Every industry has its rivals: Two big companies duking it out for customer loyalty and king-of-the hill status.
In the cell phone world, it's AT&T vs. Verizon. In the computer world, it's Apple vs. Microsoft. Among video game companies, it's Electronic Arts vs. Activision Blizzard and it's about as ugly a fight as you've ever seen.
While the rhetoric gets shrill in any corporate battle, it has moved well past that in this fight, with high profile employees being wooed away and gamer loyalties being put to the test. Ultimately, though, it's shareholders that, for better or worse, could be caught in the middle.
The ripple effect from that could be felt for some time, as current Infinity Ward employees decide whether to join their old bosses or stay put. Already, four high-ranking developers have quit Infinity Ward. While none have officially joined Respawn Entertainment (West and Zampella's new studio), most industry observers expect they eventually will.
If it's the beginning of a greater exodus, that could have significant repercussions for Activision.
"All of this turmoil around Infinity Ward has certainly been a distraction, and if a significant portion of Infinity Ward's staff leaves for the new studio, it could impact Activision's 2011 release schedule," says Ben Schachter, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech.
Xbox and EA have recently made baffling moves that define how bleak the future of the gaming industry is with major companies at the helm. Ryan Bates from "Last Word on Gaming" posits in this op-ed that maybe it's not ineptitude, but intention.
Name someone that isn't trying to look us these days maybe cdpr.
Take two, ubi and yes even PlayStation are pushing us to own nothing and be happy with our live service ad injected games on a sub so they can raise prices at will and take access away when they see fit.
If it keeps up I'll be a full time retro gamer and this industry will be crashing hard
As rediculas as it sounds we need government reforms to defend consumer rights
XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director Jake Solomon has founded a new studio to make a life sim game. Here's a new interview with him.
Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's plans to increase every department's margins.
"The plan to move Xbox games to other platforms is codenamed "Latitude" internally, and I know there's debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea. More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they're potentially obvious games you'd most likely expect. And yes, while it's true Microsoft is a prolific publisher on PlayStation already, it has typically revolved around specific franchises like Minecraft. From what I've heard, Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's mandate to increase every department's margins. "
Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware.
i think it will kill off the xbox brand. windows will be fine.
but there is and would be a chance that xbox might be killed off in the future. if they fail to make the money they put in. imo.
"Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation"
Forza and Starfield next?
In the words of Phil Spencer when he was talking about Nintendo last year
“It's just taking a long time for Microsoft to see that their future exists off of their own hardware"