Microsoft rumored to be buying...... [2020-04, 2020-07, 2020-11]

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm not familiar with Ark, I know it just like the game with dinosaurs that can't keep 30fps on any platform, but I'm very impressed by the quality and the cast for the animated series.
Is this some mix between riverworld and dino riders, or just a sandbox where you collect craft and kill others?

Ark is basically an open world survival game with PvP in a setting with Dinosaurs and spaceships.

Think something like Rust or Conan Exiles, but with dinosaurs and spaceships. Instead of catching and raising animals, you are catching and raising dinosaurs.

When it launched it was also pretty graphically advanced. But it was also an unoptimized hot buggy mess. But that didn't stop many gamers from flocking to it.

I have a friend who played it at launch at 10-15 FPS on low settings. And not just play it. They were IN the game for 100's of hours. At 10-15 FPS. Down to single digit FPS in heavy PvP fights with lots of people. I don't know how or why they subjected themselves to that, but they really loved the game and raising dinosaurs. /shrug. They likely have over 10,000 hours in the game by now.

Regards,
SB

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I have a friend who played it at launch at 10-15 FPS on low settings. And not just play it. They were IN the game for 100's of hours. At 10-15 FPS. Down to single digit FPS in heavy PvP fights with lots of people. I don't know how or why they subjected themselves to that, but they really loved the game and raising dinosaurs. /shrug. They likely have over 10,000 hours in the game by now.

I believe in the past most of the games had sub 30 fps but it did not bother players.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Looking at the recent EA's acquisition of Codemasters, what I think is that...What will happen if GamePass will become big enough?
At some point - where the subscription market stabilizes - we might have the situation that ignoring it for third parties would be the same as ignoring PS in the console market.

So basically other existing subscription services will be in the same situation as MS in a console market now - price of the content exclusivity will be higher for them than MS. Similarly how it happens with Playstation right now.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

At some point - where the subscription market stabilizes - we might have the situation that ignoring it for third parties would be the same as ignoring PS in the console market.

Games as a subscription looks dismal to me in the middle future. Not because I prefer to buy games that I can just play when I want too, but I recall how TV and movies went through this bad phase where everybody tried to roll there own subscription services and it become ridiculously expensive to consume content - at least legally.

I don't want to have to pay Microsoft, EA, Activision, CDPR, Ubisoft, Sony, Square Enix, Epic, Paradox and other publishers each $10 a month to collectively play the types games that I like to play.

 

[liams]

Games as a subscription looks dismal to me in the middle future. Not because I prefer to buy games that I can just play when I want too, but I recall how TV and movies went through this bad phase where everybody tried to roll there own subscription services and it become ridiculously expensive to consume content - at least legally.

I don't want to have to pay Microsoft, EA, Activision, CDPR, Ubisoft, Sony, Square Enix, Epic, Paradox and other publishers each $10 a month to collectively play the types games that I like to play.

I agree,
I think that's why Microsoft is being so aggressive with game pass, trying to make it the unassailable, undisputed king of subscription services. Right now if Sony comes out with its game pass equivalent they would get to game pass numbers pretty quick, once gamepass is at 50 million subs that becomes less likely

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Games as a subscription looks dismal to me in the middle future. Not because I prefer to buy games that I can just play when I want too, but I recall how TV and movies went through this bad phase where everybody tried to roll there own subscription services and it become ridiculously expensive to consume content - at least legally.

From personal experience - aside multiplayer and RPGs - most of the games don't have high replay value these days anyway.

I don't want to have to pay Microsoft, EA, Activision, CDPR, Ubisoft, Sony, Square Enix, Epic, Paradox and other publishers each $10 a month to collectively play the types games that I like to play.

You will probably be able to buy the games online separately. In a long run it will become like the current music or movie industry anyway - I don't remember owning a single song or movie for years. And in the end nobody forces you to play every game - just like with the platforms - you will have to make choices. Like for example Spotify does not have every song I want - I get it in another place.

I agree,
I think that's why Microsoft is being so aggressive with game pass, trying to make it the unassailable, undisputed king of subscription services. Right now if Sony comes out with its game pass equivalent they would get to game pass numbers pretty quick, once gamepass is at 50 million subs that becomes less likely

I wonder if Sony's service will really be able to get GP numbers. If compare it to Disney+ - Sony do not have globally reaching franchises or IPs that are subscription sellers. Most of their games are heavily SP skewed and the whole PS community hates subscription and online gaming in general (aside COD and FIFA of course).

