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

I'm out of the loop on that one, whats the deal with the gamespot fanboy review bullet point? Are all their xbox reviews negative or something?

Gaming reviews are done by gamers (duh!), as such, it's just a roundabout way of saying Sony fanboys are review bombing Xbox games. Be it GameSpot, Metacritic, Amazon, Walmart, or any other game review site or video game retailer, Microsoft feels these fanboys are purposely tanking their scores and/or reviews. It's utter shit though (not saying it doesn't happen, but not at the level they assume). A bad game is simply a bad game.
 
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Gaming reviews are done by gamers (duh!), as such, it's just a round about way of saying Sony fanboys are review bombing Xbox games. Be it GameSpot, Metacritic, Amazon, Walmart, or any other game review site or video game retailer, Microsoft feels these fanboys are purposely tanking their scores and/or reviews. It's utter shit though (not saying it doesn't happen, but not at the level they assume). A bad game is simply a bad game.
Cheers I thought there was something specifically about gamespot. Microsoft should add users reviews to their ecosystem like steam, being able to see a bunch of users reviews from people who have to at least have the game to post a review (even if they do refund it) tends to give me a much better idea about a game than trawling through the cesspool of gaming media and metacritic.
 
Cheers I thought there was something specifically about gamespot. Microsoft should add users reviews to their ecosystem like steam, being able to see a bunch of users reviews from people who have to at least have the game to post a review (even if they do refund it) tends to give me a much better idea about a game than trawling through the cesspool of gaming media and metacritic.
I've seen people mention that at that moment in time was when GameSpot reviewed Gears of War 5 as a 7/10 game.
 
I've seen people mention that at that moment in time was when GameSpot reviewed Gears of War 5 as a 7/10 game.

7 out of 10 is a pretty good score to me. Personally, I found the PC edition to be a solid 8/10 if we're using GameSpot's gaming scale as a measurement.
 
Cheers I thought there was something specifically about gamespot. Microsoft should add users reviews to their ecosystem like steam, being able to see a bunch of users reviews from people who have to at least have the game to post a review (even if they do refund it) tends to give me a much better idea about a game than trawling through the cesspool of gaming media and metacritic.
They removed the review system some time ago..

Their app got also more stupid with each upgrade.
 
Cheers I thought there was something specifically about gamespot. Microsoft should add users reviews to their ecosystem like steam, being able to see a bunch of users reviews from people who have to at least have the game to post a review (even if they do refund it) tends to give me a much better idea about a game than trawling through the cesspool of gaming media and metacritic.
Steam review system works well enough cuz people are on keyboards and can type out a reasonably lengthy and thoughtful review. I dont see that same situation happening with consoles, and especially without a very thought-through way to prioritize 'better' reviews rather than just a blast of typical idiots posting whatever.

I agree user reviews *can* be the best system to really judge what you're gonna like(it's depressing how many people think Metacritic average is a useful metric on what to buy/what is good for them), but it's not easy to do it well. The Metacritic user review section is a great example of how it can easily go wrong.
 
Let's think about this for just one second. If it was true about the "supposedly says" part, then all of the regulators would have it and have it provided as their evidence against the deal. That isn't the situation.
Why would all of the regulators have this? Why would Microsoft willingly disclose this? And if the communique is not as damning as is speculated, why are Microsoft trying so hard to suppress release? Really bad typos? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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Why would all of the regulators have this? Why would Microsoft willingly disclose this? And if the communique is not as damning as is speculated, why are Microsoft trying so hard to suppress release? Really bad typos? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
1) It could be info that is private and unrelated.
2) Given MS's response, it could be out of context and damning but part of a wider document that needs be kept secret, and as such MS can't share the context without revealing internal operations they'd prefer stay quiet.

On that point, airing secrets, what's the situation with Sony's dealings on their exclusive deals? Have these been aired yet?
 
1) It could be info that is private and unrelated.
If it was unrelated then it would be outside the scope of disclosure. Sealed means it's within the scope of disclosure and the party is trying to prevent it's disclosure.

On that point, airing secrets, what's the situation with Sony's dealings on their exclusive deals? Have these been aired yet?
The case is focussing on Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Microsoft attempted to argue that Sony's future plans are relevant to the need/desire to acquire more studios, and the court disagreed - along with a request that the annual performance reviews of senior PlayStation executives were relevant to their aacquiisiom as well, and that court also disagreed.

