280°

Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer sizes up company's Activision deal

Xbox chief says it's personally 'daunting,' but downplays industry impact.

847d ago Replies(3)
MrDead847d ago

Every platform I can think of has added to the gaming world, MS's Xbox is the only platform I can think of that has taken away more from gamers and the gaming community then it's added.

I would have liked to see what the Xbox could have been away from MS, making games that bring people to it's platform instead of banning other platforms from multiplatform publishers. Unfortunately we will never know, instead we are left with the another tax dodging tech giant buying up another industry and forcing gamers to their platform.

Ristul847d ago

That is Microsoft in a nutshell, buy up the competition instead of building and fostering talented studios.

They actually tried to buy Nintendo at some point in history. Now they buy publishers of games and locking games behind their walled garden. The very thing Phil Spencer said they dont want to do.

Lightning77847d ago

"That is Microsoft in a nutshell, buy up the competition instead of building and fostering talented studios.*

Don't even start with that. sony bought up all those studios last year and none of then were fostered except for Housemarque. Who cares how it's done as long as MS has studios to make games. It's just not picky at this point.

"Now they buy publishers of games and locking games behind their walled garden."

So what are games free now on other platforms or something? You're not making sense.

Army_of_Darkness847d ago (Edited 847d ago )

@lightening77

Dude, Sony bought Housemarque and blue point studios, both of which has a long history of making exclusive playstation games to begin with so I don't see how that would compare to taking away call of duty that has been multiplatform since the beginning of time. That's a massive difference! So no, it's not the same at all.

wiz7191847d ago

@armyofdarkness it’s ironic COD started out as a PC exclusive .. so actually COD wasn’t always multi platform ,

wiz7191846d ago (Edited 846d ago )

Lol all those disagrees I guess people don’t know how to use google … Call of Duty first few games were on PC , COD just didn’t get big until COD 4 ..

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 846d ago
Youngindy21847d ago

WTF are you even babbling about? Microsoft allows you to play their games on the most platforms(Xbox, PC/Mac, Mobile, Cloud). Whereas Sony would only allow you to play it on PS5 and maybe if your lucky PC.

Army_of_Darkness847d ago

You don't see that Microsoft's new platform is actually gamepass? In order to play their games, you must pay Microsoft. Period.

Lightning77847d ago (Edited 847d ago )

@Army its extremely clear you don't know how GP works, that or you're being ignorant on purpose. Halo Infinite, Forza all of First party AAA, and major 3rd party can be purchased like any other game out there. Download or store bought can be purchased physically. Again like everything else out there.

You don't have to pay for gamepass to play MS first party games. Now stop making things up.

Army_of_Darkness847d ago

@lightening77 "You don't have to pay for gamepass to play MS first party games. Now stop making things up."

Wait... So you are telling me gamepass is free?! Shit bro! I want in!

-Hermit-847d ago

What did they take away from you? The only thing I can think of is free online gaming, but then the likes of Sony and Nintendo followed, so they are equal on that one. So what exactly have they taken from you?

Gamer4Life1579847d ago

@MrDead
Please elaborate on what Microsoft have taken away from gaming. I'm genuinely curious to know what your thoughts are.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 846d ago
LWOGaming847d ago

It seems that when Microsoft does this it’s all bad and disgraceful but Sony have been doing this for years. It’s nothing new it’s just that the number of noughts on the deals get bigger.
Xbox will have more and more gamers playing on lots of different platforms which is what they want.
PlayStation will keep selling the consoles and will be just fine and they will buy some more studios yet.
Nintendo will keep doing their own thing and will be more than fine.

It’s as simple as that and some people are making a huge mountain out of a mole hill. Enjoy what gaming brings which is quality games and fun and these deals will not change it as much as some want is to believe.

Kornholic847d ago (Edited 847d ago )

Sony has done this for years? Name five multiplatform series that Sony has bought and restricted from other consoles? If you can't name five, I'll settle for two.

LWOGaming847d ago

When have MS said they will restrict the games from other consoles? Call of Duty will still be on PlayStation. Will all Bethesda games go Xbox exclusive? I’m talking about Sony also buying companies. It’s part of the modern gaming world. The idea that MS buying Activision/Blizzard will somehow harm PlayStation gamers is just scaremongering.
Some games from both sides will be timed exclusives but Halo, COD will remain multi platform. To keep a series on one console - Nintendo being an exception - will only reduce sales. If Sony have Halo for example why would they make it PS only when they can make many more millions by having it on other platforms? Answer - they won’t.

wiz7191847d ago

You just haven’t been gaming for to long , lol people think Sony is some kind of saint in this gaming space ..

