Sony Really Is Concerned About Microsoft's Xbox Strategy Following the Activision Blizzard Buyout

Amid the devastating data breach of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac, leaked slides have revealed Sony’s internal concern at competitor Microsoft’s emerging strategy following its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

[Zeref]

Some people on here told me that Sony isn't worried about the 3rd place console 👀

They got scared of Microsofts growing live service games
Like Sea of Thieves, Halo Infinite, Minecraft etc and now Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Diablo 4 etc.

They called their own strategy outdated 👀
Looks like Xbox is ahead of the curve once again and Sony is trying to catch up. Hence the Bungie acquisition and the "12 game" live service strategy.

[Number1TailzFan]

Rumours they want to launch the next Xbox earlier than the next PS (not Pro) as well. Most likely they are feeling an earlier launch might be more successful, kind of like 360 vs PS3.

[Zeref]

I think one disadvantage of that is that Sony could release a new console that's more powerful soon(2 years) after that.

However I think overall it will be good for Xbox to not put pressure on consumers to choose between Xbox or Playstation anymore when they have their own console release schedule. This way the nextgen Xbox will have 2 years to itself.
It gives consumers more breathing room.

That's one of the reasons Nintendo is successful as well. There was never a moment where consumers needed to choose between a Switch or a Playstation/Xbox during it's launch and inevitably compared. The Switch had 3 years where it was the only new thing.

[crazyCoconuts]

If the they're really selling 3X more XSS than XSX, with the low sales numbers, I can understand why they'd feel a Pro wouldn't be worth it. By the time 2026 comes along that might be more clear than it is now, we'll see

[darthv72]

Or it just makes sense to release on their own schedule. Not filling time with a mid gen system. If rumors of 2026 are true, that is a nice amount of time between it and the initial release of the Series line.

[Profchaos]

History tells us being first isn't always garunteed to win you that generation Dreamcast was first. The Atari Jaguar was first.

Remember all the advantages that the Jag and Dreamcast had

[Lightning77]

Apparently 2026 is when the next Xbox launches. Making it 6 years and shortest time since 7th gen transition.

@Zeref. If anything this gen taught me is that the whole power chasing narrative, its not that important. PS5 performs better here, Xbox performs better there. The game design overall isn't doing anything different except for RT here and there. That's the power narrative. We're just now seeing the power being taken advantage of with games like Alan Wake 2. I think most ppls imaginations when power get brought up for next gen is Super ultra realistic graphics, AI that's smarter than you and open world games that's 100% changing and reactive and dynamic with 120fps etc. When that's not hardly the case. In all honesty, it's just more work form the developers and even longer dev cycles. All PS and Xbox fans wanna do is beat on their chest about power, power that ultimately doesn't amount to much of anything, at least not these days not like they use to.

Xbox release a new console in 26, 2 years later PS releases their console in 28 then Xbox in 30 etc, etc, it's so pointless. Plus Series X 2 would have to play games on SS and SX1 so once again won't be seeing the advantages of that console. It's price gouging, longer dev cycles and almost pointless.

For reference sakes PS360 had a long and even annoying life cycle but said sequels of games looked much better. GTA4 to 5 way better. AC 1 to the last AC of that gen looked way better even COD MW1 to Advance Warfare is night and day.

Anyway this whole power chasing Sony and MS are doing is a joke at this point, there won't be anymore huge leaps anymore.

As of right now 2024 is looking overall kinda bleak in terms of overall releases, now that's sad. Where's all these powerful PS5X games?

[shinoff2183]

Hopefully they plan it better so we don't have another rrod issue.

[crazyCoconuts]

I think in short, Sony releases a pro model because they can and they believe enough customers want it to pay for it.
If MS doesn't release a pro it's either because they can't (of course they could) or because they don't think enough customers would pay for it... It's not because of some brilliant strategic move or because they can't be bothered with mid gen upgrades

[Hofstaderman]

@Lightning77 2024 for PS5 kicks off with FF7 Rebirth, nice try. Where have the games been for XBOX since 2011?