Also African and Asian markets are potentially bigger the whole western world combined though. They are poorer, thus subs might work there - not to mention they usually don't have data caps.

 

[liams]

I wonder if Sony's service will really be able to get GP numbers. If compare it to Disney+ - Sony do not have globally reaching franchises or IPs that are subscription sellers. Most of their games are heavily SP skewed and the whole PS community hates subscription and online gaming in general (aside COD and FIFA of course).

I kinda agree, but only to a point. The problem for Microsoft would be that whatever sony's game pass equivalent ends up being I think will just be rolled into ps+ with a price increase, maybe called ps+ pro or whatever. Currently, there are 40 odd million PS+ subscribers, at the ~$60 per year price point. who knows how many would go up a tier to the ~$100-120 per year ps+ pro sub?

You know what, you've got me to think about it a bit more.
So ~40% of the playstation install base pays for ps+, which is multiplayer, cloud saves etc.
~2% pay for ps now, which imo is just essentially a badly executed version of game pass right now

If sony started taking ps now seriously they would only get a subset of the people who subscribe to ps+, assuming that they don't branch out to pc, which I don't see them doing to such an extent that they would have enough content to support a pc version of ps now (Yes I know you can stream the games on ps now, but no one wants that on pc)
So assuming that the ps5 install base maxes out at ~100m I guess the max for a well-run ps now would be maybe 25 million?

Sorry a bit rambly

Also African and Asian markets are potentially bigger the whole western world combined though. They are poorer, thus subs might work there - not to mention they usually don't have data caps.

yeah and I think those emerging markets are where wide appeal gaas games are going to explode, I could really see something like sea of thieves doing well in those markets. Especially if Microsoft started taking regional expansion seriously, making a large amount of regional content, with skins and specific in-game events, product tie ins would make it gain ground very quickly imo.

I think Indonesia is a market where they will do this, just in November Microsoft made a 'strategic investment' in the Indonesian e-commerce company bukalapak. Which has a really neat business. What they do is they are an online shop like your amazons of the world, but they also specialise in selling to small corner store type shops in Indonesia, offering goods at a large discount to these retailers because of their ability to buy in bulk, they support 6 million of these stores! If you want explosive growth in a region I can't think of a better way than to send a bunch of posters and free trials to all of these smaller stores.


https://news.microsoft.com/apac/202...h-microsoft-to-enhance-indonesian-e-commerce/

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I kinda agree, but only to a point. The problem for Microsoft would be that whatever sony's game pass equivalent ends up being I think will just be rolled into ps+ with a price increase, maybe called ps+ pro or whatever. Currently, there are 40 odd million PS+ subscribers, at the ~$60 per year price point. who knows how many would go up a tier to the ~$100-120 per year ps+ pro sub?

You know what, you've got me to think about it a bit more.
So ~40% of the playstation install base pays for ps+, which is multiplayer, cloud saves etc.
~2% pay for ps now, which imo is just essentially a badly executed version of game pass right now

If sony started taking ps now seriously they would only get a subset of the people who subscribe to ps+, assuming that they don't branch out to pc, which I don't see them doing to such an extent that they would have enough content to support a pc version of ps now (Yes I know you can stream the games on ps now, but no one wants that on pc)
So assuming that the ps5 install base maxes out at ~100m I guess the max for a well-run ps now would be maybe 25 million?

But the same logic all Xbox Live supporters should have went to GamePass but they did not as 90+ mil Xbox Live users did not translate into 90+ GP users by default. Only 1/6 of the whole active install base went for GP for now. It might change when Xbox Live Gold will finally retire though. We'll see. Because so far GP consists of 20% of the whole Xbox Live population probably.

I don't know % of Xbox install base that pays for Xbox Live, but I think Xbox in that regard is better than PS and close to PC. But the point about the price is fair though, I did not know that PS+ is 1.5 times cheaper than GP. So if they introduce PS+ Pro for 10$ it might have certain success - or maybe not. Because - so far - PS community is far less tolerant to digital and multiplayer, than Xbox.

Also isn't PSN about 100+ now? 40 million would be 25% rather than 40% though.

