I feel like this is all driven by MS diving full force into AI stuff. Their capex is going to be insane so they’re cutting shit left and right to keep Wall Street happy while they set cash on fire trying to make AI something more than anime profile pic generators.
Maybe they’re just buying these studios to acquire their IPs, code and artwork to train new AI’s on. Then close the studio, as you’ve acquired all its data and it serves no further purpose to them. Probably hoping to release full AAA-AI slop in the future. Don’t think it’ll work and they’ll waste enormous amounts of energy and resources before the AI bubble bursts and everyone realizes that current ‘AI’ (LLMs) will never become AGI.
Eh? They’ve been chasing the one-off Xbox 360 high for two generations now, and are nowhere near it. Sony have near full dominance in the console space. Valve have so much dominance in the PC space that they’ve got people to try Linux.
The aim of GamePass was that people would stream games and not need a console at all, and that just hasn’t happened for them. Their entire gamble was on cloud gaming, and it’s not paid off at all.
As much as the higher tiers of PSN aren’t as good value as GamePass, it’s certainly lead to higher quality games for Sony’s platform as they can still get sales revenue from shorter or niche games, rather than just looking at a single figure and laying off whole studios.
I’d much rather pay money for a full game now (and I’ll be honest, my day one purchases this gen are limited to games I’m really interested in), or wait and play on sub later (and it’s about 18 months I think for games to go “free”), than have half a game on sub now and get nickle and dimed for the rest of it.
So going on a shopping spree and buying all those game studios wasn’t a good idea huh. Who would have thought.
I feel like this is all driven by MS diving full force into AI stuff. Their capex is going to be insane so they’re cutting shit left and right to keep Wall Street happy while they set cash on fire trying to make AI something more than anime profile pic generators.
Maybe they’re just buying these studios to acquire their IPs, code and artwork to train new AI’s on. Then close the studio, as you’ve acquired all its data and it serves no further purpose to them. Probably hoping to release full AAA-AI slop in the future. Don’t think it’ll work and they’ll waste enormous amounts of energy and resources before the AI bubble bursts and everyone realizes that current ‘AI’ (LLMs) will never become AGI.
That was just leveling the field of potential competitors.
I wish companies couldn’t buy other companies. That’s how all the best things die
Companies used to need approval to do such things
They did?
Here’s a little sample https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/99258/why-do-corporate-mergers-require-the-approval-of-foreign-governments
Microsoft SOP tbf
Buying studios wasn’t stupid.
Doing it and putting all their products on a subscription service is.
Why? they have the most players AND money than they ever did in their existence. Stupid would be suggesting it was a bad idea
Eh? They’ve been chasing the one-off Xbox 360 high for two generations now, and are nowhere near it. Sony have near full dominance in the console space. Valve have so much dominance in the PC space that they’ve got people to try Linux.
The aim of GamePass was that people would stream games and not need a console at all, and that just hasn’t happened for them. Their entire gamble was on cloud gaming, and it’s not paid off at all.
Again, making more money than ever before is the definition of paying off
As much as the higher tiers of PSN aren’t as good value as GamePass, it’s certainly lead to higher quality games for Sony’s platform as they can still get sales revenue from shorter or niche games, rather than just looking at a single figure and laying off whole studios.
I’d much rather pay money for a full game now (and I’ll be honest, my day one purchases this gen are limited to games I’m really interested in), or wait and play on sub later (and it’s about 18 months I think for games to go “free”), than have half a game on sub now and get nickle and dimed for the rest of it.