[Lightning77]

@hof yeah you're not very bright. Your instant reaction you thought I was talking about PS. I'm talking about 3rd party overall PS5X means PS5 and Series X. You're, way, way too sensitive over your console holy crap. I guess it is the serious.

[crazyCoconuts]

If being ahead of the curve is releasing mediocre games that you feel compelled to play because you're on a subscription model, then yeah, Xbox is ahead.
There's one problem though- anyone can do mediocre

[Zeref]

No, ahead of the curve is their business model of being on PC, Mobile, Day and Date gamepass games, and successful multiplayer games. Sony agrees 😏

[crazyCoconuts]

Sony is also saying Day 1 releases are unsustainable and GamePass is losing lots of money, so I wouldn't say they want to copy the MS strategy based on the leak

[JackBNimble]

You seem to forget that Sony changed ps+ to reflect what games pass is doing almost identically other then day one. Then increased the price 30% ... Sony have been trying to do what MS has been doing for years.
The only difference is day 1 games and the fact that the price increase pushed a lot of ps+ subscribers like me away.

[Jin_Sakai]

Fake.

Xbox fans were making fake slides and throwing them into the Insomniac Games leak. How pathetic.

https://x.com/xmbgx/status/...

[maniacmayhem]

Lmao, MBG is your source that they're fake?

That's like getting confirmation that a 3 dollar bill is fake from a Unicorn

[Zeref]

It's not fake. Every major website is covering this and you're taking the word of "MBG"?

[Kribwalker]

Definitely not fake. Might wanna check into that again

[Jin_Sakai]

Even if it turns out to be real wouldn’t it be pretty obvious they’re concerned about a 3rd party publisher being acquired for $69 billion?

Microsoft are concerned about Game Pass number and potentially exiting the gaming business in 2027 if growth doesn’t meet expectations.

[thesoftware730]

It is not fake,

They have cause for concern, no matter how we try to downplay MS, some of the games they have acquired make a lot of money and have long legs. Diablo is a good example, people on here rag on it, but both the cell phone game and console versions bring in crazy bank, and are played by millions of gamers.

[Lightning77]

MBG is one of in the biggest Sony fan boys out there, you have to be atleast a little, just a little smarter than that.

[Kribwalker]

and now MBG has deleted his tweet you linked 😂😂

[Vengeance1138]

@lightning

If you think MBG is at all a fanboy then you are truly lost and delusional. Maybe watch his content and learn something.

[thesoftware730]

🤣🤣🤣, the comment delete.

What a new low for a Sony fan...and you should apologize for reporting nonsense news and acting like it was true...wow mud on your face.

You guys are trying so hard to make this sound ok.

[JackBNimble]

This is exactly where fanboyism get's you, it just makes you look unintelligent.

[badz149]

Sony not worried? Is that why they were fighting so hard to void the buyout? You only hear what you wanna hear, ha?

But maybe you're right. Sony has no worries about the distant 3rd place console nobody wants, they are worried that one of the trillion dollar club trying to gobble up the industry using the money the distant 3rd place console never earned!

[Zeref]

Never earned? 😂 😂 😂

[badz149]

@Zeref

Care to provide proof that xbox has made at least $79B in profit during this 2 decades that have allowed them to buy Mojang, Bethesda and ABK?

[Hofstaderman]

You are amazing. This doesnt change sales at all. It merely reiterates thay Sony is not going to sit on their laurels. MS is getting their asses handed to them so bad they cannot and will not even course correct from launching an all digital series X. Even if they reset the clock and launch a new console in 2026 which is highly doubtful, their time with consoles are done for. Accept it or not it will be an eventuality. They can eff around with mobile and PC, I dont care for those, just as long as consoles are not tainted by them any further. And no their exit will not result in a collapse where Sony can do what they want but it will open up a space for a serious contender who can actually do the space some justice.

