Microsoft and Sony sign deal to keep Activision’s Call of Duty on PlayStation::Microsoft and Sony have signed an agreement to keep Activision’s best-selling Call of Duty series available on PlayStation, after the conclusion of the deal.
“That’s right Sony, any new releases of a game called Call of Duty will be on your console”
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That’s literally all it is. FTC couldn’t get the job done, Sony is signing the deal they know is worthless because ultimately they have no other option.
This is for show. It’s kind of gross, honestly.
Honestly have no empathy for Sony. They have tons of console exclusives. Kinda the only reason to entertain owning a PlayStation is because of them. There is no monopoly formed. That would indicate zero competition in the space.
I’m sitting here wondering why the fuck anyone plays CoD to begin with.
So telling that Sony waited until the weekend after the Ninth Circuit denied the temporary injunction appeal. This is the same deal Microsoft proposed months ago as a means to offset anticompetitive concerns. Sony waited to give the FTC ammo for the case, but otherwise was ready and willing to ink the contract.
I’m not a fan of massive consolidation of media companies (though I think that goes without saying for most fediverse users). But using Call of Duty as a rallying cry was a false alarm from the get go. Microsoft recognized from the outset that would have been a dealbreaker. Microsoft offered great terms to Nintendo and Sony to guarantee continued access on all current platforms.
For me personally as a consumer, Zenimax and Activision are about the only viable options I can see to give Microsoft decent single player games. Microsoft has been so far behind Sony and Nintendo for so long. Microsoft has tried to build a stable by adding smaller developers, but they just can’t match Sony and Nintendo AAA products.
There was nothing fair about the offer, because they should never have been in a position to make it in the first place. It’s a failure of legal system that this is allowed to happen at all.
Meh. From my antitrust course in law school (which was admittedly a long time ago), nothing about this screams antitrust. I don’t see that this deal gives Microsoft monopoly power over any defined market, and Microsoft definitely hasn’t flexed any existing monopoly power over the gaming space.
Certainly Microsoft has a history of anticompetitive action and flouting monopoly power whenever it has the chance in a sector. But I don’t see this deal as giving Microsoft a vertical or horizontal monopoly. It’s just typical consolidation within the industry. It’s not for consumers, but it isn’t the result of illegal price fixing type arrangements between competitors or using an existing dominant market share to overpower the market. That isn’t illegal. That’s just a shitty industry with shitty practices.
The best argument against allowing the deal to close, under US law, is likely targeted towards the cloud and subscription models. Microsoft really does seem to have a huge edge there. But I’m not sure anyone in the industry (except Epic Games) wants to challenge the subscription practices on another player’s hardware.
Not too surprised tbh.
But what will happen to the console market in 10 years? Does it shift to a subscription model and you choose games via your TV and everything is streamed?
But I’m glad CoD will still be around - at least some constant I can rely on haha
Likely the same thing that has happened to every other industry.
- Someone comes out with a disruptive low cost subscription model, consumers like it because it’s so low cost and anything that isn’t on it they can still buy.
- People buy less, content producers have to move to the same subscription model to survive.
- The low cost of the subscription model can’t pay for all the content that is normally made by that industry, creatives can’t find backing to create content anymore, creative struggle to get paid between there being less money and corporate greed snatching what is left
- Quality drops, output drops, no one is happy.
Then we just play all of our roms via emulation.
