How do you figure that 2 of the top 6 merging won’t shift the market in a big way?
Also, total gaming revenue wouldn’t be a good way to compare it because that includes revenue streams that’s are unrelated to Activision/Blizzard. Microsoft is hardly even competing with Nintendo at all considering they don’t have a handheld device. And Microsoft releases way more games on PC than Nintendo or even Sony, which further reduces the relevance of hardware sales.
It’s the developing and publishing industries specifically that are going to be impacted by this, because that’s what Activision/Blizzard does.
The impact to hardware sales will be indirect: I would guess a pretty small number amount of people might switch to Xbox or buy an Xbox in addition to a PlayStation just for version exclusives, but probably not a huge amount as long as Microsoft keeps COD on PlayStation.
3rd place in… What? I’m trying to search around to see what you’re referring to here, but I can’t find anything.
By total market cap, Microsoft already blows these companies out of the water. By just videogame divisions, Sony and Nintendo are way farther ahead because of hardware sales, but that doesn’t really make sense to include in the conversation about acquiring a publisher. I can’t find any solid numbers either way isolating publishing, other than that the top 5 in recent years seems to be Tencent, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision/Blizzard (with EA hanging around too). Seems like any of those two merging is going to be bad for everyone other than shareholders.
Do you need to have played the earlier games for it?
I got this with my PS4. I already had the GOW 1&2 collection for PS3, so I figured I’d beat those and maybe get 3 first. But the first game is… rough. I’d say it hasn’t aged well, but honestly I don’t think it holds up to its contemporaries well.
I played it on-and-off for a few years now and finally beat it a couple weeks ago. I’m debating if I even want to bother with the 2nd game now.
When you’re talking about a premium market in particular, I think most high-end consumers who care about the aesthetics of their living room would prefer the official, matching Dualsense charger/stand over Microsoft’s charging kit.
The exclusives are huge, especially factoring in backwards-compatibility. Xbox is undoubtedly a better value if you already have a library of older Xbox games or you are shopping used. But if you divide consumers up into Budget, Value, and Premium tiers, I don’t think the Premium tier consumers care about playing games that old. The PS4 had way more big-budget AAA exclusives than the Xbox One did, so I think PlayStation has the advantage there.
Weirdly, I think there’s some dissonance with this around disc drives. I would think premium consumers would care less about physical media: they aren’t buying used games and probably have concerns for the aesthetic of storing physical media. I personally prefer physical media, but I consider myself a value consumer who has no qualms buying used and can handle a little bit of clutter. So I think disc drive versions are valued less by the premium segment, but costs more to manufacture. So I think that boosts the sales of the diaclsss PS5. Premium consumers aren’t interested in the Series S at all though, so if they do go Xbox they just get the X and don’t use the drive. I kind of wonder how the market will react if the rumors of Sony selling an external drive end up true.
If you’re not familiar with the “gold” term, it means the game is complete and ready to be submitted to Sony’s online services and be printed to discs
Am I the only one who has never heard this term before? I always thought going Gold referenced a sales threshold, similar to the music industry. The term as the article defines it is pretty dumb and useless.
The X is trying to compete in a premium space, long with the PS5. The X falls short of the PS5 in almost every category that a premium consumer cares about, and I don’t think premium consumers are interested in value-oriented subscriptions like GamePass.
The S is competing with… Well definitely not the Switch. I wouldn’t say the Steam Deck either. It was competing to an extent with the PS4 and Xbox One, but not anymore. The S has kind of been left in its own market, so this news makes sense.
Maybe the Switch 2 will have some overlap in that market, but assuming it’s a hybrid handheld it might still be differentiated enough to leave the S on it’s own. Sony has been working on lowering the cost of the PS5 but I can’t see that getting anywhere near S territory. So unless something else drops I don’t see the S having competition any time soon.
There’s a good mixture. Some of the games I listed were literally just ports to he new hardware. Some were complete remakes. I’d say most of Skyrim lies somewhere in-between. It’s the base game, plus the 3 DLC’s, plus however many officially-sanctioned mods or platform-specific changes like for VR, Alexa (lol), or Switch. The re-release and different edition names are trying to set up boundaries and market the amorphous blob that most mod-heavy PC games are to console users.
This isn’t anything new though. How many different platforms has Super Mario Brothers been playable on? Or Sonic 2?
The best games of every generation get brought to the next. Whether it’s older stuff like Super Mario All Stars or the various Sega Ages and Classic collections. Most great PS1 and PS2 games saw release on the PS3, either digitally or in various physical collections. Tons of PS3 games have been re-released on PS4. Despite no backwards compatibility, there’s only a few PS3 exclusive titles left stuck on that platform. I don’t even know how many WiiU games are left that have not been ported to switch yet: that might be in the single-digits.
I don’t see how Skyrim is much different, but for some reason the Internet loves to hate it Skyrim and Bethesda in particular. Don’t get me wrong: they’re a giant soulless corporation. But there’s so many other corporations that have had way more consumer-unfriendly practices. Re-releasing a game on multiple platforms with new content added, usually at a pretty good price, just seems consumer friendly to me.
You can’t find a cheap ass tablet with a 1080p 8" screen, which I’m sure is going to be pretty good quality.
We still have to see what the software situation. If it comes with Android, or you can put android on it, it becomes a cheaper and more premium GCloud.
There have been leaks alleging that it runs (or can run) Android, although those have not been confirmed.
I don’t see that the hardware has been confirmed, but… Do they even still make new processors that wouldn’t be able to handle PPSSPP? Maybe not God of War, and maybe not upscaled fully. This isn’t like your typical cheap Chinese handheld using 6 year old processors that were designed to be budget at the time: this is going to be a modern chip, albeit not a super powerful one.
Basically if it runs Android id expect it to be similar to the GCloud.
I already use Chiaki on my Deck to play my PS4/PS5.
Sometimes my wife is using the TV for something else. Sometimes I want to be out on the porch, or in bed. Sometimes I just don’t want to put my glasses on.
This thing has a better screen and, for PS5 in particular, better controller features than the Deck.
It’s a bit pricey, but not as bad as I was expecting. If it goes on sale I’ll be tempted to grab it.
Weird that PlayStation named their device the Portal and valve didn’t though lol.