[Lightning77]

By the way there is no other serious contender in the console space. No google, Amazon will never grow to a single console, Apple doesn't care. Even if someone steps up, you would cry and complain about them to. Has nothing to do with Xbox it's anyone who "threatens" your favorite little console and white knight for a 100b$ industry with all your might. That's sad lol.

For real you need to go outside and live life man. A single platform or a piece of Metal and plastic has you hard pressed and angry isn't a healthy obsession. Your life priorities need evaluating.

[Eonjay]

Sony was pretty vocal in their opposition to this deal. They were the most vocal in fact.

[shinoff2183]

Where you been though cause it looked like the live service games were kind of a jim Ryan thing. Have noticed some canceled games recently. And saying ms is ahead of the curve , seems to point at live service stuff. I'm alright with sony being behind the curve when it comes to live service games. I hope they stay behind on that front. Where they ain't behind the curve though is single player games. My only issue with that is I wish Sony would step up to make some rpgs, whether jrpg or wrpg something.

[ChasterMies]

Sony is much less worried about the third place console than it is about the trillion dollar company that can buy up all gaming publishers.

[Christopher]

***Some people on here told me that Sony isn't worried about the 3rd place console 👀 ***

A few months ago tons of people you're not talking about were using the fact that Sony said they weren't worried about the Activision merger, quotes from specific Sony emails, were proof why the merger should happen. Now, those same people are wondering why people were saying Sony wasn't worried when Sony themselves said that. In an email, btw. Not just through anonymous sources.

*** Looks like Xbox is ahead of the curve once again and Sony is trying to catch up. Hence the Bungie acquisition and the "12 game" live service strategy. ***

Man, if only Xbox could translate that curve advantage into actual sales and not, as Microsoft specifically said themselves, losing to the market leader that is Sony.

[mrcatastropheAF]

These businesses understand that this competition is a marathon not a race.

Sony sees the positioning resulting in leverage for MS and a potentially significant threat of loss of future market share in the future but the pony in you is celebrating them being the current market leader

[S2Killinit]

Now imagine what MS is worried about.

[IRetrouk]

Find the slide this article is based on in the leaked documents and post it here, bet you can't......
Infact if you can ill buy you a game on xbox.

[Markusb33]

i dont see how xb is ahead of any curve when their financial officer says they plan to be on all devices even previous competitors, meaning 3rd party publisher, who owns a service. Also xb dont even mention their own console in press or marketing its always GP. Hasnt this document been shown to have been created by someone via editing and its not actually real ? i see marvel needs 6 million sales to keep games exclusive, xb is out of luck there, since they dont believe in sales and only games played in a service, which means nothing.

[-Foxtrot]

Maybe this is why Sony has slowly started to reel in its live service push. Why p*** off your fanbase with GaaS content which is a gamble whether it will be successful or not. If it wasn’t successful and MS grows bigger than most people will just get annoyed eventually and drift other places.

Better to double down on what they are good at.

[Zeref]

According to the documents. Their single player games are not making enough money. Some of them don't break even. Only doing so when they sell 500 million dollars or more.

That is unsustainable. No wonder they wanted to pivot to live service so hard.

Some people on here were too busy worried about Xbox instead of buying games like they said they do.

I've also seen that Playstation games sell horribly on Steam. With their most sold game being Horizon Zero Dawn at 3 million and Sack boy the lowest at only 62k. All because they're not day and date launches. Even Spiderman flopped on Steam with Spiderman Remastered at 1.3 million and Miles Morales at 450k.

Day and Date PC Playstation games are coming sooner than later.

I've seen somewhere they were even debating raising the price of games to 80-100 dollars.

https://www.threads.net/@ha...

[purple101]

1. they said their worried about cod in 2027 , so they know something were not privy to

2. only ratchet and clank (ps5 launch game during shortage) didn't make money, the rest did.

[CrashMania]

Calling all those PC releases flops is just innaccurate and gives no context, sure sackboy is yikes, but some of these released years later after they sold many millions on console already, but you will of course ignore that conveniently.