Microsoft don't need to force Sony to disclose documents to release their own evidence of their perceived/evidenced inability to compete, bit trying to block something that has already seemingly viewed by a bunch of people and cited as evidence of their motives for the acquisitions looks.. well.. not good.
 
Gotcha. When Disney went to MS and Sony looking for an exclusive partnership, and when they offered Sony "...one game at least and maybe multiple games that could drive adoption of your platform’,” Sony should have said, "sure, but we want to make to the game multiplatform."

Accepting a deal for an exclusive and not choosing to then make that multiplatform is obviously exactly the same kind of 'removing IP' from platforms as buying multiplatform studios and turning them exclusive... Someone giving me a book is exactly the same kind of denial as me hearing someone wants a book and rushing ahead and buying it so they can't get it, obviously.

Sony paying SE to make something exclusive is 'removal of IP' by Sony. Sony buying SE and making FF platform-exclusive would be 'removal of IP' by Sony, as would Sony buying Zenimax and making Elder Scrolls exclusive. But Sony being offered the opportunity to make an exclusive title from the IP holder who also offered the other guy the same chance isn't.

I am just following the logic of if an IP was on other platforms it can't ever be exclusive. I think you miss the point of my original post showing how stupid that line of thought was and you are actually agreeing with my point.

I think we can see with the FF16 720- unstable 60fps how bad exclusivity hurts gamers. If it was avalible on pc day 1 people can build or upgrade a pc to get the desired performance and resolution they want. But of course since Sony's deal with Square foreclosed on not only xbox but also pc well gamers loose choice.
 
Gaming reviews are done by gamers (duh!), as such, it's just a roundabout way of saying Sony fanboys are review bombing Xbox games. Be it GameSpot, Metacritic, Amazon, Walmart, or any other game review site or video game retailer, Microsoft feels these fanboys are purposely tanking their scores and/or reviews. It's utter shit though (not saying it doesn't happen, but not at the level they assume). A bad game is simply a bad game.
Starfield already has a negative review on meta critic


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I am just following the logic of if an IP was on other platforms it can't ever be exclusive. I think you miss the point of my original post showing how stupid that line of thought was and you are actually agreeing with my point.
I never disagreed, nor agreed, with the point. My point is only that the SM example is irrelevant to that discussion. Indeed, it's poor evidence for a lot of discussions around exclusivity due to its unique situation, Disney itself looking for an exclusive partner and both being considered at the same time.

Cite a whole bunch of cases where Sony has bought exclusive rights, sure, but SM isn't one of them!
 
This is one review, aimed seemingly at Bethesda's quality. Hardly indicative of an army of Sony fanbots trashing games for corporate activities. Proof Sony fans are trashing XB game reviews for Reasons would need a solid analysis of the data to identify it's behaviourally different from other voting behaviours. Without that, it's just rumouring and contemporary conspiracy theorying again. "Here's an idea. No-one can prove it wrong; hence, some will believe it right."

I would hope B3D would look for more substantial basis to theories before giving them any weight.
 
Usually it does not happen months before a game is released.
Yeah it does. I don't want to dredge up every game this has happen to, but games like TLoU2, Forspoken, Days Gone, Halo Infinite, and so-on, were receiving negative reviews and/or scores days/weeks/months prior to their respective release dates. IMHO, the worst offenders are the well-known gaming streamers or content personalities (influencers!) who purposely criticize a game over some held bias or incel view, which has led to certain games being reviewed bombed.
 
Cheers I thought there was something specifically about gamespot. Microsoft should add users reviews to their ecosystem like steam, being able to see a bunch of users reviews from people who have to at least have the game to post a review (even if they do refund it) tends to give me a much better idea about a game than trawling through the cesspool of gaming media and metacritic.

Wait...

They removed the review system some time ago..

Their app got also more stupid with each upgrade.

What?

They removed it from the Xbox console store? I'm looking at their PC game storefront and launcher and it actually now has user reviews unlike when Game Pass PC was in BETA (no user reviews in launcher back then, but there were user reviews if you went into the Microsoft Storefront where you could buy the game).

Huh. I wonder why the console doesn't allow user reviews while the PC does?

I think currently the Epic storefront is the only one that is still hostile to consumers on PC with them not allowing user reviews of games. I'd be happy to be wrong if they actually allow it now, it's one of many reasons I stopped using the Epic storefront.

Regards,
SB
 
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