It's not monopolising, it's just a company investing. In general situations i don't like massive companies buying up smaller ones and eliminating competition but this is far from that type of situation as Bethesda is also a massive company, so it's just Microsoft investing in increasing the amount of games on Game Pass. Also Microsoft are being extremely consumer friendly with their creation of the Xbox Adaptive controller helping disabled people access gaming, the incredible value of Game Pass increasing the ability for people to be able to afford to play the latest games and the fact that they are willing to let their games appear on other platforms (Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons, Ori and Cuphead on Switch)
If Sony bought a company then they would lock all their games straight away to the Playstation because that's how their business works, whereas Microsoft is invested in increasing Game Pass subscribers which is actually helping people access games more across PC and Xbox. I highly doubt they would lock massive games like Elder Scrolls to Xbox and they have already said that games would appear on a case by case basis on other consoles.
So in general I don't like massive US corporations buying up competitors but this is totally different and is an investment in gaming that benefits gamers. Remember that all these games are on PC as well and will likely come to other consoles anyway at some point. The whole idea is to increase the value of Game Pass and that benefits Xbox, PC and in fact anyone who wants to stream games to phones or tablets with XCloud being introduced to the service. I would be a lot more negative if Sony did this because their whole business relies on you buying their console so they would lock all those games to their service. It is in fact extremely consumer-friendly and an investment in gaming that benefits lots of gamers across different platforms (Xbox, PC, mobile)
MS buying Zeni is a 'vertical' take-over, rather than 'horizontal' .... If they'd brought out PlayStation, that'd be monopolies & mergers concerns But MS doesn't exactly MAKE games, they have studios that do so for them. While Zeni isn't involved in making consoles or anything
Let's at least wait to find out just what it all does mean for games rather than assuming the worst, please
@BruceCM Well, they own those studios that make games, so that's the same really. I don't know how much of the SEGA rumours are true, but if that's also happening, then it starts to become worrying. With Ninja Theory it's just a studio, but Zenimax and SEGA are big companies with multiple studios. I feel like at this rate the whole industry will be owned by a couple of companies in a few years time. Just like the movie industry.
@DarthNocturnal The digital only consoles seem to be less popular than the media would have you believe. Any word on the number of Series X versus Series S sold? For PS5 it was about 75% regular PS5, and 25% digital; so I presume the numbers are in the same ballpark for MS.
@Octane I think people realized that the price difference between digital only and physical versions of the consoles can be easily saved and more just by waiting a month or so for new games. Everything except 1st party Nintendo games plummet in price soon after launch.
There's still plenty of big gaming companies, though, @Octane .... You'd have to talk to proper legal experts for full explanation, too! As for differences in sales of the PS5 disc version, there were reported to be about 10 of those available for 2 of the digital one. While there were 2 or 3 times as many Series X as S available So, that's probably got more to do with why the digital versions are selling so much less! The digital versions, especially the S, will do a lot better a bit after launch when there's more available
Wow the poll on purexbox.com suggests Series X preorders were 9 times as high as Series S.
I could anticipate they'd be higher because the people buying at this stage are just out for high spec madness, but I didn't think it'd be that much higher.
@BruceCM The regular systems sold out sooner than the digital versions. So I don't think availability was the issue. Microsoft and Sony will undoubtedly have done enough market research to gauge the interest in a digital-only console, and produce quantities accordingly. I just don't think that the $100 ($200 with less specs) saved from buying a digital-only console is enough to convince people into going all-digital.
@Dezzy Well, keep in mind that websites like these garner mostly enthusiasts who are probably going all-in anyway. The more casual crowd will probably skew a more towards digital. I think the 75:25 split is a good estimate.
The digital only consoles seem to be less popular than the media would have you believe.For PS5 it was about 75% regular PS5, and 25% digital
Well, since every console that went up for pre-order was sold, digital only or not, it doesn’t have anything to do with popularity of the digital only systems. If they sold 75% regular and 25% digital, it’s because they have manufactured 75% regular and 25% digital, since every console has sold out.
@JoakimZ Yes, but there were actually digital consoles available after the regular consoles were sold out, so anecdotally, that's pointing towards a higher preference for regular systems. It wasn't too bad, so it seems that whatever the actual split was, was indicative of the market preference. The fact that they all sold out in roughly the same time means that they got it right. If all the digital systems were sold out immediately, but the regular systems could be found for a while after, it means that they should've produced more digital system. And vice versa. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
For Xbox or Playstation? The Xbox digital appeal is far stronger in my opinion. $200 cheaper, and gamepass meaning you don't need to pay full price for all digital games.
