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Microsoft XBox (Games) PlayStation (Games)

Xbox Boss Says Sony Wants To 'Grow By Making Xbox Smaller' (eurogamer.net) 31

Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony's opposition to the Activision Blizzard deal is influenced by the PlayStation-maker's desires to "protect its dominance" in consoles. From a report: "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said on the Second Request podcast when discussing "the one major opposer to the deal": Sony. "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said.

"[Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don't ship their games day and date on PC, they do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games." Spencer claimed that "Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn't go through", saying that the company is trying to protect PlayStation's "dominant position on console" by "grab[bing] onto Call of Duty". "The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we've said will continue to ship on the platform," Spencer added. "It's a deal that benefits customers through choice and access."

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Xbox Boss Says Sony Wants To 'Grow By Making Xbox Smaller'

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  • You don't say.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Carewolf ( 581105 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @10:45AM (#63124042) Homepage

    A business wants to take business away from their competition... More news at 11.

    The only news would be that MS seems to be having a different angle on growth.

    • A business wants to take business away from their competition... More news at 11.

      The only news would be that MS seems to be having a different angle on growth.

      And the different angle is the XBOX application that is installed on the Windows OS that you cannot uninstall. Shovel crap applications down the consumers throat is what Microsoft is all about today. Edge is now even taking google add data directly from the Chrome browsing history user sandbox. Microsoft wants desperately to edge out Chrome in the browser wars. That was the only reason for using the Chrome browser engine in the first place. A bit of a twist on what happened to Netscape by making sure that

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @11:00AM (#63124084)
    To watch Microsoft play the part of the scrappy underdog here. It really shows how thorough and complete corporate control of our media is that they're not just being laughed at. Can you imagine breathlessly reporting on this nonsense?

    In journalism your job isn't to report all sides. If one guy tells you it's raining and another guy tells you it's sunny your job isn't to report that your job is to look the fuck out the window and see if it's raining.
    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      This is like when Trump said he knew the system was rigged because he had been making use of the rigged system. Like yeah, but hey, you're telling on yourself.

      • This is like when Trump said he knew the system was rigged because he had been making use of the rigged system. Like yeah, but hey, you're telling on yourself.

        Or that Georgia Republican who keeps repeating the lie of a stolen election who illegally voted nine times [businessinsider.com]. While he was a felon.
    • by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      In journalism your job isn't to report all sides. If one guy tells you it's raining and another guy tells you it's sunny your job isn't to report that your job is to look the fuck out the window and see if it's raining.

      No, that would be what's called "making shit up." It's not a journalist's job to editorialize. (A meteorologist, on the other hand, would be in a position to tell you what the weather is.)

      • It's not a journalist's job to editorialize.

        All journalism tells a story, what is or isn't covered and who is or isn't consulted for a story ultimately decides how a story is presented. The functional purpose of journalism is to inform, but how information is presented helps shape debate, and this is not only inevitable but actually desirable when balance exists. Sadly, corporate media consolidation has ensured that all discussion tends to be biased towards promotion of capitalism without meaningful controls.

        • It's not really editorializing to get additional information and add that to the story. Ie, you can report that it is indeed not raining despite a high level politician who cliams it is. Journalism is not merely repeating sound bites, although that's what it's been reduced to in the last decade it feels like.

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      It's genuinely hilarious to watch Microsoft play the part of the scrappy underdog here. It really shows how thorough and complete corporate control of our media is that they're not just being laughed at. Can you imagine breathlessly reporting on this nonsense? In journalism your job isn't to report all sides. If one guy tells you it's raining and another guy tells you it's sunny your job isn't to report that your job is to look the fuck out the window and see if it's raining.

      The quote about "it's raining" is true for journalism, and lacking here.

      But what is the "raining" side in this case? In comment threads on ars technica, for instance, I see a moderate preponderance of people in favor of the deal, i.e. who think that it will be a net benefit for gaming. Also a huge majority who think Sony are the ones being disingenuous. (I picked ars technica because I read it regularly and the commenters there seem reasonably balanced and informed).

      Is Microsoft a scrappy underdog? In 2018

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        But what is the "raining" side in this case? In comment threads on ars technica, for instance, I see a moderate preponderance of people in favor of the deal, i.e. who think that it will be a net benefit for gaming. Also a huge majority who think Sony are the ones being disingenuous. (I picked ars technica because I read it regularly and the commenters there seem reasonably balanced and informed).

        Is Microsoft a scrappy underdog? In 2018 it had 1/3 of the market compared to Playstation's 2/3, so it was then.

    • by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @02:31PM (#63124846)

      Also, we already know EXACTLY what happens when Microsoft sinks its fangs into game studios that do cross-platform. One only needs to look at Bungie and Halo. They'll cheerfully throw away any and all of the cross-platform code... even where it's already written and working... and gut the games of features and go without the cash from sales to other platforms, solely to harm the other platform by denying it the title.

      Knowing microsoft's history, I wouldn't trust their "commitments" to cross-platform Call Of Duty any farther than I could spit a rat. And no one else should trust them either.

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @12:02PM (#63124256)

    If Microsoft buys Activision, then inherently it's Microsoft making Sony smaller.