LWOGaming847d ago

Lol. You will be waiting a long time. You asked me to answer a question about when Sony stopped games going to other platforms but I am not sure why you are asking that from what I said. I don’t think you even tried to understand my point or comment.
You are making assumptions that MS will stop games coming to Sony. That is YOUR assumption.
When I said Sony have been doing this for ages I was referring to making acquisitions.
Therefore there is no need for me to answer your question.
Bungie games will still be on Xbox , Bethesda games will still be on PlayStation and MS games will still be on Nintendo.
There will be exclusives, timed exclusives but the games everyone is worrying about will still be multi platform.
That’s all any of us need to know right now.

Chevalier846d ago

" Bethesda games will still be on PlayStation and MS games will still be on Nintendo.
There will be exclusives, timed exclusives but the games everyone is worrying about will still be multi platform."

Really? Explain Redfall and Starfield then?!

LWOGaming846d ago

That’s 2 games. You were worrying about those games? I’m talking about COD, Halo etc. Of course there will be exclusives. That’s not new. And if Sony and MS decide to make exclusives that push people away from huge franchises that already exist - already exist being the key here - then they will have to face the deserved backlash they will receive.

dcbronco846d ago (Edited 846d ago )

Remember when people used to say Microsoft was selling Xbox and leaving the games industry. I bet there are still some holdouts. 🤣

LWOGaming846d ago

Remember it well. Sony, MS, Nintendo are not going anywhere. They will all continue to thrive for decades to come. Now get on with enjoying games you love on the system you love and if you have more than one system your dreams are already amazing.

LWOGaming846d ago

@Wiz7191 Not been playing games for too long? Lol. When I started playing games Sony and Microsoft didn’t even exist in terms of consoles!

wiz7191846d ago

Lol I can’t tell by your comments

LWOGaming845d ago

Thanks for you words. Pointless as they are.

LWOGaming843d ago

You know how you said I know little about games? Have you seen the official confirmation from Microsoft about Activision/Blizzard games? The announcement that confirms everything I said. Just thought I would let you know that this person who knows nothing clearly knows rather more than you do. Cheers and all the best. 🤘🎮🤘

80°

HexGaming Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Hex Phantom

Custom Controller Company HexGaming launched a Kickstarter campaign for their latest pro controller, Hex Phantom. - IS

Read Full Story >>
infinitestart.com
330°

Trying to push players over from PC to console is a terrible idea, PlayStation

As PlayStation announces its new strategy to encourage PC users to choose PS5 it is a bitter-sweet moment for PC gamers.

Christopher1d 10h ago

I mean, it's a business based on hardware market. Do we expect them to not even try? It's not like Nintendo doesn't do the same by not putting any games on PC and Microsoft until recently did the same. I don't care what they attempt, as long as they don't abuse the community or lie about their goals/requirements.

Will it work? Not likely. Should we care? No. Let them waste their time, it doesn't affect anything.

RaidenBlack1d 10h ago

let them try ... at the end of the day, we get few extra PC games ... yay ... and also promotes game preservation via PC ... so double yay.

LordoftheCritics17h ago

If only Playstation games provided the ease of pc gaming features.

Primary being very few PS games support m/kb.

Christopher10h ago

If only PC games supported controllers more. Main reason I play primarily on console. So many games have shit support on PC. Playing Dark Envoy now, and it's quite frustrating since I have to switch to keyboard during cut scenes just to make sure advancing conversation doesn't also auto-select a decision. Let alone it's quite rough to select between characters and inventory screens are bad bad bad.

Anywho, similar complaints for both I find. But, I 100% agree that both PC and consoles should support both as best as possible.

crazyCoconuts5h ago

PS may push more kb support in the future to get more PC converts, we'll see.

Flewid6384h ago

As someone with a high end PC, I feel like the ease is on PS5. Too many PC games are a troubleshooting nightmare, which few people have the time for when all you want to do is pop in a game & play it.

LordoftheCritics9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

I don't think you understand what I mean by the lack of m/kb support on PS.

Over a thousand titles have PS controller support on PC.

Not even 30 titles have m/kb support on PS5.

Once you are done with the single player title, you'll go back to playing your daily shooter/looter/mmo etc which the pc gamer has mastered with their mouse and keyboard.
Why would any pc gamer make the switch?

jznrpg42m ago(Edited 41m ago)

PC is secondary to PlayStation for them. Mouse and keyboard would affect development. Live service will have it but most single player games aren’t going to have it as PC is not the focus

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 42m ago
Fishy Fingers1d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

I wish them the best of luck.

But PC players are often a patient bunch, many will even wait for Epic launcher exclusivity to end until a game comes to Steam.

