Microsoft Offers Sony a 10-Year Deal On New CoD Games, Plans To Raise Game Prices Next Year (theverge.com) 30
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company has offered Sony a 10-year contract to make future Call of Duty games available on PlayStation if its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition gets approved. Microsoft initially offered to keep the popular game series on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement expires, but that deal was deemed inadequate by Sony's gaming chief Jim Ryan.
"The main supposed potential anticompetitive risk Sony raises is that Microsoft would stop making 'Call of Duty' available on the PlayStation. But that would be economically irrational," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in the WSJ opinion piece.
Microsoft also plans to increase the prices of its upcoming first-party Xbox games next year. The Verge's Tom Warren writes: From 2023 onward, new full-priced games from Xbox Game Studios like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsport will be priced at $69.99 instead of the usual $59.99. It's a price increase that matches the pricing that competitors like Sony, Ubisoft, and Take-Two all offer their own games at.
Microsoft issued the following statement about the price increases: "We've held on price increases until after the holidays so families can enjoy the gift of gaming. Starting in 2023 our new, built for next-gen, full-priced games, including Forza Motorsport, Redfall, and Starfield, will launch at $69.99 USD on all platforms. This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles. As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch."
"The main supposed potential anticompetitive risk Sony raises is that Microsoft would stop making 'Call of Duty' available on the PlayStation. But that would be economically irrational," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in the WSJ opinion piece.
Microsoft also plans to increase the prices of its upcoming first-party Xbox games next year. The Verge's Tom Warren writes: From 2023 onward, new full-priced games from Xbox Game Studios like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsport will be priced at $69.99 instead of the usual $59.99. It's a price increase that matches the pricing that competitors like Sony, Ubisoft, and Take-Two all offer their own games at.
Microsoft issued the following statement about the price increases: "We've held on price increases until after the holidays so families can enjoy the gift of gaming. Starting in 2023 our new, built for next-gen, full-priced games, including Forza Motorsport, Redfall, and Starfield, will launch at $69.99 USD on all platforms. This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles. As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch."
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That's one reason.
The other reason is that Sony, out of Japanese culture, cannot help a competitor. It's why Nintendo (of Japan) bungled the deal of the century. (Microsoft approached Nintendo of America with a deal - they could get republishing rights to Rare's entire Nintendo catalogue of games - for free - if Microsoft could get Nintendo's rights to GoldenEye. Reggis
Just stop playing them (Score:1)
Repetative Remake Re-Sold (Score:2)
I feel like this has happened before, again.
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AAA games have no choice than being remakes, repackages and rehashes. You can't risk trying something new when it costs millions to make the game. You have to regurgitate a tried and known-good formula that you know will at least attract enough people to recover your costs.
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How much for Tetris, how much for Minecraft?
But what would you think would be the reaction if something like Minecraft was produced by EA or UBISoft and sold at full price? When people hear about a publisher bringing out a game, they have expectations. Granted, my expectations when looking at something from EA or UBIsoft are that I have to pay 60 bucks up front, 40 bucks for questionable required content, have to sign up for some proprietary launcher that takes up gigabytes of hard drive real estate and bom
Offers for what? (Score:1)
Re: Offers for what? (Score:2)
It's not Sony who get to approve/deny this deal; it's the regulators. Sony doesn't have to gain anything. Instead their claims about unfair market domination have to be portrayed as unreasonable.
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Anyone else thing it's odd (Score:1)
I kinda like how mask off this all is. Just a reminder that these mega corps are making the rules.
Doesn't have to be that way. We could take that power back any time we want. But you have to want it. And you have to stop letting people push your buttons.
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nobody's concerned with that the US Gov't has to say
What is the US Government saying about this?
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The exact opposite. These sort of discussions and offers are specifically about Microsoft being very worried that its Activision purchase deal will get vetoed by competition watchdogs. In many countries, not just US.
I got it. (Score:2)
I know, raise prices!
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In a year or two you can't play the game anymore because like all shooters these days it's a multiplayer game that requires you to play on the official servers that get turned off as soon as the next incarnation of the game is pumped out.
The price tag is also pretty much on par with what games must cost to turn a profit. The main reason for these 0-day DLCs, season passes (starting on day 1, too) and whatnot is that the price was fixed for too long and people got used to a particular price tag for games.
How
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Yes, it was only a quarter century, I just noticed. Maybe I should read what I write, or at least not post before I had my coffee.
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Game publishers keep pushing this argument in trying to raise the cost of games but it doesn't hold water at all. Where to begin?
It's not even certain that development cost of games has increased all that much. Here [wikipedia.org] is the list games with the biggest budget. You'll notice while some of them are recent, there are many titles from 2010s, 2000s and even some from late 90s. You'll also notice that for many of those titles, most of the budget is marketing, rather than development costs. While development may hav
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It's a wee bit more complicated than that.
To draw a timeline, there was a gold rush until about the late 2000s. Maybe 'til 2010. Around 2000, for whatever reason and some, everyone and their dog suddenly started playing computer games. I really have no explanation for this ,but sales skyrocketed. It started around 1995 when there was a sudden spike, and about 5 years later it really took off. Sales about tenfolded between 1995 and 2008.
The problem: From 2008 on, sales went down. Way down. The market contrac
Anti-Competitive (Score:2)
Microsoft doesn't need to lock out Sony. They could just delay Playstation COD release by 3 months. It would infuriate gamers pushing them to MS but still collect any money from stragglers on PS.
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How to screw Sony over (Score:2)
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https://www.ea.com/games/medal... [ea.com]
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Sorry, is taken.
Duty Calls [youtube.com] is, too.
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Boring! Rank UP! Sergeant Master Sergeant of Shooty Sergeants to the EXTREME!
Re:How to screw Sony over (Score:4, Funny)
Paying beta testers (Score:2)