I don't think day and date PC ports are any 'solution' to what you claim, unlike MS, Sony don't want to gut their console base. I can imagine most of those ports besides the obvious Sackboy made a bit of extra cash on the side, Playstation revenue and profits seem to be fine. They didn't have to spend 80 billion to move up a space or two on that ladder.

Also shame on IGN really, poking the 'console war' fire among these awful leaks, I think any competitor would be concerned at a rival throwing dozens of billions around to try force gaming down a drab, live service subscription, streaming only future.

[Zeref]

@purple101

1. Not sure what you're talking about

2. I said they didn't make ENOUGH money. Not that they're not making ANY money. Spiderman 2 only making 75 million. Is not nearly enough profit. That is damn near a flop financially.

[isarai]

Where are you getting that 75mil is " not enough" profit? 🤔

[derek]

Just ignore Zeref, he/she has a need for the "Sony is failing and having their worst year" fud to be true.

[Mr_cheese]

@zeref, clean your room mate, must be ectoplasm everywhere the way you're going on

[Markusb33]

they all made money, even the ratchet report was fake, its been confirmed what the budget was and how many it sold, plus a game that is not successful doesnt get a sequel and Ratchet is listed as a new title in development.
This is why xb games dont get sequels, they have been programmed to say buying games is wrong, dont support your hobbie, support your company by paying for a service. Redfall awful, starfield mediocre, halo awful, they own more studios than anyone and have more money than anyone and still cant release high quality, critically successful and financially successful games.

[Gazondaily]

Sony is shook! Damn man. They in turmoil

[Kribwalker]

I Thought sony wasn’t concerned with xbox or their sub services/games. Also that nobody likes call of duty either

Lie detector test has determined those were both lies

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

December 19 2023. The greatest day of your life!

[IRetrouk]

Yall need to stop doing this you yourselves man, every year we hear the same shite from yas🤣

Good show with oti the other day though septic, thrash too, props for that.

[Kakashi Hatake]

And it only took MS buying the biggest yearly selling game 😒 *claps * Let's reward a company that has zero vision and just throws money around.

[Einhander1972]

Well obviously it's a big concern for them.

This shouldn't even be surprising, less surprising than the fact that Sony is outselling xbox 3:1 even when xbox is taking huge losses per console and in the year that was supposed to be their big comeback, on top of being down YoY after COVID.

[AdonisIsBeast]

Then buy a major publisher as well Sony. Spend some money to compete.

[Zeref]

They don't have the money to do so. They had to take out a loan just to buy Bungie.

When Matt Booty said "we are going to outspend Sony". This is what he meant 😭

[Destiny1080]

taking out loans, is standard practice for giant cooperation's, google / apple / microsoft all do it, it has nothing to do with how much money they got

[DickyD1226]

Bro how insecure are you that you comment on EVERY comment? We all get it you don't like Sony go back to your Xbox hole and let the rest of us enjoy gaming.

[MrDead]

Why? PS is the lead platform for console multiplats, why would you buy a publisher that already releases games on your system?

[recoctimocassirnff]

"Then buy a major publisher as well Sony. Spend some money to compete."

Attitudes like your are terrible.

[Zeref]

Playstation fanboys were constantly focusing on console sales and game sales. Meanwhile in reality the sales are barely keeping their head above water.

Spiderman 2, arguably Sony's premiere IP. Is expected to only make them 75 million dollars.

Whole time they were concern trolling Xbox. Meanwhile they should have been worried about their own console this whole time.

[maniacmayhem]

It's exactly why Sony went the PC and GaaS route. They know that the accolades and nominations for their SP games isn't going to bring them the revenue a Fortnite, CoD or Minecraft will bring.

This is why MS always had a mixture of both SP and MP and why they didn't give up on SoT or Halo Infinite, all the while ND fumbles the bag and cancels Factions.

Sony knows they need to switch up their strategy. They're just doing it a lot slower than everyone else is.

[isarai]

I don't know where you're getting that a 21% profit is not enough, 15% is considered a "good" profit margin as a standard business practice.