If they didnt buy the console when its games were exclusive, why would they do it now theyre not?

MrNinosan19h ago

Way more do than you probably think.

ravens5219h ago

All you need is that one game that'll make a few switch at a time. Like a game a PC player REALLY wants.

porkChop6h ago

It just doesn't work that way though. Plenty of the best games ever made were never available on PC. That didn't make PC gamers buy consoles to play them. This kind of strategy has never worked in the past and it won't work now. It's fine for PS to hold their games back and release on PC later, but to think that will boost console sales is wishful thinking. All this will accomplish is some double dipping, which is obviously good for business.

JackBNimble6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

People aren't going to switch from pc to ps5, why would anyone do that for a game?
Most sony exclusives aren't all that to begin with, and pc has the option to upgrade what they want when they want it. Having access to some ps5 games, gamepass and steam.

Thinking this would happen is naive

outsider162415h ago

I mean if there's 10 million pc gamers out there...getting atleast just 1 million from there is probably a good thing..right?

romulus2313h ago

PC players are not a monolith, I don't know why people keep thinking they speak for the entirety of all PC gamers like they all know each other personally. You think out of the millions of PC gamers not one single person will be impatient?Well Sony is willing to bet there will be. Why would they do it now? People's feelings change and new PC gamers come along all the time that may also feel different about waiting, that's why.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 6h ago
-Foxtrot1d 9h ago

PC gamers are just too patient and loyal to their gaming set ups, something they've spent a lot of money on to perfect. They have backlogs of games which many never get round to finishing or get round to at all and will always have other multiplatform releases to keep them going.

Over the many years Sony has published so many awesome titles such as The Last of Us, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Infamous, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Dreams, Puppeteer, Resistance, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo, Motor Storm, God of War, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne

If none of those games BEFORE all these PC ports convinced a hardcore PC gamer to get a PS5 console then why on Earth would porting them them to PC now make any difference? All PC gamers now know 100% is that they just have to be patient, which they are good at anyway to get a PS5 game 2 years later.

I get GaaS games or multiplayer focused titles but if people really want to play these games they'd have gotten a PS console years ago.

Crows9016h ago

Not sure they're aiming to convince the hardcore PC gamer.

Not sure why people are obsessing over his comment...it seems pretty simple to me.

He will do all he can to entice gamers to move to his ecosystem. As you say....exclusives existing hasn't moved many gamers over. But if they get to try them and love the games then they might change their mind about waiting 2 years.

We're in an echo chamber on this site...I've Personally seen people with Xbox and PC setups but no PlayStation. I've also seen people with small PC setups but no console. Not every pc gamer invests thousands and many may decide to put one in the living room.

They're not looking to convince all of players to buy a PlayStation...just a few...and really it is just a PR statement after all...they have to give a reason why single player won't release day 1....not to mention they also have to ensure current PlayStation gamers don't jump ship to PC. It goes both ways and they're ignoring the big L by putting any of their games off their platform.

anast15h ago

"Not sure they're aiming to convince the hardcore PC gamer."

Right here

Kakashi Hatake15h ago

PC gamers think tomorrow is promised. Sorry, don't have time for that.

Michiel198914h ago

it's not just about loyalty or sunk cost, pc is an open platform while consoles are closed platforms. If you for example want to mod, you will play on pc, no question about it. Also if you like indie games, steam is a fucking goldmine for that. I've been playing a lot of indie games over the last years and there just seems to be an endless amount of them on steam. Also not having games locked to a certain fps is a prettty big deal for me and I assume a lot of other pc players.

Walalon13h ago

And don't forget steam sales, you can get a ton of games on an awesome price.

badz1494h ago

@Walalon

Sony has been doing sales constantly on the PS Store nowadays.

jznrpg32m ago(Edited 30m ago)

@Walalon Steam sales are basically the same as PS sales. I was going to buy a Steam Deck and I heard about these Steam sales but the games I was interested in were not any cheaper. Indie games were cheap and older AAA were cheap but the same can be said for PS store sales. I didn’t end up getting the Steam Deck as there weren’t any games that I wanted to play that wasn’t already on PS and prices aren’t much different

romulus2313h ago

And how do you know out of the millions of PC gamers that not one single person ever went ahead and bought a PlayStation console for one or more of those games? People keep speaking for the entirety of millions of PC gamers like they know them all personally. Here's one example for you, I'm currently typing on a recently purchased PC that cost me over twenty five hundred dollars and is more than capable of running any game including Sony exclusives that come to PC and yet I still bought a PS5 so apparently I'm not patient or loyal enough to my set up, hope it's not mad at me for not being loyal.

jznrpg36m ago

Some of those people will consider getting a PS5 some wont. I was a PC gamer for a long time and I’m a console only gamer now. Everyone’s different.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 32m ago
helicoptergirl1d 9h ago

Who cares? Then just stay on PC and play the waiting game. No big deal. Sony wins in the end anyway.

