Capture and kill…
The only thing better than owning the competition, is putting them out of business.
So they buy studios that compete, fire all the workers, keep the IPs, and call it a day.
If we enforced anti-monoply laws this wouldn’t be a thing. But monopolies dontate a lot of money to politicians so they say monopolies aren’t a big deal.
Parasites do be like that… I don’t get how peasant class got so complacent though.
Have you met our political system?
Primaries literally don’t have to be fair, because the results are nonbinding, the party can just pick someone else.
And the people in charge keep loosening regulations so they can get bigger donations.
They’re openly running a PAC that coordinates with Biden and the DNC that individuals can legally donate a million a year.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-democrats-dnc-state-parties-ac8fba0ab1117ebf75cc16ebe0c735e4
https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00744946/
Average Americans are being priced out of democracy by both parties. The candidate for both will be who the wealthy pick, and everyone will have to vote if they want to keep who they hate most out of office.
If you’re wealthy there’s no way to lose, if you’re the other 99.9% you can’t win.
Regular people can’t out lobby Microsoft and Disney, and unless a progressive third party emerges the system will keep getting worse.
While political system is captured… I am talking about gen pop discourse. Vast majority got nothing to hide, it is convienient, poor people suck, shoulda worked harder, quit being poor, there is nothing can be, we just really don’t know.
This rhetoric is pathetic for any self respecting adult yet here we are.
Sure if everybody got educated about their lot in life they could theoretically vote in a third party but let’s be real here, we got some app to circle jerk for engagement slop that induces you to buy plastic shit to make feelz
unless a progressive third party emerges the system will keep getting worse
If a progressive third party emerges, they’ll split the vote with Democrats, making both of them weaker. That’ll just give every election to Republicans and make the country get worse even faster.
The only way to get progressive candidates is by moving the Overton window to the left, and the only way to do that is by voting for Democrats.
People tried to block the Activision acquisition. Some were mocked for their attempt and some were mocked for their stance. It wasn’t enforced because for all the attempts, it couldn’t be proved which is more an indicator better definitions needed to be in place
IPs
“IP”, here.
Intellectual properties?
IP UP we all P for IP
INVESTORS INVESTORS LOOK AT HOW MANY STUDIOS WE CAN BUY LOOK LOOK WE’RE SOOO PROFITABLE
WERE REMOVING SO MUCH DEAD WEIGHT INVESTORS LOOK WE’RE GOING TO BE SO PROFITABLE AFTER THISReduce the number of studios. The number of sold copies of games stays constant. Therefore, the money going to the remaining studios goes up.
If the cost of purchasing the studio is less than the number of diverted sales, its in your interest to buy up and shut down competition. The only reason this math would change is if people exclusively purchased from the shut-down studios. And we all know why they don’t.
As a kicker, you can wring some extra cash out of old properties by turning them into shitty reskinned Pay2Win mobile games covered in the flesh mask of the old IP.
Therefore, the money going to the remaining studios goes up.
LOL
People believe this shit? The money goes directly to some CX or some manegement asshole or chair or board or fucking whatever. What studios? What devs?
Or license it to a third party studio who does a great job, puts out a quality product, then gets bought out and gutted.
Microsoft has been a fucking blight on gaming. Paid online, and timed exclusives both started there. No resale if we didn’t throw a massive fit about it. Buying up studios to kill them. I mean Sony has their share of being fucks as well, but at least they’re making good games. Microsoft has barely any decent games the last 2 generations, and hellblade 2 which is looking great was a Sony game that they had to buy and make exclusive.
In a sane country there would be laws to prevent this monopoly shit.
By next elections, it will be even more insane.
Looks at ballot.
“Is carbonite, like…an actual thing? Can I be frozen like Han Solo? I have a little bit of money saved up. Which stupid tech bro startup can do this for me?”
“Sorry, best I can do decomposing cryogenic plug of fluids”
wait so the bodies are frozen after the person has already died?
I thought the point was to get frozen while still alive so that you could be thawed out in the future and continue living. which, while still very stupid, is something I can wrap my head around as a concept.
am I just now learning that the whole thing is predicated on the wish that we will one day be able to reanimate dead people??
