.

So, for example it doesn't matter what platform you buy content DLC in Rocket Arena is available on all platforms regardless of where it was purchased unless it is a platform specific piece of DLC (PlayStation Sweet Tooth or Xbox Armadillo, for example).

GamePass is structured in such a way that all DLC for games in GamePass by necessity are on a Microsoft platform (GamePass) and purchased through their platform (MS Store which is what GamePass uses as its content backend). This would be especially true if it's only GamePass Cloud Streaming that was allowed on the platform (good enough for MS).

As I noted, Sony would need a BIG carrot in order to allow that on their platform. The question then becomes, is COD a large enough carrot to get Sony to allow GamePass (ostensibly streaming only) onto PlayStation consoles?

Regards,
SB

That carrot may be big but at the same time "poisonous" for Sony. So its not just about size

 

[Malo]

Yes, if the purchase was made on that platform ... in their storefront.

So, for example it doesn't matter what platform you buy content DLC in Rocket Arena is available on all platforms regardless of where it was purchased unless it is a platform specific piece of DLC (PlayStation Sweet Tooth or Xbox Armadillo, for example).

You seem to be implying that users might specifically go to the MS store to buy DLC or whatever then go back and play it on the PS5. Users don't care where they buy it, the price will be the same everywhere. Gamers in general don't give a shit who gets what cut of the pie.

Even the very small portion of PC/PS5 players who have the same game on both platforms won't necessarily on purpose buy them on PC only.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

You seem to be implying that users might specifically go to the MS store to buy DLC or whatever then go back and play it on the PS5. Users don't care where they buy it, the price will be the same everywhere. Gamers in general don't give a shit who gets what cut of the pie.

Even the very small portion of PC/PS5 players who have the same game on both platforms won't necessarily on purpose buy them on PC only.

If it's GamePass then it's the MS storefront regardless of whatever other platform it is on. That's the point. No-one other than MS would get a piece of that purchase. That's why Apple makes it so difficult for people to use GamePass on iOS and won't allow MS to release a native iOS client for GamePass cloud streaming.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

You seem to be implying that users might specifically go to the MS store to buy DLC or whatever then go back and play it on the PS5. Users don't care where they buy it, the price will be the same everywhere. Gamers in general don't give a shit who gets what cut of the pie.

Even the very small portion of PC/PS5 players who have the same game on both platforms won't necessarily on purpose buy them on PC only.

I think the point is that it wouldn't be on the store front but via the streamed game or a person would have to go to the xbox store via another platform to buy it.

 

[Malo]

I'm really failing to see any reason Sony would want that kind of setup on PlayStation. I don't see any kind of revenue going to Sony whatsoever. Sony don't really get access to anything if everything is going through the MS storefront.

 

[AzBat]

Microsoft needs to make a deal with Netflix to include Game Pass in their app. Then you could play games on any device that has a Netflix app.

Tommy McClain

 

[eastmen]

I'm really failing to see any reason Sony would want that kind of setup on PlayStation. I don't see any kind of revenue going to Sony whatsoever. Sony don't really get access to anything if everything is going through the MS storefront.

The only benefit would be to have the games. So if COD is as important as Sony claims then the choice is no cod and gamers go to other platforms with cod or xcloud cod with no 30% cut ?

Microsoft needs to make a deal with Netflix to include Game Pass in their app. Then you could play games on any device that has a Netflix app.

Tommy McClain

Netflix has their own gaming division. I know a few people who work there and might be joining them.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm really failing to see any reason Sony would want that kind of setup on PlayStation. I don't see any kind of revenue going to Sony whatsoever. Sony don't really get access to anything if everything is going through the MS storefront.

The only benefit would be to have the games. So if COD is as important as Sony claims then the choice is no cod and gamers go to other platforms with cod or xcloud cod with no 30% cut ?

The benefit for Sony would be native PlayStation versions of COD after their current agreement with Activision ends. Of course, this is assuming that MS actually intend to withhold COD from the PlayStation console, which I highly doubt. However, Sony can't know whether MS are bluffing or not WRT potentially withholding COD from PlayStation consoles. At that point it's a question of whether 30% of revenue generated by COD on PlayStation is worth more or less than potential loss of revenue from someone buying DLC through Game Pass for streaming.

I'd argue the revenue potential from COD for Sony would be greater than potential loss of revenue from DLC purchases through Game Pass for streaming.

Anyone that's into COD isn't going to be playing it seriously on Game Pass no matter what marketing people believe. So, it's not like people will use Game Pass to play COD and buy the DLC there if there exists a native PlayStation version of the game.

Regards,
SB