Sorry a bit rambly

Your English is better than mine anyway, so your ramblings are better than mine

yeah and I think those emerging markets are where wide appeal gaas games are going to explode, I could really see something like sea of thieves doing well in those markets. Especially if Microsoft started taking regional expansion seriously, making a large amount of regional content, with skins and specific in-game events, product tie ins would make it gain ground very quickly imo.

I think Indonesia is a market where they will do this, just in November Microsoft made a 'strategic investment' in the Indonesian e-commerce company bukalapak. Which has a really neat business. What they do is they are an online shop like your amazons of the world, but they also specialise in selling to small corner store type shops in Indonesia, offering goods at a large discount to these retailers because of their ability to buy in bulk, they support 6 million of these stores! If you want explosive growth in a region I can't think of a better way than to send a bunch of posters and free trials to all of these smaller stores.

Yeah, I think that's MS plan. Because they probably also realize that instead of trying to change the mindshare in Europe - pitiably and directly competing with Sony in Europe - it is better to go after new markets. After all those countries are equipped with 4G or will be equipped with 5G straight away - benefits of later development - so they do not have such legacy issues like old infrastructure, cartels etc. And they also will be much more open to networking and web in general.

 

[eastmen]

@ChuckeRearmed

For the states 4g was a huge pain point because they were reliant on their old networks for transition. However now that 4g is built out the majority of the providers are taking down their old networks and converting them to 5g strait away.

I know for sprint they had so much spectrum devoted to Evdo but couldn't shift it to 4g because customers were still using the network. Now everyone on sprint gets 4g so they can tear down evdo and previous

 

[liams]

I admittedly didn't see that one coming...
Vin Diesel is the executive producer on Ark 2,
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/12/14/ark-2-coming-to-xbox-series-xs-console-launch-exclusive

There goes my theory

 

[BRiT]

I admittedly didn't see that one coming...
Vin Diesel is the executive producer on Ark 2,
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/12/14/ark-2-coming-to-xbox-series-xs-console-launch-exclusive

There goes my theory

He has over 1000 hours of game play time in Ark!

 

[fehu]

This means that somewhere out there someone has kicked vin diesel's ass in ark and survived

 

[Silent_Buddha]

He has over 1000 hours of game play time in Ark!

Not surprising, Vin Diesel is an avid gamer. He didn't get into game production because he only wanted to make money from games, he got into it because he loved games and wanted to help make games.

Regards,
SB

 

[milk]

10 years ago:

 

[Adrian Orbis]

Vin has an active Xbox Live account, even, although I can't remember his gamertag.

 

[Nesh]

Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo 20 years ago "but they just laughed their asses off"

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...intendo-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off

Also another interesting point:
"The Bloomberg piece is well worth a read, as it's packed with fun anecdotes about Xbox's early years. There's a great one about Microsoft getting Konami on-board with Xbox, and it turns out Microsoft also tried to buy Madden maker EA and Final Fantasy maker Square, but both said no. An attempt to buy Mortal Kombat maker Midway didn't work out, either."

I remember these circulating back then. It shows how aggressively MS acts in any market they enter. A very prominent example of a super large company with monopoly in it's culture. The buy out of Bethesda reflects the company's mentality and original strategy and shows how far they will go once opportunity opens up.
I wouldnt be surprised if these companies are still targeted and will move with large acquisitions of other important companies.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

The buy out of Bethesda reflects the company's mentality and original strategy and shows how far they will go once opportunity opens up

People are still salty about that LMAO MS did nothing more than purchased a bunch of studios at once. Studios are being purchased often and MS just have enough money (it would funny to see the reaction if Sony was able to outbid MS and Bethesda because Sony is saving gaming in its walled garden or something) to buy it in pack.

Any company when trying to enter the established market, attempts to buy some famous brand. It is just normal. Though Nintendo were chads.

I wouldnt be surprised if these companies are still targeted and will move with large acquisitions of other important companies.

It is inevitable, because companies have trouble and instead of being dissolved the owners often want to sell.

 

[Nesh]

You are stating the obvious as if it can work as a counter argument that can paint it in a positive light.

 

[fehu]

The nintendo's story is so well known that at some point I thought that it was older than time itself. I don't understand why it's making the rounds now.

 

[cheapchips]

The nintendo's story is so well known that at some point I thought that it was older than time itself. I don't understand why it's making the rounds now.

I think the hour of being laughed at quote is new?