Microsoft might have purchased someone, maybe

MS and Sony buy up more studios and go software only then SEGA come out with Dreamcast 2

Well don't I look silly. Cheers for the corrections.

"You people who make the games getting what you want is the last thing we need if we want to make good games."

Just read on Twitter acquisition costs :
Retro Studios $1m
Insomniac $229m

Looking like bargains

Interesting item from the Twitterverse. Sega tweeted "Who's your favourite Sega character", and the Xbox official account replied simply "Yes.". The Sega account then replied to that "You get it 🥺💙".

I don't think it will lead to a suffocation of indie start ups just like streaming media hasn't killed off smaller movies or artists it's actually brought them more to the fore and I think that's happening now with Gamepass. Yes, I will admit that I don't like the idea of not owning something which is what you get when you go down the Netflix model but I believe good games will always have a way to get through.

They won't be but it's going to be a future of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and Tencent. It's depressing yes.

No doubt there is a top down push to try and change the AAA space over to a subscription model where games are passively consumed as throwaway ephemera like television and the 'value' offered by services like Gamepass is an attempt to get a foot in the door.

The question is whether that leaves enough of the pie to sustain a middle tier market where all the lower budget titles, and content without games as service features, still available on physical media can live. I'd say yes, without top down interference these things can still exist.

The most insidious thing about these services is that they are heavily curated, if they get into a position of control they will be able to influence what you play directly via their selections and through those choices have an influence on what developers produce. Maybe I want to play nothing but video pinball games back to back for months, maybe nothing but strategy games and survival horror, these services lead to the player having to make compromises and lose choice.

A service fully loaded up with content you normally wouldn't buy isn't really providing value, it's just a repeat of the dying mainstream television model.

The way I see it, AAA games have had to compete for your $100 (or whatever it is where you are) while the Netflix of games just means games have to be just good enough that you won’t bother cancelling your subscription. I don’t think it’s the same with movies. You can hardly ship a movie before it’s actually finished. The “man-hours” of making a two hour film is nothing compared to constructing something like GTA or Elder Scrolls.

I think we are much more likely to see games shipping in a terrible state to Gamepass et al and a steady decline in quality over time as the higher-ups in game studios realise it matters less than ever. Unless their earnings through Gamepass are tied to player ratings and engagement I guess, but Destiny has great player engagement and it’s fucking shit.

If you went by my engagement, the service would only have Minecraft on it, and I already bought that four times.

Yeah, true. But if another big company Tweets at another company, it's feasible that whoever is running the social media accounts would consult with higher ups on what to respond with, or even if they should respond? Anyway yeah, I just thought it was interesting.

Unsurprising to read Nintendo said they wouldn't get involved in this M&A battle.

Having said that, I can see them buying MercurySteam after the success of Dread. They seem to like them and appear to have that Nintendo DNA they were going on about in a recent shareholders meeting.

I wish someone would buy Nintendo so we can see some of their games running on something more powerful than a smartphone.

I dont really give a shit how powerful a console is, there are very few games that actually justify their existence beyond looking slightly better. Chasing after the next gen graphics is becoming detrimental to gaming as so much time goes into that vs. actual new and interesting gameplay.

I'm fairly cynical when it comes gaming these days, so I really don't give a shit if MS buy everything. Makes it easier for me to access, and I'm convinced games are on a general downward slope anyway, doesn't matter who owns them they're all going to become commodified and shit in the next decade regardless.

I just don't understand that view at all, it's been being said for years and there are still loads of brilliant games every year. There are still plenty of games with no monetisation whatsoever as well.