[CrashMania]

Because several braindead individuals on this site seem to only use CoD and Fortnite as a measure of a game being successful, apparently a 35% projected return on investment is a big failure and live service is the only way, even though most fail and flop.

[Hofstaderman]

Zeref mainlining hopium. What will you do when they announce they pulling out of consoles? Will you maybe change your username or be a big boy and admit that XBOX is a lost cause? PS this was debunked...the slides...

[purple101]

Yeh except they got loads of games in development. You seen the roadmap for just insomniac alone let alone the others

They take 30% from all multiplat & multiplat sell way more on ps than any other. They also raised prices on ps+ slightly.

They will be fine

[Elda]

Delusional much.

[crazyCoconuts]

Whatever shape Sony is in doesn't change the importance of selling your product and out performing your competitors.

[derek]

@Zeref, and xbox fanboys delude themselves into believing that sales don't matter neither does any other metric that shows Microsoft/xbox to be a failing unpopular brand largely rejected by the public.

[PhillyDonJawn]

I'm concerned myself. Even with Sony outselling, their profits are smaller. And their budgets are bigger. Other developers said what Sony is doing isn't sustainable. I'd hate to see PS go down but considering it's the only thing making Sony good money nowadays im sure they won't let it fall. Sony been making adjustments and going the direction MS been doing with Xbox. I feel both are needed and should take ques from eachother. Traditional gaming should stay while also offering innovation.

[Shane Kim]

Uhhm duuh. We need documents to prove that?

[Zeref]

Yes we do, a lot of yall were acting like Sony isn't worried about Xbox 👀

[Shane Kim]

I don't think it will change the outcome of the "console war", but anyone buying the biggest publisher out there would be worrysome to their main competetor.

[Hedstrom]

Its fake, its been debunked. There have been false slides inserted.

[Hofstaderman]

Shame some people were really counting on them. There goes their Christmas spirit. Oh well they could still put a PS5 under their tree, their kids would thank them for it.

[ReadyPlayer22]

Lmao, this isn't fake. Every fanboy in the world is calling it fake, but it's very real. Multiple sites are confirming it's real and the server it came from, has confirmed it's real.

Hell, look at Sony's own comments during the FTC trial. Look at Sony's CFO highlighting engagement and monthly active users. Sales is a dead metric and far from the only one that matters and Sony knows it.

[Plague-Doctor27]

They aren't false slides. There is only one person saying they are fake, and a few people with access to the leak say it's not. Also, why would a fanboy insert a false slide that isn't even that damaging? Like seriously a powerpoint presentation saying Sony is concerned about MS spending $80 billion on former 3rd party publishers is surprising to anyone? Why would someone insert fake slides based on dated information (COD not coming to playstation after 2027 etc.)

[etown61281]

Well, they should be worried. Microsoft’s pockets are pretty deep. My only issue is they’re buying up multiplatform publishers to put multiplatform games on just Xbox. Realistically i don’t care though. I have both consoles. I buy whichever version of the game i decide. I definitely lean more towards ps5 though. I’ve played Valhalla on series X and just couldn’t get into starfield. So yea. 2 games on series X

[thesoftware730]

Of course, Sony is concerned, owning all MS has acquired is not something to take lightly, Sony has to have concerns and come up with a game plan. Sony went out of their normal realm and committed to 12 Gaas and later backpedaled because it simply didn't have a model in place for that type of commitment, they put a lot of faith in Bungie, who shortly after started having their internal issues, making the 12 live service games even more out of reach. Then Sony switched gears and committed to 6 Gaas, then canceled TLoU: Online because issues were still lingering, and it was playing against their studio's strong points.

There is always cause for concern in any market where there is competition and 3rd place can become 1st place with the right moves, it makes sense for them to be concerned, remembers concerned doesn't mean scared, just that you have to compete and make moves that benefit themselves and consumers.

People talking about Sony's current lead, need to realize, that Sony is not saying we need to do something because we are hurting right now, they are concerned about what happens in 2027, and beyond. One big concern is that they won't give MS early dev kits to make CoD for the next PS console before it's released, effectively delaying the game on PS.