    Even if at the moment they continue to make all games cross platform, at any point they may simply decided not to. Compared to Activision being on its own, where it would naturally makes games that at least ran on the Playstation and Xbox...

    So how would Activision staying separate shrink Xbox?

  • by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @12:19PM (#63124314)
    by making xbox bigger than sony. But more power in the hands of microsoft is bad for gamers as they can charge more and don't have to compete as much.
    • Had a friend who worked in the games industry when xbox was just barely out. He said that most wanted xbox to succeed because Sony was so big and took such a big percentage of the game's price. Granted, Xbox has gotten bigger since then, but it's still the smaller player in the market. (Microsoft should I feel put a brick wall between the Xbox and PC and stop treating them the same, or using PC as a marketing tool for Xbox.)

      Generally the consumers get a better deal from the underdogs. And of course, comp

      • This isn't as much about xbox as the PC market (I think). I also think they want this deal to force people into the windows store.
        • I don't know anyone personally who uses the windows store. For PC gaming it's a non-player really. Though I have heard of some that got a game on Windows Store and then later had to buy it for real on Steam because it lacked features. Are there people out there who play Call of Duty who really wish it was available in the Windows Store?

          For consoles I think this might be more of a thing. I suspect it may work better for console players who migrate to the PC for whatever reason.

          • Originally, software apps on the Windows Store, especially games, were hobbled due to the requirements that all software on the store use UWP. It lagged behind what you could do with pure native Windows applications because so many APIs that games used were restricted, so most game studios weren't all that enthusiastic about it. Eventually, Microsoft bent and started allowing native apps, but I think a lot of the damage was done. Besides that, overall, the Windows Store was simply not a good experience,

      • Had a friend who worked in the games industry when xbox was just barely out. He said that most wanted xbox to succeed because Sony was so big and took such a big percentage of the game's price. Granted, Xbox has gotten bigger since then, but it's still the smaller player in the market. (Microsoft should I feel put a brick wall between the Xbox and PC and stop treating them the same, or using PC as a marketing tool for Xbox.)

        Generally the consumers get a better deal from the underdogs. And of course, competition is always healthy for everyone except the companies in the dominant position.

        Spot on, the bullshit of having an XBOX interface in Win Pro version embedded and non removable in the UI and using the same routines necessary for game play running an internet/ intranet business GUI is ridiculous the interface design decision at Microsoft are getting stupid again to say the least. Same nonsense that made Win 8 a non starter in businesses and lost many manufacturers that rely upon windows OS to sell hardware lose millions because no one in their right mind changed from 7 desktop to an inte

        • To be honest, Windows 8 was faster than 7 and used less memory, on exactly the same machine. Which I noted because it was a new computer that came with 7 only a month before Windows 8, so it was easy to do the comparison. Which I really only did because of the $15 Pro version, I probably wouldn't have done it for the free Home version.

          • To be honest, Windows 8 was faster than 7 and used less memory, on exactly the same machine. Which I noted because it was a new computer that came with 7 only a month before Windows 8, so it was easy to do the comparison. Which I really only did because of the $15 Pro version, I probably wouldn't have done it for the free Home version.

            Using less memory is not a bonus contrary to popular belief otherwise why have it? The problem is assuming the user to be dumbed down and creating a GUI that does not use enough unless you tweak the registry settings and then the OS has brain farts when you shut it down because it is too busy saving user profile to pretend that it knows how you will use a particular interface the next time you open the program. Or worse saving your usage profile data in the cloud. Running off the net is even slowed down be

  • What's his point? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by paul_engr ( 6280294 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @12:30PM (#63124384)
    Microsoft is buying Activision to do the exact same thing to Sony. Fuck him and his garbage ass unreliable consoles
    • Reading the article, I halfway expected Phil Spencer to throw himself on the ground pounding his fists while screaming, "It's not FAIR!!"
  • by sethmeisterg ( 603174 ) on Monday December 12, 2022 @01:22PM (#63124594)
    No shit they'll do it again with Activision. Cry me a river, Microsoft.
  • by keltor ( 99721 ) * on Monday December 12, 2022 @01:28PM (#63124632)
    *I may or may not work for the third dark horse in this discussion ...* Microsoft with 3x the 245% of the revenue and 775% of the income of Sony says that "they are the underdogs". How many major game companies have they acquired and then locked to Xbox and PC-only? Let's see we have ~20 studios already under Microsoft, several of said studios released mostly Nintendo or Sony exclusive games. Also attempted to acquire a few more like Square Enix that have inherently close ties to Playstation/Nintendo. They have also reportedly made offers for some of the smaller Japanese mobile game companies, but so far no luck.
  • Have you seem how big the PS5 is?
    It do make pretty much every Xbox but the OG look like a PC Engine in comparison.

  • Xbox boss, Xbox boss, Xbox boss.

    (Like the old "toyboat" gag.)
  • Seems quite out of place for a Microsoft executive to know and understand a business tactic which limits the competitions market position.
    Microsoft has been such a small player and has never used those type of tactics every.
    LOL and that headline almost caused me to experience an ASNR while drinking my coffee this morning.

    LoB
  • "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said."Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said. "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said. "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said. "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on

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