They ideal for most of them is absolutely that they can be frozen while still alive and unfrozen later. We are nowhere near that technology though so most fallback to the second hope. Yes, that is that when they’re unfrozen in the future we can cure whatever it is that killed them. From what I’ve seen in documentaries, most of the people signing up know it’s the world’s furthest longshot, but they figure they’re dead either way, why not take it? Worst that happens is they stay dead but hopefully science learned something from their body at least, best case is they wake up in the 24½th century and keep on truckin.
Also, considering that they need access to freeze things inside of you quickly enough, such as your brain, I think most subjects would prefer that they were dead first.
Let’s ask Ted Williams’s frozen head. What do you think, Ted?
Ted Williams’s frozen head: …
Thanks Ted
Turns out those rich fuckers currently being scraped off the sides of their cryochambers had the right exit strategy all along.
Alcor is generally considered your best cryonics bet right now. Not a great bet, but your best bet.
I don’t have carbonite but for the right price I can pack you into a freezer filled with ice. That should do the trick.
Shut up and take my doge coins!
In a sane country there would be laws to prevent this monopoly shit.
The problem is that Microsoft is no monopoly in gaming.
They have the money to basically buy any studio they want if they could, Nintendo and Sony included.
Their gaming division isn’t a monopoly, but with their parents funding yeah they could be and that’s the problem. They could buy everyone up and leave them selves alone in the market.
Their gaming division isn’t a monopoly, but with their parents funding yeah they could be and that’s the problem.
I agree it’s a problem but without Microsoft being a monopoly in gaming, no watchdog will do anything about it.
The FTC was trying to do something. Than Microsoft convinced them they weren’t going to do X if they sold Y, so they let the cloud gaming go, and then immediately did what they said they wouldn’t.
If they didn’t lie to the FTC they would have done something about it than and there.
It’s not a monopoly until it is, and that’s what they are trying to avoid, stuff getting to that point in the first place.
Are you referring to the ABK layoffs? Or something else here?
Yes, they let the cloud gaming go so the EU wouldn’t deem them a monopoly, they than told the FTC they weren’t going to lay anyone off. And a month later or so they laid off 2000 employees while using the excuse it was happening anyways regardless of the merger.
What other merger was there you could be confusing this with?
So you want to do something about it after they are a monopoly?
So you want to do something about it after they are a monopoly?
Me? Why me? You were talking about countries and I was explaining that countries don’t apply monopoly laws to non-monopolies.
Sorry, replied to the wrong guy. Disregard.
Actually the laws are meant to apply BEFORE that happens.
What good is trying to stop a monopoly after it’s fully established? You need to deal with it when it starts, not when it’s done.
Tbf Microsoft is a blight, ful stop.
They wanted to be the new Sony and Nintendo combined, but instead they’re the new EA.
Trying to force online only as well. That nearly killed an entire console generation for them.
Microsoft has barely any decent games the last 2 generations
I remember buying the XBox and only ever owning Halo for years, because the rest of the library was utter shit. Then Halo got too popular and Microsoft had to gut the talent and sell the husk for scraps.
Source for the HB thing?
HB 1 was a Sony exclusive initially. Launched on xbox later. Microsoft then bought the developer making 2 Xbox only.
I don’t think it was a sony exclusive, it was simply released on ps4 and pc only
You say, “timed exclusives” as a negative meanwhile Nintendo dominates the market and never releases its exclusives.
its clear in hindsight that there needs to be more regulation to prevent buyouts of competitors and more protections for workers under buyouts/mergers such as paying workers for at least 3 years after the sale of a company.
Why did you decide on the arbitrary number of three years? Why not ten years?
3 gives people time to wrap up projects, move etc, basically any life most folks could have reasonably scheduled can be shifted in 3 years, it gives new parents time to take care of their kid and transition back to normal work. And the way to do it would be to have the companies pay the wages whether they lay them off or not (encouraging retraining rather than layoffs.)