[Redemption-64]

They never back peddled, that is just a lie people like you made up. Their CFO literally confirmed, they are delaying 6 of the games to ensure good quality. Don't think they want a Redfall situation. But who knows, maybe you know more than the CFO himself

[gold_drake]

is that .. surprising?

some of the biggest franchises were just bought up, there were talks about it being only exclusive to xbox.

the cod games alone sold in the 10s of millions on playstation alone. thats a huge revenue loss if that were to happen.

[Profchaos]

I wonder if that slide which showed this in the leak is outdated? Since we heard the gaas push was walked back / minimised.

Either way ofcourse they are worried they have always been worried about their competition be it Nintendo, Microsoft or even sega back in the day. We only normally see what they want us to see remember that.

[RAFTECH26]

10 year deal is enough for MS to make money off of PS.

All good. MS is in a good position.
Sony…. I dunno…. Leaks and Gaas games, and cancelled games….bleh

[ChasterMies]

Clearly the best course of action for all PS5 owners is to do whatever you can to destroy the Xbox brand and force Microsoft to release their games as a third party publisher.

[derek]

The document is fake, it was doctored. Xbox fans who do these things are legit crazy.

[purple101]

wouldn't be that concerned. what's the term. "couldn't organise a piss-up inside a brewery". maybe that's an English term, however it does seem even with all the tools at hand, no matter what they do, no-ones buying xbox anymore.
brand trust, what little there was, is gone.

[enkiduxiv]

This pretty much confirms what I have feared all along. With Game Pass, Microsoft is forcing Sony to play by its rules. It looks like Sony has taken the poison pill.

Hopefully this unsustainable subscription model forces Sony to pivot back to Single player. Until then, let’s hope a few more Larians pop up to actually capitalize on making good single player games in place of the big publishers.

[Aaroncls7]

of course they are concerned, they always were.
you'd have to be a fool not to.

[jjb1981]

Sony should have approved Days Gone 2 and they wouldn't have this problem.

/s

[ocelot07]

Of course they are lol. If they where not they wouldnt of tried to block it. It's just common sense.

[jznrpg]

No shit? This is stupid. Any moves made by a competitor you are going to be concerned about.

Gamers should be concerned as well. When has MS shown they can make great games and manage a shit load of studios? They have only paid for games and when they took over it’s generally been mediocre to bad. We all know MS’s greed and where things will end up if they do well enough. People already forgot the XB1 reveal?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Poor Jin Sakai

[DankSinatra]

The amount of people on here doing damage control is ridiculous.

[MetalGearsofWar]

Sony taking the classic "appear strong when you are weak" phrase a bit too literal.
In all seriousness, they have nothing to fear. Each game they release can be remastered several times, which is a smart business decision, I think.

[DarXyde]

It is disingenuous to disregard the concern Microsoft has brought that will inevitably change the industry. However, Sony's concerns are not my concerns, nor should they be yours.

My concerns are pretty straightforward: I don't want a soulless trillion dollar corpo to be given carte blanche to restructure the industry in their image just because they have the largest war chest. People think these "gaming deals" via subs are great things, seemingly without any awareness that this is just a market share/penetration strategy. When uptake of Game Pass service is adequate, the rug is going to get pulled out.

I don't know what Sony becomes without Microsoft, but we are quite well aware of what Microsoft does to reshape things.

Marching into an all digital future or subscription-based gaming is an immediate rage quit from gaming for me.

[Petebloodyonion]

OMG! A company like Sony is worrying about plans from another company,
I'm sure they will never try to adjust to the situation or evaluate their gameplan
Because if they would, it could mean they are competing or fighting back.

And worse if Sony would try to adjust it could create some terrible harm to the consumers
like ... (what's the awful word that most N4g users fear around here?)... Oh yeah Benefits
Yeah consumers could get some benefits

It makes me sick just to think about things
like lower prices, better deals, innovative games, more perks, fewer upgrade fees more friendly practices.

Honestly, that would be a nightmare.