Number1TailzFan1d 9h ago

I mean if there's any single player Sony games that I actually want that aren't on PC then I would buy said console to play them on. But the ones that I like that aren't on PC are few and far between anyway so no loss for me.

If I game, it's usually multiplayer titles, otherwise I like playing around with some other software.

Amplitude10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

Astro Bot is the game that just did it for me. I'm gonna have to grab a PS5 again for that.

I did this for Ratchet Rift Apart too but ended up selling the PS5 after getting my plat. Rebought it on PC and other than GoW Ragnarok and Horizon FW (which eventually I could get anyway), I haven't had a reason to downgrade my graphics, controller features, ease of recording, and increase my game costs and monthly subscriptions throughout this entire generation.

I play on a TV with a controller but this has been the absolute worst console gen for both consoles. Never in my life thought I'd be a PC gamer but I've been spoiled by the cheap costs, cross-platform controllers and mostly the unbelievably useful Steam controller config.

Show all comments (67)
200°

Sony shares big new PS Plus stat, but not the one we want to see

PlayStation Plus has improved the split of PS4 and PS5 players on its priciest tiers, but Sony continues to hide total subscriber numbers.

Read Full Story >>
theloadout.com
mandf1d 10h ago

lol acting like it’s equivalent to ms numbers

Mr Logic1d 10h ago

Uh...They're definitely not equivalent.

"Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers."

"the total number of PS Plus subscribers across all tiers was 47.4 million"

darthv721d 10h ago (Edited 1d 10h ago )

That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN.

bloop1d 6h ago

That's not the "gotcha" you think it is Darth.

darthv721d 5h ago

^^it's not supposed to be bloop.... it's just an interesting observation.

Einhander19721d 4h ago

darthv72

"That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN."

Have you ever heard of a PC before? I hear they are pretty popular.

fr0sty22h ago

MS started lumping gold subscribers in with those GP numbers... keep in mind.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 22h ago
shinoff21831d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

What. Definitely more os plus subscribers but that makes sense due to actual console sales

Darth the difference between the bases are huge your right but you gotta think. Ps players buy more games, where as the Xbox base relies on gamepass for their gaming. So it makes perfect sense

darthv721d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

What makes perfect sense though? You say PS players buy more games... so then logically there should be more PS+ subscribers given the increased number of online multiplayer games in the PS4 generation alone. The PS4 was the first time that + was required for online play much like Gold was for 360 users.

Keep in mind we are talking subscribers, not simply XB/PS users. I assume you meant to say offline single player games, which is most likely true as well. That gen also saw a significant increase in games with an online component comparted to the previous gen.

victorMaje1d 8h ago

I for one will be going back to essential at the next renewal. When I feel a game is good & right up my alley, I’ll check trusted reviews & just buy it.

jznrpg1d 7h ago (Edited 1d 7h ago )

I have the top tier until 2028 as they gave me a massive discount for all the years I had left but I’ll most likely go to essential as well. I buy my games but my kids do use the service occasionally. They do prefer to own their games as well since any game can leave the rental service at some point and they don’t like that idea. They mostly use it to demo games then ask me to buy games if they really like it.

RedDevils1d 3h ago

For me, I will cancel it all together but unfortunately I still have it till 2030 lol

meganick1d 7h ago

I would like to see Sony add a fourth tier of PS Plus for people who just want to be able to play games online without any of the perks like monthly games, store discounts, or anything like that, and it should cost $20 annually, $30 maximum. There’s no way I’m paying $80 just to play games online. Even the original $60 fee was too much, and I would often wait for sales to re-up my subscription.

P_Bomb1d 3h ago (Edited 1d 3h ago )

Essential is too expensive, I agree. We’ve got one Essential and one Premium sub. Dropping the Premium when it expires.

gamerz23h ago

Just let my subscription lapse for the first time since 2010. Will sub again every now and then for a month or so to access my old ps+ games but for me it's the end of an era.

DivineHand12523h ago

Let those numbers continue to drop because it is now too expensive. $80 per year just to play online. I noticed they didn't offer any discounts on the subscription or controllers during this year's days of play for the first time in many years and they will feel it when people choose not to renew.

My subscription will lapse next month and it will stay that way until further notice.

KevtheDuff19h ago

There were savings on subs and controllers here in the UK? I bought a controller yesterday in the sale..
It would be weird if those deals were not in other territories too?