The Playstation digital doesn't seem worth it at all to me.
I would guess Playstation ends up at 75:25 physical:digital, but Xbox ends up more like 50:50
Just shows how concerned Sony are about cheaper consoles because they've already complained about it being outdated and how these type of consoles always fail (sour grapes)
I don't like Sonys attitude to next-gen with trying to tie every publisher down to exclusive deals, like they're trying to win a console war which Microsoft isn't even engaged in particularly with their focus on Game Pass.
I was thinking digital only consoles will be fated like PSP Go.
Unplayable in the future once the server shutted down.
I never understand the logic of owning digital only consoles when you buy that machine very late in the future, you literally cannot play any games nor even inserting the disc.
It will be an expensive paper weight.
I paid $60 for one full game to be owned forever, not for tons of Free games from Game Pass or whatever by renting (not owning the games).
Consoles with disc will be your lifesafer if you buy the machine very late.
Just like i bought PS3 Slim on 29 December 2019 when the machine itself was already 10 years old.
I wasn't sure if PS3 Store will be still exist but when PS3 store get shutted down, i will unable to get latest update for certain PS3 games i bought.
But at least, with disc drive in the machine i still able to play the games despite lack of latest update.
@Dezzy It is $200 cheaper, but it's also less powerful. I think that if you invest in Series S, you are way more likely to buy the mid-gen upgrade. I mean, you have to I think. So it's difficult to say what the average opinion is on that. I also think that most day-one customers are big Xbox fans, so they'd want the Series X. With Xbox it's not just a choice between digital and physical, the hardware specs also differ.
@Grumblevolcano I'm pretty certain that 99.9% of people haven't heard or read that statement.
Pre ordered my Xbox Series X 10min ago. A wonderful christmas gift from my wife 😍
When it comes to microsofts strategy by buying bethesda, supporting cross play, gamepass, gadgets/4k etc, im all for that. Dont see all the fuzz about it ? It will only push Sony and Nintendo to do better. And this generation with switch, ps5 and Xbox series, you can really see the awesome results from them pushing eachother to the limit.
As a dad whos busy with family life, the Nintendos portability and Xbox’s quick play/save function is awesome. 😃🎉 Just hope Sony dosent suprise with a new Socom game that touches my nostalgia feelings, it will be hard to ignore it 😅
@Dezzy It is $200 cheaper, but it's also less powerful. I think that if you invest in Series S, you are way more likely to buy the mid-gen upgrade. I mean, you have to I think. So it's difficult to say what the average opinion is on that.
We don’t know that yet, do we? What if the games more or less run the same but only with lower resolution. For a lot of people that would be the more attractive option.
@NEStalgia They waited for Microsoft's prices, they didn't want to charge 500 for PS5 and 400 for PS5 Digital, all the other PS5 stuff is highly-priced and the PS5 "All-Digital Edition" stock is 20% compared to 80% of physical PS5 stock*. They know how the market works, PS5 is too cheap, PS5 Digital is way too cheap, so the PS5 is the "trap" and once they get you they start charging you extra for games (£70/€80), accessories (PS4 controllers don't work), Plus, Now, remasters of two-year-old games, etc. Series X (and S) might be seem as a "trap" too because it's also cheap for what you get but not really a trap since you can play on Series X, S, PC and mobile, you can use old controllers and games and the value of their services and subscriptions is much better. Xbox also wants you but Xbox is insane value.
"They have been sold on the Game Pass dream", "Game Pass in red", "Content is king on PS", "That’s a staggering selection of software for PS5 launch" and more:
@Octane Considering the difference between GPU and memory as well as the native resolution, the Series S is more powerful at 1080p than Series X at 4K and almost as powerful at 1440p vs. 4K. In short, Series S will last as long as Series X if games render at 1440p/1080p on Series S, especially considering that S is able to upscale to 4K so no need to render above 1440p on the budget console. The CPU is basically the same in Series X and S and both have the same hardware features and are more powerful than PS5 CPU.
@Grumblevolcano The insecurity clearly comes from Sony and not Microsoft. Firstly, they didn't show the console until Microsoft did; secondly, they didn't release PS5 specifications until Microsoft did and avoided talking about TFLOPS because Series X is more powerful; thirdly, they waited for Microsoft's pricing to match it; fourthly, they suggested that Xbox One will held Series X back and that they believe in generations and finally they said that Series S is not good value because it will be dated in two years.
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