Although if what you wanted to do was was absolutely ruin the incentives that mergers create for layoffs the average appointment length of a CEO might do it.
get bought out
never show up for work again for a decade
still getting paid
😎
It’s UBI with extra steps, but I honestly think ten years is a great idea for no reason.
Why not 11 years
Whoa let’s not get crazy here
Microsoft is buying up companies to stockpile IP. Simple as that.
Then they have a lot of redundant workers so they let them go, leaving the IP in their hands to be filed away for potential lawsuits against infringers.
It also reduces competition
Unless and until new game studios start snapping up these suddenly out-of-work talent.
I don’t think they are very keen on wanting to keep talent, especially at their scale.
What do you mean?
Microsoft is buying up companies to stockpile IP. Simple as that.
And then they do nothing with that.
IP has value, we amass value. Are we missing a step? -stockholders
Stockholders also get value extracting your happiness
Oh they can do worse than nothing. Their history is full of hold my beer and EEE.
Their history is full of hold my beer and EEE.
Is it still EEE when they’re shooting themselves in the foot all the time? Xbox 360 had a good run but then during the cycle they dropped the ball and even got overtaken by PS3 late. One and Series S/X don’t matter that much.
Are they shootimg themselves in the foot if they’re making record profits?
The gaming division isn’t. Last good ride was Xbox 360.
I think for the people suffering from the extinguish it is.
No one else can, either.
This exact method is how Microsoft became a giant in the first place. They’ve been doing it for longer than I live and they’ll likely outlive me doing it.
Lmao accurate
Lol this scene looks so old, and yet it still holds true
Embrace, extend, extinguish.
Market consolidation resulting in less of a desire to compete with innovation? Who would’ve thought.
Watch as they still milk them to death.
They cannot improve these games, give them meaningful updates or expansions. But they have killed many of their competitors and further monopolised the industry.
The second Microsoft gains a market majority in the gaming industry they will employ as many scummy tactics as possible to wring every cent out of people.
Basically the old EA approach. They don’t seem to realize that EA never restored their reputation from those days. But, I guess they don’t care as long as they can show a line going ever upward for the shareholders.
Restore… They are actively working to ensure I never buy another game again from there.
Last bf was the last straw for me. I am out.
Then they go and add anti cheat for bfv? I am a Linux gamer, fuck u.
they did this with the t-mobile sidekick… they bought the platform and all data outright… then ‘oops! we lost all your end-user, cloud stored data, sorry! we were just too busy to do our jobs!’
thanks, microsoft.
The subscription model is, in my opinion, dumb. If they need it to work, maybe they should buy games instead of studios. I can’t work out exactly how long term patching would work though, unless they kicked back a maintenance fee from sales and gamepass usage to the studio.
Back in the day, devs used to not release games until they were done. Patches were bascially unheard of.
What are you gonna do, mail out another set of floppies to everyone? Outrageous.
I will say, these days it’s more or less impossible to release a game that’ll run perfectly on every system and it’s a good thing we’re able to fix crashes and patch issues as they come up. This has naturally had its downsides as publishers squeeze devs for tighter releases, but outside of that it’s a very good thing for devs and players.
It would be a bad look and there were anologue standards at play then. Digital releases and the capacity of storage mediums really pushed releasing unfinished games over the edge.
I don’t know how the contracts look but games on Apple Arcade get support years after release. It does work somehow.
It must work like the music streaming model where Apple kicks back a fee to the devs based on monthly installs or usage to the dev. It probably works better than Microsoft’s model of buying a developer, not committing resources to run them, then closing the studio.
ah, yes, the highest market cap in history ($3T) doesn’t have the resources
Well, you see, they don’t have cash on hand because they spent it on stock buybacks to boost that market cap
buy competitors and kill them. sounds good nice job
Seems like a cheap way to get rid of the competition.
THEN QUIT FUCKING BUYING THEM
but then how else will they embrace, extend, and extinguish 🥺
They skipped the extend this time lmao
omg that’s so true 😭
This need more upvotes
Stonks go up. The meat must grind. Also, everyone who’s left is fired.
